Left of College Station

As Recycling Grows in Waco, Demand for Recycled Goods Falls

By J.B. Smith (Tribune-Herald Staff Writer)

From the Waco Tribune-Herald

Just as recycling in Greater Waco is taking wing, the recycling industry has gone into a free-fall.

Recyclers say the bottom has fallen out of the market for recyclables, and they blame the recession.

“When people quit buying products, there’s not as much of a need for boxes,” said Scott Jernigan, general manager of Sunbright Paper Recycling, which accepts paper and plastic from the municipal recycling programs of Waco, Hewitt and Woodway.

Jernigan said recycled cardboard prices have fallen in the last three months from $100 a ton to $25. Plastic that was selling for 25 to 30 cents per pound now sells for 3 to 15 cents, he said.

For now, Sunbright is stockpiling paper and bales of plastic in its warehouse and slowly selling what it can.

Jernigan is hoping the market will turn around in the next three to six months, but if it doesn’t, the company might have to start charging to take recyclables.

“That’s what we don’t want to do,” he said. “We want them to keep recycling.”

This may seem an inopportune time for growth in recycling, but Sunbright and city solid waste officials said they want to keep the momentum going.

“I talked to Sunbright a month ago about this, and they’re really dedicated to recycling,” said city solid waste director Ken Anthony. “Their response is, ‘We’re going to find a place to store the materials, and when the markets return, we can sell it.’ So right now, this isn’t having any impact on us.

“We realize what the economic times are, but at the same time we want to continue our growth so we can be prepared for when economic times change.”

In the last fiscal year, Waco’s recycling volumes grew a record 43 percent, from 1,685 to 2,415 tons.

The growth follows the city’s recent expansion of recycling programs. The city has new programs for recycling at schools, colleges, businesses, nonprofit institutions, apartment complexes and Baylor University athletic events. The city also is accepting green glass and electronic waste.

The apartment program hasn’t yet been heavily promoted, and so far only a handful of apartment complexes are participating, but Anthony said he would like to see it grow in coming years. The program is free to landlords who are willing to accept a large city recycling container on their premises.

Meanwhile, the recession also has hit the metal recycling industry hard, with prices falling by 80 percent or more in recent months because of a sharp drop-off in Chinese demand.

According to national news reports, the price of tin has fallen from $327 to $5 per ton in the last few months.

M. Lipsitz Co., the leading metal recycling company in Waco, has curtailed its business and is offering less for scrap metal, Anthony said.

Charles Johnson, the company’s general manager, declined an interview request for this story.

Published on Tuesday, December 09, 2008

A&M Goes Green With Garbage

By: Megan Keyho

From the Texas A&M University Battalion

Student demand helped motivate the Texas A&M administration to place five solar trash compactors on campus, using green technology to keep the A&M campus cleaner.

Unlike standard trashcans, these solar trash compactors, located around the Memorial Student Center, Rudder Tower, Sbisa, the Commons and Evans Library, use only solar energy to compact trash, enabling them to hold five times the amount of a standard container.

"The big belly units are part of a pilot program," said Kelly Wellman, the sustainability officer for A&M. "We are usinggreen technology to compact the trash. It compacts at a five to one ratio meaning the solar trash compactor can hold as much as five regular trashcans sitting by side."

There is an attached unit at each location for plastic bottles.

"Most beverage containers on campus are plastic bottles and there are logistical challenges associated with plastics. We want to divert plastics out of the waste stream so we included these units," Wellman said.

It was the staff and the student body that initiated the ideas for the plastics recycling. "Student demand is really a big motivator but so many people have helped make this happen," she said. "It is really a team effort with many different departments. A lot of people are thinking outside the boxes and doing things they aren't normally used to doing."

"It is so new that we haven't really gotten started picking it up yet," said A&M recycling coordinator Tom Marshall whose role is picking up after the plastics have been compacted. "A lot of students and faculty requested plastics recycling and our department is about to start all over campus. Plastics are going to end up being a big thing."

He said plastics are important because of the need to keep as much out of the landfills as possible. With the technology implemented on campus, this is now helping to do that, he said.

With students and faculty being more environmentally conscious the department is receiving a lot of positive feedback for the project.

"With the positive feedback received the departments are excited to be moving forward. In the spring, the recycling companies are expanding the plastics recycling to inside buildings. In the long run it is really about operational efficiency," Wellman said.

Some students said they hope the project works out and will stay on campus.

"Recycling plastics on campus is a great idea. I was excited to see the staff take the initiative to start this project and I really hope that it works out and expands as much as possible," said Brad Norwood, a junior maritime systems engineering major.

Published on Tuesday, December 02, 2008