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"Recycling & Beyond"

Nation's Top Programs Push for Zero-Waste

By Dave Dempsey
August/September Issue, 2005

The national recycling landscape has changed dramatically over the last 30 years, but there is one constant. Community not-for-profit organizations scattered across the U.S. continue to show that recycling can succeed -- and some of them are ready to take it to new levels, creating jobs and growing local economies.

But they face a constant, too -- the sometimes ruthless competition of national for-profit waste giants that can use the riches they make from trash landfills to capitalize recycling services.

Eric Lombardi, executive director of Eco-Cycle in Boulder, Colorado, says landfill diversion rates continue to climb in that city. Over 90% of the city’s approximately 95,000 residents participated in some form of recycling last year through either curbside collection or drop-off. Boulder County’s residential recycling rate of 58% is one of the best in the nation. “Our program’s doing fine,” he says.

Head of Eco-Cycle since 1989, Lombardi says the 29-year-old nonprofit organization has 55 employees and an annual budget of roughly $3 million, and processed 50,000 tons of recyclables last year.


Boulder's CHaRM

Lombardi sees both threat and opportunity on the horizon. The threat, he says, comes from the four largest waste companies, which are trying to monopolize landfill and recycling capacity across the nation. The result of such a “lockup,” he says, could undermine recycling. “If the company that owns the MRF (materials recovery facility) also owns a landfill, they get paid either way. That’s the game that’s unfolding nationally.”

The opportunity is Lombardi’s vision of a “zero-waste” society. The Boulder recycling chief speaks excitedly of a society in which only 10 to 20% of all “waste” is landfilled. “Once we get a source-separation culture going,” Lombardi says, “we can figure out ways to make use of almost everything in the waste stream.” Organic materials like grass clippings and food waste can be composted, and virtually all other materials except junk plastics can be reused or processed into new products.

As a small example of what he’s talking about, Zero Waste Stationshave replaced garbage cans at theBoulder Farmers’ Market. Everything available for consumption at themarket is compostable or recyclable, even the bowls, forks and cups.

Eco-Cycle also now offers what it calls “a groundbreaking new alternative to traditional garbage collection service” for businesses. The Zero Waste Services program replaces garbage collection. Eco-Cycle collects 100% of discards, including recyclables, compostables, and hard-to-recycle materials for a price comparable to traditional garbage disposal.

Lombardi’s proudest, though, of his new CHaRM -- the Center for Hard-to-Recycle Materials. It accepts computers, televisions, VCRs, fax machines, scanners, copiers, cell phones, hardback books, ink jet and laser jet printer cartridges, athletic shoes, plastic bags with a #2 or #4 (clean, dry and empty only please), and textiles. To his knowledge, it’s the first public drop-off facility in his part of the nation that has successfully recycled a semi-truck load of plastic bags. Because the CHaRM is staffed, it can maintain an unusual degree of quality control over the bags it accepts and processes.


Saint Paul's Free Market

Susan Hubbard, chief executive officer and co-president of Eureka Recycling, which services most residents of Saint Paul, Minnesota, a city of 287,000, says her program is “obviously” sustainable. “We’ve answered that question,” she adds, referring to 15 years of community operation. Over that time, Eureka and its predecessor have recycled more than 300,000 tons of materials.

Formerly the recycling department of the Saint Paul Neighborhood Energy Consortium, Eureka Recycling provides recycling services to Saint Paul’s homes and apartments. Employing 44 people and operating with an annual budget of approximately $5 million, Eureka enjoys support not just from the ecologically-minded, but also from a city government that divides the program’s receipts with the nonprofit.

“The city (of Saint Paul) embraces our program,” Hubbard says. “We have a performance-based contract. We run our recycling program like a business and the city can see that.”

Although the Boulder region is “landfill heaven,” according to Lombardi, with plenty of cheap dumps, tipping fees at landfills that take Minnesota waste climb as high as $200 per ton. Eureka’s costs compete well with those prices. “Recycling isn’t subsidized and it doesn’t need to be,” Hubbard observes. “It pays its own way.”

Operating as a nonprofit has advantages for recycling. Eureka is adding weekly curbside collection of plastic bottles and organic materials, recycling with its own trucks rather than contracting with a waste hauler. Instead of pocketing the profits, Eureka Recycling will use themto add services.

Hubbard doesn’t think of the large national waste companies as competitors. “Although, on the surface, we seem to offer similar services, we really don’t. Our services are comprehensive -- education is apart of every collection contract -- it isn’t an option. We won’t collect recycling from communities where we aren’t involved in their outreach programs. The haulers that bring materials to our MRF get help with community education too – we want the highestquality materials and wemake sure we get them by working closely with all of our customers. We have real people that answer the phone,” she adds.

Underscoring the importance of education, Hubbard says recent outreach efforts have attracted the “community’s attention and recycling feels new again. We need to keep refreshing ourselves and the community with new recycling initiatives and ideas.”

Eureka offers a web-based residential materials exchange service, “Free Market” (on line at www.twincitiesfreemarket.org) that has kept over 2,000 tons of reusable goods -- furniture, appliances, landscaping materials and recreation supplies – from landfills and incinerators since 1998.


Arcata's Alternatives

In the small coastal community of Arcata, California (population 16,651), the Arcata Community Recycling Center (ACRC) has processed over 63,000 tons of recyclables over the last 30 years, including 7,730 tons in 2004. Executive Director Mark Loughmiller agrees on the importance of recycling outreach. His Center employs two full-time recycling educators.

“Much of the work is in schools. There’s also a great deal of community outreach and a strong presence at regular events. Recycling is still a very participatory activity in Arcata and most people prefer to come to our drop-off,” Loughmiller notes. Only about two percent of Arcata’s recycling is done through curbside service -- which has him pondering next steps.

ACRC is constructing a state-of-the-art two-stream processing facility to facilitate curbside collection. “Our question now becomes -- do we build the system and turn the responsibility for collecting and delivering material to a local hauler that hasn’t illustrated any drive to improve recycling in our area? This has caused me to ask whether ACRC should follow the lead of Eureka Recycling and purchase collection vehicles and begin providing curbside collection services.” The fundamental truth, Loughmiller and the other nonprofit directors say, is that only recycling organizations truly make recycling and waste reduction a commitment rather than just another service.

Like his peers, Loughmiller is puzzled by the view among some citizens that recycling is getting subsidies disproportionate to other methods of handling the waste stream. When ACRC’s most recent contract came up for review before city officials, he says, a few citizens spoke against the Center’s $400,000 annual payment for handling 4,000 tons of material through the drop-off. In the same meeting the local garbage hauler’s contract for hauling 8,000 tons of waste at an an-nual cost of$2 millionwas approv-ed without any public criticism.

He adds, “I always ask the question, ‘the last time your favorite store had a 50% off sale, did you call and complain about the sale?’ Usually the response is ‘no,’ so then I ask why they’re complaining about our 50% sale on garbage. I think we just need to frame the discussion in a different way so the public does understand.”

Loughmiller proposes reversing traditional practice in Arcata. “I would like to see the municipality move toa system requiring recycling for all households, but not requiring refuse service. Perhaps we’ll follow Eco-Cycle’s lead and establish a similar Zero Waste Services program. I believe it’s politically possible to promote the idea of mandated recycling and optional refuse service at the home. We need to craft policies that support the ‘Zero Waste’ ethic being promoted by visionaries in our industry.”

The three recycling chiefs agree that coming years are likely to signal whether a diverse, vibrant, mixednonprofit and for-profit sector will expand the scope and value of recycling or not. Government can probably best help, they say, by having the courage to envision and support recycling as part of a larger effort to define a new, sustainable economy.

Dave Dempsey is a Great Lakes policy advisor for Clean Water Action in Minneapolis, Minnesota.

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