For years, Bay City public works officials have preached the financial benefits of recycling versus sending paper, plastic and aluminum to a landfill. But today, they find themselves in an awkward situation. It’s actually going to cost the city more to tip recycled products than it will be to dump garbage at a landfill. And as a result, there’s likely going to be a rate increase for trash pickup for the first time in eight years.
“We have been in an extremely favorable agreement for recycling that expires Dec. 31,” said Bill Bohlen, the city’s public works director. “The amount we paid was almost unheard of, but we knew this was coming and now we have to deal with it.”
Officials are pointing to a lack of demand for recycled products overseas — especially in the Asian markets — that’s going to skyrocket the tipping cost per ton of product by about 800 percent for the city.
On average, Bay City has been paying about $3 per ton to tip recyclables, Bohlen said. At times, when the demand for recycled products was strong, it would cost the city nothing. Because of steady demand, trash and recycling pickup rates have remained stagnant at about $10 per month for nearly the past decade.
That’s likely going to change. On Monday, Dec. 19, the Bay City Commission approved a three year contract on a 7-1 vote to continue recycling in the city, despite having to pay the higher costs.
Under the agreement with Charlotte, North Carolina-based Resource Recovery Systems LLC, the amount the city pays for tipping recyclables will fluctuate, Bohlen said. If the market continues to decline, the city will pay more. If the market improves, Bay City would pay less, and potentially receive a credit from the sale of those recyclable commodities.
Bohlen is estimating that tipping prices, under the contract, are going to average out to about $27 per ton — $24 more than what the city is paying now.
Today, the city pays $21 per ton to dump garbage at the landfill, Bohlen said.
“If you look at in from the purest sense of economics, it’s $21 versus $27, so you’re saving $6 to take it to a landfill, but the environmental concerns far outweighs the equation,” he said.
The Bay City Commission agreed with that sentiment in approving the contract Monday.
Commissioner Lynn Stamiris, 1st Ward, was the lone member against the contract, suggesting the city dump its recycling program.
“To go into a three-year contract with a drastically increased price, it just doesn’t make financial sense to me,” Stamiris said.
To read the full story, visit http://www.mlive.com/news/bay-city/index.ssf/2016/12/in_bay_city_its_cheaper_to_thr.html.