The Connecticut Chapter of the National Waste and Recycling Association (NWRA) has reviewed the plan issued last week by the Department of Energy and Environmental Protection (DEEP) and is commenting on elements of the plan based on current challenges facing the recycling markets nationally and worldwide.
The plan outlined by DEEP has laudable goals that the private waste industry supports – improving the performance of municipal waste programs; developing new technologies for sorting recyclables; recovering energy and materials of value from the waste stream; supporting the state’s existing waste-to-energy disposal plants through improved renewable energy credit programs; and, fostering an important dialogue about product design and end-of-product life sustainability and recycling.
However, the assumption of cost savings or cost avoidance by increasing recycling as outlined in the plan places achieving those goals at risk. Recycling programs across the country have been challenged by declines in the global commodities markets that threaten the economic viability of recycling both for the public sector and private recycling industry.
“Our industry statewide is on the front lines of helping customers reduce the amount of waste they dispose through source reduction, recycling and other efforts, however, based on our real-world experience in the market, the annual savings will be substantially below the $25 million the DEEP is suggesting,” commented Mike Paine, NWRA Connecticut Chapter Chairman and CEO of Paine’s, Inc. of East Granby. “The DEEPs savings projections do not adequately factor in the cost of collecting, processing, and managing the new amounts of recyclables and food scraps and other types of organic waste.”
Paine further adds, “A key factor for Connecticut residents, municipal officials and business owners to consider when reviewing the DEEPs recently released waste reduction goals is to understand the true economics of the waste and recycling markets. It is a complex market. Any plan for waste reduction must take into account the different costs of various segments within the waste stream – for example, the cost of processing food scraps versus the economics of utilizing waste-to-energy facilities; fees for the processing of waste that cannot be diverted; and, of course, the cost of recycling programs. In new emerging areas for clean energy recovery, such as food waste, the market is too young to make any long term economic assumptions. To achieve the goals outlined by DEEP, the private waste and recycling industry in Connecticut has valuable insights and real-time economic information that can help ensure that the financial assumptions associated with these goals are realistic, and as always, our member companies are prepared to provide our insights and perspectives to help achieve our state’s broader environmental goals.”
NWRA’s Connecticut members and its other 29 chapters nationwide have also been educating the public about the true cost of recycling. There is a significant cost to collect recycling at businesses and the curbside, a cost to sort and package materials in the recycling stream so that materials such as metal, aluminum, plastics and paper products can be repurposed, and there are serious problems with contamination of the recycling stream which also increases costs when trash and other materials are mixed in with recyclables. Here in Connecticut, businesses and residences should be aware of the cost of recycling by having that cost as a separate line item on trash bills. Knowing the cost of recycling, as well as using resources such as NWRA’s www.beginwiththebin.org website to know what can be recycled are two key elements for driving public support of effective recycling programs.
“As the leading authority on the private waste and recycling industry, we have played a key role in making recycling a reality in the state,” commented Steve Changaris, Connecticut Chapter Manager for NWRA. “We have worked closely with the public sector, businesses and residential customers statewide to develop and implement effective recycling programs. However, a sustained downturn in the global commodities market, especially oil, has placed tremendous strain on the financial viability of many recycling programs. Simply put, the low cost of oil means that the cost of recycled plastic is also low, which is having a negative impact on the financial viability of community recycling programs nationwide.”
In light of these market challenges, NWRA has worked with public sector organizations on a nationwide initiative to recommend guidelines that municipalities and the private recycling industry can use in future contracts to account for these fluctuations in commodities pricing to ensure the long-term economic viability of recycling programs. Information on the latest guidelines was released on July 26 and can be found at: https://wasterecycling.org/blog/2016/07/26/nwra-and-swana-issue-shared-positions-on-recycling-market-issues/
Private industry is poised and ready to help Connecticut achieve its environmental and energy goals. NWRA member companies have made significant investment in technologies, infrastructure and innovative systems that protect the environment, extract maximum value from the waste stream by repurposing a wide range of materials and to generate new sources of sustainable, clean energy. In fact, here in Connecticut, our industry employs nearly 5,500 people who are working hard every day to meet our state’s environmental goals through appropriate handling of waste and recyclable materials.
For more information, visit www.wasterecycling.org.