The future of curbside recycling pickup is in question around the St. Louis area following the decision of a major processing center to stop accepting residential recycling. Resource Management recently informed its customers that it will stop accepting single-stream recyclables as of Oct. 31, and Kirkwood became the first local city to say it will suspend curbside recycling the week before the cutoff — it couldn’t find another processor to accept its mixed recyclables.

The decision from Resource Management to halt its single-stream recycling has had a ripple effect, sending its municipal customers scrambling to find other ways to affordably process their materials. That has meant placing calls to Republic Services, a Phoenix-based waste company that operates the St. Louis region’s other major processing center for recyclables in Hazelwood.

“Every hauler, every municipality has been on my phone in the last 10 days,” said Brent Batliner, the facility’s general manager, explaining that the list of current Resource Management customers he has heard from includes Kirkwood, Brentwood, Maplewood and O’Fallon, Mo. “Every one of them has contacted us looking for options.”

But the sheer volume of recycling from those communities cannot get seamlessly pushed over to Republic, putting Batliner in a bind, too. He says the company is evaluating its own options “to find a way to physically move” or divert the product. “There’s 6,800 tons per month is what will be at risk come November,” Batliner said. “It’s a major undertaking to move this around to plants that already exist.”

Until July, the city brought in about $100,000 a year from Resource Management, revenue that helped fund its recycling program, Wenzara said. Now the city could have to pay $630,000, he said.

St. Louis County contracts with four private haulers for single-stream recycling in its unincorporated areas — three take recyclables to Resource Management, and the fourth hauler is Republic, said Kathrina Donegan, an environmental manager at the county’s public health department. “I think the haulers will find a method to continue to recycle,” she said.

Read the full story at https://www.stltoday.com/news/local/metro/changes-to-recycling-pipeline-have-cities-across-the-st-louis/article_c0d770ec-52db-5473-8410-ecbc6d522bc7.html.

Sponsor