Chesterfield County is planning to scrap its existing curbside recycling program and adopt a subscription based service model when the current contract expires in 2023.
According to a request for proposals issued Nov. 16 by the Central Virginia Waste Management Authority, Chesterfield households would have to “opt in” to continue having their recyclable materials collected from the curbside every other week as part of the regional initiative. This differs from the present model, under which residents must opt out to avoid being charged a biannual service fee.
Proposals from interested contractors are due by March 5, 2021.
CVWMA’s board of directors – which comprises representatives from its member jurisdictions (Chesterfield, Henrico, Richmond, Hanover, Goochland, Prince George, Colonial Heights, Hopewell, Petersburg and Ashland) – is expected to select at least one vendor next June to administer curbside recycling under a 10-year contract (with two five-year renewal options) that takes effect July 1, 2023.
Chesterfield has participated in CVWMA since it was established in 1990 to increase recycling and help Richmond-area localities meet a state requirement to divert at least 25% of household waste from landfills.
“The county 100% supports recycling and wouldn’t want to see [the regional curbside program] go away,” said Scott Zaremba, deputy county administrator for community operations, in an interview last week. “We just think it’s the best thing for Chesterfield to get out of being the middleman in this arrangement.”
CVWMA presently services about 72,000 Chesterfield households, second only to Henrico County’s 85,000. The two large suburbs account for more than half of its roughly 275,000 customers across the Richmond region.
From July 2019 through June 2020, CVWMA’s current vendor, TFC Recycling, collected and processed 9,935 tons of recycled materials in Chesterfield. That was No. 3 behind Henrico (11,807) and Richmond (10,580).
Unless they contact the county and opt out of the program, Chesterfield households are charged $20 every six months for curbside recycling. The fee is included, along with a $12.50 stormwater assessment, on residential real estate tax bills.
The Board of Supervisors approved increasing the annual curbside recycling fee from $25 to $40 earlier this year to eliminate the county’s subsidy, which had risen to more than $800,000, and sustain the program through the end of the current contract.
“A large percentage of Chesterfield residents support recycling and want it to continue because it’s environmentally friendly and makes a huge difference. What we’ve done is fashion a program that works for the citizenry as well as the budget,” Dale District Supervisor Jim Holland said following the board’s February meeting.
County officials have cited rising costs, tied to the collapse of overseas markets for recyclables, as one of the primary reasons for ending Chesterfield’s administrative role in the curbside recycling program.
Once the new contract period begins in July 2023, county households will be required to set up an account with a private entity – whether that is CVWMA’s contractor or another provider – and deal with that company directly on billing and customer service issues.
“There are many more [recycling] opportunities now” than when the regional authority was created 30 years ago, Zaremba said. “It’s not like people only have one choice. We’d like to take it out more to the free market.”
Prince George County, which previously has not participated in curbside recycling, also is looking to establish an “opt-in” service for its estimated 3,350 households under the new CVWMA contract. County Waste is the largest private curbside recycling company in Chesterfield; county records indicate it collected 3,480 tons of recycled materials in fiscal year 2020 (which ran from July 1, 2019, through June 30, 2020).
That represents about 26% of total collections in Chesterfield during that period – and it could increase if County Waste expands the parts of the county in which it offers curbside recycling to its customers. “When you get to a certain ratio, you start to think ‘Do we switch it over [to a fully privatized model]?’” Zaremba added.
Tad Phillips, vice president of business development for TFC Recycling, noted his company isn’t set up to accommodate a subscription-based service.
Its drivers aren’t given a list showing which Chesterfield households have paid the $40 annual fee to participate in the program. They simply cover their assigned routes and pick up whatever recyclables are left at the curbside.
In a letter to the Board of Supervisors last year, Phillips said transitioning to a subscription model would require “considerable administrative and infrastructure changes to recruit and maintain the ‘critical mass’ customer base needed to support the capital cost and expense of such a program.”
Contacted by the Observer last week, he suggested it’s “logical” to think such a program “would come with a higher cost.”
According to Kim Hynes, CVWMA’s executive director, economies of scale have helped keep the costs of curbside recycling lower in metro Richmond than any other region in Virginia since TFC Recycling originally won the regional contract in 2001.
Losing Chesterfield’s 72,000 customers, then, almost certainly would make curbside recycling more expensive for the other CVWMA localities.
When the county first raised the possibility of adopting a new service delivery model last year, some concerned citizens pushed back and claimed that requiring households to “opt in” will result in a sharp decline in participation, contending that one of the reasons many people recycle is because it’s easy – all you have to do is put your bins out on the curb once every two weeks.
“I’m not sure I’d jump to that conclusion,” Zaremba said. “Most of our households value recycling. I don’t necessarily think there will be fewer customers.”
Even with Chesterfield moving to a different service model, Phillips said, TFC Recycling will submit a proposal to CVWMA before March 5 and attempt to retain the contract it has held for nearly two decades. “Chesterfield will be the largest locality [in the Richmond region] without a municipally provided curbside recycling program,” he added, “but there are still enough homes in the program to make it attractive for any potential vendor.”