Tuesday, February 01, 2005

Recycling in Pueblo: Where Does It Go from the Curb?

City Council intends to establish curbside recycling with residents paying a fee. However, this is only half of the recycling loop: collection of recyclables. Nothing has been said about the other half: using recyclables to make new items.

On January 24th, the Pueblo City Council passed a resolution saying that it intends to establish curbside recycling and charge a fee for the activity. Approximately six months from now Council hopes to make a decision based on the proposals it is soliciting from waste management companies. Over the next few weeks we’ll be posting a series of essays on the various ramifications of fee-paid curbside recycling with the goal to determine whether this is a viable activity for Pueblo. Let’s look at this proposal honestly.

To begin with, the term “curbside recycling” is something of a misnomer. You can require residents to sort out their recyclable materials and put them on the curb, but nothing has been recycled until someone makes new products out of them.

What is required for someone to use recyclables? Low costs.

What are the costs involved? Sorting, storage and transportation.

Why do recyclables need to be sorted? Because contaminates (plastic mixed with glass, glossy paper with newsprint, etc.) ruin the usefulness of the recyclables.

How do you keep sorting costs down? You have the supplier (in this case the residents) sort the recyclables.

How do you keep storage costs down? You put the transfer station in an area where land is cheap and you make sure you have a ready market so that the recyclables are shipped as soon as there’s a truckload or carload so there’s less storage space required.

How do you keep transportation costs down? By keeping distances short.

How do you keep the distances short? By having local manufacturers who use the recyclables.

Does Pueblo have manufacturers who use glass, tin cans, aluminum cans & foil, plastic containers and newsprint to make new items? Uh—

One problem with this proposal is that nothing is said about recruiting manufacturers who use recyclable materials in their products to come to the Pueblo area. Yet it is obvious that these manufacturers are needed in order to close the loop and make recycling successful in Pueblo.  By successful I mean a very high percentage of recyclable materials are made into new items by manufacturers who ultimately pay the costs of sorting, collection and transportation through sales of their products. Not Pueblo residents.

This proposal is only acceptable if Pueblo actively recruits manufacturers who use recyclable materials with a goal of making the program self-supporting so that residents are not charged.