After a two-week hiatus, Ogden City’s recycling program is back — for now. The city announced Tuesday that the service has resumed and that recyclable materials will no longer being taken to the landfill while contract negotiations with a local provider are being finalized.
On March 26, Ogden announced a temporary suspension of the program after the city administration was notified of a 47 percent increase in recycling tipping fees at Ogden-based Recycled Earth. Tipping fees are charged when processing facilities receive waste and are generally used to offset maintenance costs.
Ogden Chief Administrative Officer Mark Johnson told the Standard-Examiner the increase made the recycling deal less viable than it has been in the past, but Recycled Earth owners David and Amy Rawson said they were working on an interim agreement that would allow recycling to continue in Ogden while negotiations take place.
The Rawsons said global trends in the recycling industry have driven up costs at their local facility, as has a surge in non-recyclable garbage found in recycling deliveries. China recently stopped accepting imported plastic and paper, driving up municipal collection bills for recycling and in 2018, Recycled Earth was awarded a short-term contract to handle Weber County’s recyclables after the county discontinued its program due to high costs associated with it.