JACKSON — Some cities say recycling is just too expensive and difficult, particularly to get a large enough percentage of households to participate to make the program cost effective.
The City of Ridgeland, which for the second time in three years has been given the Local Government Recycler of the Year Award by the Mississippi Department of Environmental Quality (MDEQ), has proven that doesn’t have to be true.
Ridgeland partners with Recycle Bank in order to provide an incentive program for residents to recycle.
“They provide reward points each time the container is picked up,” said Ridgeland Public Works director Mike McCollum. “These points are redeemed on the Recycle Bank website in the form of gift cards and discounts on everyday home items. The city charges $70.20 per year to each curbside customer. The average point value per year is $160.00. That more than covers the cost to customers for recycling.
“We are also considering reducing our solid waste pickup from twice to one time per week, therefore reducing the cost for that service.”
McCollum recommends starting small with recycling drop off points, and then moving to a curbside program with incentives to reduce cost. Cities that are just starting out can benefit from a good advertisement campaign to ensure participation.
Ridgeland has 40 percent participation in its residential curbside recycling program. If the city decides to reduce the solid waste pickup to once per week, they expect that number to increase. Businesses recycle at two drop off points strategically located in the city.
McCollum recommends working with the MDEQ for assistance in capital cost and education. Also, find recycling champions in your community and assist them in fostering their passion for the program.
Recycling is a major commitment to building a more sustainable community, said Anne Marie Kornelis, recycling coordinator for the City of Greenwood.
“In Greenwood we have taken the steps to build a successful recycling program with long-range goals,” Kornelis said. “In terms of being a financially sustainable recycling program, one must consider not only the money the program makes from selling recyclables, but you also have to factor in the money saved by diverting recyclable materials away from the landfill.”
That point is hammered home by Mayor Eddie Fulton of Quitman, a small town south of Meridian that has the state’s longest running municipal recycling program.
The mayor takes time each year to visit with children from the elementary school about recycling. He plays a money game where he gives $2 in change to a non-recycling student and $2 to a recycling student. The student representing a recycler gets paid for the garbage she recycles while the student who throws it away has to pay. The recycler ends up with more money, and the non-recycler with less.
“The kids love the game, and it gets the point across,” Fulton said. “The kids are the key to it. They go home and tell their parents they have to recycle.”
Fulton tells the students that worms enjoy cardboard, but don’t like plastic, which is made with oil. Plastic in the landfill doesn’t degrade for hundreds of years.
“It is just a shame to see people throwing things away that could be recycled,” he said. “And it costs more money. Obviously there is a lot more benefit to selling cardboard for $150 a ton rather than putting it in the ground for $34 a ton. Sixty percent of the garbage we throw away could be recycled. It breaks my heart that people don’t take the time.
“The MDEQ has been a strong supporter of ours. Each household gets a bin, which has made it a lot easier for them to recycle. Our county has a lot of good fishing and hunting. We have the pristine Chickasawhay River, and the 454-acre Lake Archusa in town. It is a shame to not recycle when you have these kind of natural assets.”
Quitman’s program started in the early 1990s, and really took off in the late 1990s with every manufacturer in town recycling their cardboard. Cardboard currently brings in about $150 per ton.
In 2010 when the town’s largest employer, Dart Containers, which makes foam cups for fast food, decided to recycle their cardboard themselves, it cost the city’s recycling program about $10,000 in income, reducing them from $30,000 to $20,000 per year. But Fulton said increasing participation means they are now headed back up to $30,000 in revenue.
After paying expenses, Quitman doesn’t make money on the program. But it has been enough in the black to purchase a new garbage truck. Fulton said if he could get a 70 percent participation rate, the program would pay for itself completely. He also favors drop off locations for rural people to recycle.
“People in the county want to start recycling,” he said. “There are a lot of people who care about recycling.”
Fulton gives a lot of credit for the success of the program to Andy Reese, who is street superintendent and in charge of garbage and recycling.
“Andy comes up with ingenious ideas,” Fulton said. “The next thing we are going to do is apply for a grant to get big tubs to do composting. Right now we put leaves in the landfill. With these tubs, we will keep the leaves and other yard waste out of the landfill and turn them into a valuable product.”
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