News-Record.com

First, the good news: More businesses are relying upon recycled waste as a feedstock for the manufacture of their products.

The bad news: Because of this, the recycling industry is a lot more vulnerable to economic recessions. You've probably heard or read by now that many recyclers all over the country are suffering because of the drop in demand for recycled glass, metals and other materials. And the same economic downtown that causes people to buy less stuff -- and thus send less of it to the landfill -- is also hurting the state's chances of reaching its recycling goals.

The N.C. Department of Environment and Natural Resources set a goal last year of recovering 2 million tons of recyclable materials per year by 2012. The amount recovered in 2007-08 was 1.26 million tons, compared to 1.35 million tons the year before, according to a report. Scott Mouw, recycling program director with the Division of Pollution Prevention and Environmental Assistance, attributed much of that to a drought-caused reduction in the collection of yard waste.

But he expects recycling rates could again be lower during the 2008-09 year, which wraps up in June.

Still, Mouw and others expect that recycling rates to increase over the long term.

"One of the reasons we set the goal was that we saw that over time more things would become divertible from the waste stream and we believe organics is one of those sectors," Mouw said.

Yard waste is already heavily diverted so environmentalists and the recycling industry have set their eyes on the undertapped market of food composting. Gary Bilbro, executive director of the Carolina Recycling Association, said he expects the state could more easily reach its 2 million ton goal if the use of large scale food composting expanded. Bilbro said since he started backyard composting the number of garbage bags he and his wife fill each week has decreased from three to one.

The Carolina Recycling Association works to educate the public about the benefits of recycling as well as lobby the General Assembly for policies favorable to the recycling industry. (The association's current battle is trying to relax current composting regulations.) Bilbro aims to increase its membership from the approximate 450 throughout North Carolina and South Carolina into the thousands.

"The future is not in disposal," he told me this week. "The future is not in mega-landfills. The future is in zero waste."

A new $2 per ton state tax on landfilled waste is also helping to encourage recycling and Bilbro hopes that over time local governments will charge residents per garbage bag as a way to further encourage recycling. A number of New Hampshire communities in fact have "pay-as-you-throw" programs. This, along with modern technology, could make recycling more profitable for facilities as they find a secondary market for even more materials, Bilbro said.

Update: A comparison of per capita disposal and recycling rates.

Also, I just received a county ranking of the per capita recycling rates (in pounds) for 2007-08. It turns out Guilford's ranks 11th, outranking both Wake and Mecklenburg as well as other Triad counties. However, I'm not sure yet why these numbers don't match those listed in the October press release.

Update: I've been told that the newer numbers don't include the yard waste totals in order to provide apples to apples comparisons between the counties.

Leon's Beauty School will hold a RecycleRama fashion show competition with its eight Greensboro salons on April 19 - three days before Earth Day - as the school seeks ways to reduce its landfill waste. Participants must design costumes and hair pieces out of reused or recyclable materials, such as plastic bottles and newspaper.

Between the nine presentations will be announcements about how salons can cut back on waste, said owner Parker Washburn. The school's teachers are trying to find companies that manufacture recyclable shampoo and hair coloring bottles, she said.

"We deal with a lot of plastics," she said. "The beauty industry has been very slow to react to the greening of America."

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Earth Fare will offer a $100 gift card and other prizes to winners of a recycled arts contest that is taking place now through March 31. Details here.

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Following is another breakdown of the energy-related programs funded by the federal economic stimulus package, courtesy of the Congressional Research Service.

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I previously wrote about the development of international biofuels standards now underway. Here are the notes
from the January stakeholder meeting held in Durham.

Is adding a recycling incentive program to city operations a good idea when recycling markets are down and government budgets are tight? Sheldon Smith, the city's solid waste division manager, recognizes his challenges but he still hopes to get support for his RecycleBank proposal.

I wrote last year about Smith trying to present his idea during a City Council work session, but he was bumped off the agenda and never rescheduled. So Smith decided to change his approach and instead explain the proposal with a RecycleBank representative to members of the Greensboro Community Sustainability Council.

His idea is basically this: Pilot for six months at 10,000 single-family households a program that would reward people for increasing the amount of recyclable materials picked up by city haulers. RecycleBank helps sign up participating businesses that would offer coupons (up to $240 value per year per household) to participants based on how much they recycle.

According to Smith, it's a win-win for everyone: RecycleBank potentially gets a long term contract with the city to get fees based on the amount of additional recyclable materials collected. The city saves landfill disposal fees while potentially earning more money selling its recyclables. And the resident saves money at participating businesses.

Smith said he is thinking about getting regional grocery stores, such as Food Lion and Harris Teeter, on board, as well as locally-owned restaurants. (Any of you readers have suggestions for participating businesses?) He said the pilot should not cost the city anything if he goes with a community-based weight approach because no new technology would be needed. That means a whole route would be rewarded based on the total weight they achieve in recyclables. His dilemma is figuring out which households to select for the pilot.

"Do I go with the low participating areas to get them to recycle or do I say thank you to the ones who have been hanging in there with us?" Sheldon said. "I kind of want to do both."

I asked Smith if the program is worth it since the recession has lowered market demand for recyclables. He responded that the city still makes money off the materials it sells. The city has earned less than $10,000 a month for the past three months as opposed to an average of $30,000 a month before, he said.

But Smith added that it costs the city less to recycle (about $22 per ton) versus to send waste to the landfill ($41 per ton), and its current recycling contract doesn't expire until 2012. Plus, Smith believes recycling is just the right thing to do.

But will the city want to pay for a city-wide program once the pilot is over? Smith didn't have figures but the city would have to purchase the computer chips that measure the weight in each recycle bin as it is emptied by the city.

"I like the concept," Smith said. "I just don't know if the timing is the greatest."

You can hear the formal presentation for this next week. Check out the sustainability council's full agenda.

Story here.

Update (Sunday): More recycling information: Salvage America, a private Greensboro recycling company, says it will take your old plastic shopping bags.

Check out this interactive animated video on the process of single stream recycling, released just before America Recycles Day on Saturday. (Go here if the video doesn't show well.)

I recently posted on Greensboro's efforts to increase recycling rates, particularly among residential customers, while saving the city money. Here are budget (2007-08 and 2008-09) and contract documents I requested from the city regarding the recycling program. You can see from this table that recycling rates among residences are slightly up, while down in the commercial sector.

What more incentive do Greensboro residents need to recycle other than the satisfaction of knowing they can help the city save money and keep reusable items out of the landfill? Um, could it possibly be more money in the residents' pockets too?

It turns out the city's solid waste division is considering an incentive program with RecycleBank that would provide coupons for discounts at local businesses to residents based on the amount they recycle. Division manager Sheldon Smith said today at a Triad Mobile CARE meeting that he hopes to propose a 10,000 home pilot at the next City Council briefing on Oct. 28.

The division has managed to increase the amount of recyclables it processes since Smith took over in 2006. The division renegotiated its contract to bring the tip fees for recycling below the tips fees for the landfill transfer station (from about $62 per ton to $21 per ton for recycling, in comparison to $41 per ton for the transfer station), Smith said.

The division also reworked the recycling truck routes, from once a week pick up for residences to every other week starting in late January. Smith said the recycling volumes did not justify weekly pick up and the new routes and other initiatives saved almost 4,500 miles between Jan. 28 and June, and $1.4 million in the budget. Still, set out rates increased from 35 percent to 55 percent recycling was up 1 percent for the year.

No specific efforts exist yet to promote composting but Smith said he has spoken with county officials to explore grants for such promotion. Smith said he ultimately hopes to increase the amount of recyclables the city collects from about 17,000 tons per year for residential to 24,000 tons while reducing the amount going to the landfill.

What do you think about the RecycleBank idea? Would you recycle more if you could get coupons to your favorite restaurant? What do you think about the city's recycling services in general?

Starting today, Guilford County residents can drop off recyclables on the first Saturday of the month at the Scrap Tire and White Goods Collection Facility located at 2138 Bishop Road, Greensboro.

This pilot program, sponsored by Republic Waste Services, has been developed to evaluate public demand for recycling convenience sites in the unincorporated areas of the County.