Serving Whitman County since 1877
Serving Whitman County since 1877
What remains of the community recycling bins at Empire Disposal in Colfax will be gone at the end of the year.
Effective Dec. 31, the dumpsters for cardboard will be taken out, following glass and paper bins last April.
The reason is the reversal of profit margins in recycling, a service first added to Empire Disposal in 1984.
The company will still offer curbside recycling at $9.98 per month per blue cart or $30 for a large bin for businesses.
“Economics dictate these things and our decisions,” said Aaron Lawhead, site manager for Empire Disposal. “It's just not worthwhile anymore. We definitely thought it would be a healthy market longer.”
In the past, cardboard would be worth hundreds of dollars per ton to recycle.
Even up to last year, taking a load to the Whitman County landfill would mean $15-30 in the positive for Empire. Now it is $20-$30 in the negative after the processing fee is taken into account.
The change is due to new policies in China and other Far East countries.
China, which had taken in much of the world's used plastic since the early '90s, changed course in January 2019 and announced no further importing of plastics, citing higher contaminant levels due to single-stream recycling.
As a result, the value of an Empire Disposal truckload to the Whitman County transfer station went into the negative. It costs the hauler now. It used to be profit.
County
Whitman County is also a hauler, in that it sends baled recyclables by truck to Spokane, where they are loaded on a train for ports of Seattle and Tacoma. That is where it used to be sold overseas.
David Nails, county solid waste and recycling director, reported things are about the same for the county in the past six months.
“We were so reliant on shipping all this to China,” he said. “I'm optimistic we'll get some more business on the west coast, as far as processing plants.”
The county charges commercial operators a $30 per ton bailing fee, for cardboard as it has since 2013.
“We need to look at raising the fee,” said Nails, noting that he will conduct a workshop with county commissioners in the new year about recycling costs.
State rates
For Empire Disposal, and companies like it across the state, the rates for curbside pick-up are set in Olympia.
State law determines the rates, which are subject to adjustment.
“I wouldn't be surprised if they go way up in the near future,” said Lawhead.
What about the future value of recyclables?
“I do think it'll make a rebound two to five years from now,” Lawhead said. “It will be a domestic market or mill that will re-shape recycling. The idea of free recycling is far from gone.”
While Empire, a private business, limits involvement in recycling, the county, a non profit, considers what they may do.
“Every time we get recycling in now it costs the county money,” said Mark Storey, Public Works director. “Is it worth the money? So far, I think the answer is yes.”
2019
On Jan. 1, 2019, China, which took nearly 70 percent of recyclables collected in the U.S. per year, cut its level of contaminants it would accept – food scraps, glass shards, moisture, the wrong type of plastics – from five percent to one-half of one percent.
Single-stream recycling changed the practice of residents separating cardboard from aluminum from glass and paper at the curb – which brought new problems, as recycling materials are only as valuable as what is or is not mixed in with it.
Items such as glass shards mixed in with paper fibers can also break down equipment.
“We've always been a garbage hauling company. We provide recycling for revenue,” Lawhead said.
Garth Meyer is a former Whitman County Gazette reporter.
Reader Comments(0)