By Cain Madden & Megan Fink Leoni

The Natchez Democrat

 

NATCHEZ — Reduce, reuse — and re-examine?

Recycling programs across the Miss-Lou are being scrutinized as low oil and commodity prices make recycling less and less profitable.

Natchez

In the City of Natchez, the future of recycling is uncertain, but some community leaders are hoping to strengthen the program’s place in the city.

Natchez began its curbside-recycling program in June 2013 when it received a $317,162 regional cooperative recycling grant from the Mississippi Department of Environmental Quality.

Waste Pro USA Inc. — a waste removal service company — picks up receptacles from city households each Wednesday.

The recyclable materials include dry, clean paper and plastics, metal cans, aluminum cans and plastics No. 1 and No. 2.

Community Development Director James Johnston said the city used the grant money to purchase necessary equipment such as containers and a compactor, as well as to fund public education about recycling.

“It has to be discussed, how the city wants to continue local recycling,” Johnston said. “Once the board sits down and looks at things that need to be addressed, recycling is one of those things.”

Johnston said the grant does not fund weekly recycling pickup; the City of Natchez pays Waste Pro a monthly per-household fee as part of its garbage collection contract.

Natchez and Adams County created a combined task force last year to find a solution to the problem. The task force was coordinated by Jim Smith, who works at Concordia Metals and is married to Ward 3 Alderwoman Sarah Carter Smith. He said in an email to the group’s members in January that Concordia Metals would likely stop receiving the materials in June 2016.

Jim Smith said low oil and commodity prices are shrinking the recycling industry.

“With 2016 being an election year, everyone has said that garbage collection and recycling cannot be discussed,” he wrote in the email.

“I disagree, with 2016 being our 300th birthday as a city, implementing this change will show the country and the world the people of this region are ready to do their part on environmental issues.”

Interim City Planner Riccardo Giani is chair of the Green Alliance, a branch of the Community Alliance.

Giani said the task force never actually met, and no future plan is in place yet.

“Unfortunately, with the uncertainty of the election looming and the uncertainty of the city and county’s direction on recycling, we never actually met, but we did develop good contacts in the region, so when we do come up with a concrete plan to move forward, we still have members of that task force willing to participate,” he said.

Giani said he thinks recycling is crucial to a sustainable future, but relies on community involvement.

“We could set up the most brilliant system in the world, and we can make it all great on paper, then if we implement it and we still have less than 25 percent of the people recycling, it’s kind of all for nothing.”

For Giani, the low prices of oil and commodities presents an important opportunity.

“I guess now is the best time because this is the lowest it’s ever going to drop,” Giani said. “If we find a system that works now, it can be sustained for many years to come, and that’s what so critical about our decisions in the next months moving forward.”

The existing contract between Waste Pro and the City of Natchez ends June 30, but is automatically renewed for one year, a maximum of four times, if neither party gives 90 days notice of the contract’s cancellation.

Some of the city’s recyclables are currently being taken to Concordia Metals in Vidalia, but the company has said it plans to stop accepting them soon.

Waste Pro Municipal Marketer Doug Atkins said the recyclables that are picked up curbside are taken to the company’s recycling plant in Sumrall.

“We’re not taking it to Concordia Metals, we’re taking it a three-hour round trip to somewhere else,” Atkins said. “We don’t do it for a money-maker to be honest with you. You would have to have an unbelievable turnout to get a return, and it wouldn’t cover our costs as far as hauling it.”

Atkins said about 25 percent of Natchez residents participate in the program. Waste Pro collects 10 to 15 tons of recyclables every week.

In 2015, Waste Pro reportedly collected approximately 510 tons of recycled materials in the city.

If the city does not re-open the contract, Waste Pro intends to let the status quo remain until the contract cannot be reviewed further, Atkins said.

“I’ve already met with the city, they basically said they want to keep recycling program going and we’ve agreed to that as well,” he said. “I’ll be honest, we’re not going to revisit anything until it has to be re-bid out.”

Atkins said the company prefers to avoid the bidding process, in which it must compete with other companies to provide the best contract to the city.Alderwoman Smith, who has been vocal about her desire to see the recycling program continue, said the city did not cancel the contract, and it will therefore renew.

That does not mean, she said, the recycling program will not change before the one-year renewal expires.

“If we wanted to change the scope of work or if they refused to pick up recycling, we would have to issue (a request for proposals),” Smith said.

“In times of low commodities, which is now, the cost of new materials drops below recycled materials, which decreases the demand for them,” she said. “Therefore, recycling companies implement fees. That means we have to look at the best way for us to adjust the contract to accommodate for the additional cost.”

She said one way of ensuring the city could continue its recycling program is moving from twice-weekly to once-a-week trash pickup.

If residents are recycling properly, once-weekly garbage collection would be enough, she said.

Ward 6 Alderman Dan Dillard said he disagrees. Dillard said he was “apprehensive” about moving to once-weekly garbage pickup.

“That’s the nature of that contract,” Dillard said. “I think the problem is whether or not we can afford to recycle. Concordia Metals said they could not under the current arrangement continue to receive recycling, and it’s costing them money.”

Dillard said he would support a recycling program if it was not cost-prohibitive, and suggested reaching out to other communities or searching for grants to mitigate the costs of the program.

Natchez Mayor-elect Darryl Grennell said the recycling program is part of his plan for his administration. Grennell said he felt it would be “worth it” to spend more money or go to once-weekly garbage pickup in order to preserve or grow the program.

“Being a biologist, I know it’s important that recycling should be a major part of the life of a community,” he said. “I think the key to recycling is education — constantly educating the public when it comes to the importance of recycling.”

Adams County

Recycling in the county is also in a pilot program, but Adams County Supervisor Mike Lazarus said since county residences often are spread out, the county’s program is not voluntary. The program is in 500 houses the Broadmoor, Morgantown and Beau Pre subdivisions.

Concordia Metal is not taking the county’s recycling, so Lazarus the county is having to run it to Vicksburg and it’s costing $850 a month. While Lazarus said the county could afford that, the problem is the limited number of people participating.

“Only 25 percent of people are recycling, that’s 120, 130 people,” he said. “It’s going to weigh a lot on the board if that few participate. We don’t want to pay for 500 houses and only get 100 participants.”

Lazarus said he’d like to continue recycling in the county.

“It took forever to get it started, and I’d hate to see it end now,” he said. “With this recycling, I feel it is a good thing. It’s good for the environment.

“But it is going to cost someone something for everyone to feel good, and that will either be the county or the person doing the recycling.”

Recycling is not feasible in the current market for the collectors or the people processing it, Lazarus said, so someone is going to have to underwrite the costs.

“We are going to let it ride for right now, but it is not something we can sustain if it keeps going this way,” he said. “We have got to educate the public. We have got to encourage them to recycle.”

Lazarus said tipping fees at the landfill have lowered to the point that the little bit of recycling going on isn’t saving them money. The current tipping fee is $21 per ton, County Administrator Joe Murray said.

Lazarus said it’s a board decision, but he would never vote to reduce garbage pick up from two days a week.

“We will always pick up trash two days a week, as long as I have any say in it,” he said.

Something like a pickup truck modified to pick up the recycling might be an option to consider down the road to save the county on transportation costs, Lazarus said.

Lazarus said the county might need to rethink where the bins are, so he encouraged people who wanted to participate to contact the board of supervisors. He said if enough people in an area are interested, the county could consider moving some of the bins.

Another option to consider, Lazarus said, might be asking people who want to participate to take their recycling material to convenience stations rather than having curbside pickup.

“The big key to continuing the program is getting the tonnage up,” Lazarus said. “Even the neighborhoods we are in are not taking advantage of it.

“After a while, you start to beat your head and think, ‘Who am I doing this for?’”

Vidalia

City of Vidalia Alderman Ricky Knapp said recycling is still going strong in Vidalia. Vidalia operates under a limited rollout of 500 bins being given to people who volunteer to participate.

Knapp said Concordia Metal Works has stopped taking recycling from some municipalities, but has agreed to continue to take Vidalia’s, but not without a tipping fee.

The tipping fee, however, is $30 per ton, which Knapp said only amounts to approximately $120 per month since the city only collects 1 ton per week.

“The way the economy is going and with the price of oil, it has lowered the value of the material,” Knapp said. “We are negative on the expenses, but to me the positive side of what we are doing outweighs the expense to collect and pay a little tipping fee.

“We are cutting down on the size of the trash that we are taking to the landfill, so we are also saving a little there on tipping fees and transportation.”

Knapp said other benefits exist as well.

“The program is pretty dear to me and my family and a lot of people in Vidalia feel the same way,” he said. “What we are doing is not just for the city or the state, but for the future, so our children and grandchildren can have an environment left.”

Mayor-elect Buz Craft said he believed the city could continue absorbing those tipping fees to keep recycling efforts alive in Vidalia.

“I think recycling is a good thing,” he said.

Thinking about the future, Knapp said some potential ideas to improve it include moving garbage pick up to one day a week, that way people have to think about what they throw away and what they recycle.

“That might entice more people to participate,” he said.

Knapp also believed the bins could be improved so that a lift could collect the trash and put it back on the curb, which could make the operation a one-man route.