Dive Brief:
- Are they on to something in Berkeley County, WV? The 20-year-old voluntary recycling program set a record last year with materials reaching 5,219 tons. Meanwhile, the fee-based collection provided by Apple Valley Waste increased to more than 1,200 households.
- A waste-to-fuel facility to be built by Entsorga West Virginia, slated to open in 2017 on solid waste authority property, should "roughly double" recycling tonnage and generate $17,500 in quarterly lease payments, according to Solid Waste Authority Chairman Clint Hogbin, as reported in Herald Mail Media.
- Still, Hogbin said the $78,000 the county allocated to the authority last year, the same since 2008, is insufficient to support the program projected to generate $169,000 this year. He requested $92,875 this year, the same unmet request as last year.
Dive Insight:
The new Entsorga facility will boost the county's impressive success, with the ability to sort and remove aluminum and other materials from the stream. And the existing volunteer program's steady pace is promising, especially when compared to lagging recycling in other cities such as Denver with similar programs. And New Orlean's volunteer glass recycling program that yielded 1% participation.
Still, while recycling rates are up in Berkley County as in many regions, a supply that outpaces demand, decreased commodities' value, and increased processing costs, largely tied to the contamination fight, are putting financial pressure on municipalities and recyclers.
"If we don't see an increase from the commodity market or from Entsorga or from the (county council), the recycling budget is in trouble in the second or third quarter of the next fiscal year," Hogbin said. "We're going to have to have some emergency funds to just keep the program the way it is."
