Rural Areas Turn Waste Expenses Into Recycling Profits

While some urban areas have dramatic drops in recycling rates, some counties improve theirs by the double digits.

by Dawn Dickson Van Ness

While a few rural counties increase their recycling rates and turn a modest profit, inconsistence of recorded rates, the depressed value of recyclables, and lack of a proven method hinder other localities.

The Joint Legislative Audit and Review Commission reported that Virginia localities spent $48 million to recycle in their communities, but the funds are chiefly coming from urban populations like Virginia Beach and Richmond. According to Steve Ferguson, Nottoway County Planner, recycling in rural counties is unfeasible due to population density, cost prohibitive pick-up, unreliable community participation, and the drop in value of recyclables like aluminum.

“I would say 99.9% of all recycling is in the urban areas where they have curbside pick-up,” said Ferguson. “Virginia Beach has something like 380 people per square mile. Nottoway is more like 40 per square mile.”

But while the population density, or lack thereof, is problematic, it is not prohibitive in all cases–out performing urban areas with curbside pickup, counties like Madison and Patrick are showing that rural recycling can be done.

Recycling in Patrick County

Geri Hazelwood, the assistant to the Patrick County Administrator, found it is not only possible, but if run like a start-up business, it can grow itself.

“Oh, we are real rural,” said Hazelwood. “Forty people per square mile, maybe.”

When asked what makes their program work, Hollenworth pointed to the small business owners and a local organizer.

“It takes a personal investment,” said Hollenworth. “But with community support and someone who knows how to structure and coordinate a program like we were fortunate enough to have, it can be a real good thing. We hope to keep increasing our numbers each year. And instead of paying out $1,409 for trash disposal, we were paid $1,824 for recyclables. That’s a nice difference.”

Recycling efforts in some communities, whether city, town, or county, were erratic with some doubling their recycling rates and others losing ground in the double digits.

Due to recycling businesses closing, the loss of population or the loss of a large business, some areas are loosing ground when it comes to recycling.

Recycling Going Out-of-Business

Sharon Mills, a representative of EMI which buys recyclables and runs transfer stations in Patrick County, has seen recycling businesses going out-of-business.

“If you look at October, you see the recycled trade materials went from $150 a ton to $12,” said Mills. “The recycling business is going to need time to recover.”

Madison County: Small Recycling Business Model

Even so, recycling is helping rural counties by providing some money from selling recyclables and saving money that otherwise would be paid to landfill. Madison County increased its recycling rate and reduced refuse by being thorough and creative.

“There are grants to get you started,” said Mercury Payton, County Planner for Madison County. “We found you have to have a personable sort who is able to talk to all the farmers and business owners. Just go visit, touch base regularly and ask, ‘You have anything you want out of here?’”

Payton said rusting machinery and appliances were overlooked items that were worth money as scrap metal.

“Fallen trees and scrub brush can be chipped and shredded, so you have mulch then,” said Payton. “Just take a look around: brush, tires, oils, appliances, farm equipment. Then you have paper, bottles, and cans. Let one operation help support another. Aluminum may not pay right now, but use the grant money and other money from the farm equipment to get through the year. Price will go back up.”

Networking and Learning about Recycling Operations in Fairfax

With a business approach and a committed organizer, said Payton, all that is needed is some good business sense and the sense to talk to those who are efficient.

“Those boys in Fairfax know what they are doing,” said Payton. “You can visit, see what they are doing and how they are doing it, then adopt a smaller model.”

Payton said that getting as much into a box truck or trailer is important.

“We got a compactor for our glass so that we break it down,” said Payton. “You put more in a trailer and have less pick-ups. Make the most of it.”

Ferguson said glass was recommended, ironically so, to be crushed for roads.

Both Payton and Miller were eager to share their success stories, while acknowledging that they were facilitated by recycling companies, like EMI, which were already operating in their areas.

Location Location Location

EMI was started in the ‘80s not for recycling, but for shredding confidential documents; they then later expanded their business to include recycling.

“With companies like mine, we can provide drop-off trailers to areas that can not operate their own transfer stations,” said Mills. “You can’t bring it to us, we can come to you. We do 2.5 million tons a month and have 70 trailers. I give estimates based on transportation cost and scheduling. With every statement the landfill expense is calculated so the customer can see how much they saved.”

EMI has also assisted counties to dispose of electronics and oil by coordinating drives with schools and the cub scouts.
Electronics, batteries, and oil are items which are hazardous or contain hazardous components which will leach toxins into ground water.

Recycling Inconsistencies and Conversion Quandaries

Virginia has reduced the amount of refuse by several hundred thousand tons, and it has maintained an average recycling rate higher than the national average or the averages in nearby state; but there here is some difficulty calculating how well or poorly areas are doing. There also is a problem with records the counties are maintaining.

Steve Coe, Environmental Program Specialist at the Department of Environmental Quality for Virginia, said the challenge is to accurately reflect how Virginia is doing to reduce its waste production and increase recycling.

“Because of the way recycling is reported, different reports don’t reflect one another,” said Coe, explaining why the percentages and amounts reported by localities do not match on the Recycling Rate Report and the DEQ’s Waste Management Report.

“Also, when it comes to landfills, a ton of one item doesn’t take up the same amount of space of another item,” said Coe.

“You can’t convert tons into cubic yards. A ton of glass bottles, a ton of aluminum cans and a ton of appliances is different for all sorts of reasons.”

Geri Hazelwood, the assistant to the Patrick County Administrator and the person responsible for reporting recycling rates in her community, said when she started, not all businesses participating in recycling were on the worksheets provided by the DEQ.

“We created a new spreadsheet and filled in all the numbers,” said Hazelwood. “Before that, they weren’t being recorded.”

Without an accurate record of how well a locality is doing, there is less proof that rural areas can recycle effectively.
The inconsistency raises a red flag for Virginia’s mission to become a greener state; this with the drop in the value of recyclables and lack of community organizers in rural areas demonstrates Virginia’s need to do more before tonnage increases and recycling rates begin to drop.

Good News for Now

The good news, according to Coe, is that although times are not favorable for recycling, the economy has forced business and consumers to behave differently.

“Four years ago, and you can’t point to any one event, there was a change,” said Coe. “Manufactures used more plastic and thinner aluminum. People started buying in bulk because of the economy. And it became more popular to be ‘green.’ There is more education and awareness, but more than that, there is more material for the recycling stream. And some of it is lighter.”

Required Recycling Programs in Every County

If a county does not have a visible recycling program, there must be something in place or an exception made.

“Every county is required by Virginia code to have a program in place,” said Coe. “Although some may have an exception because of economics. But each has someone in charge of that program and they are listed on the DEQ website.”

Like in Nottoway county, some counties are not held to the same recycling standards as other areas because of population density and poverty rates.

Patrick County demonstrates that this need not hinder recycling efforts.

Need for a Reliable Recycling Business Model, Big and Small

With a larger overall population in Virginia, an untapped rural population that potentially could reduce, reuse, and recycle, and several years of high profile campaigns and initiatives, Virginia has managed to increase its recycling rate by 0.1% in the past two years. Whether that has to do with inaccurate records, change in consumer and business behavior, more awareness, or more material in the recycling stream, or all of the above, leaves questions as to how well Virginia is really doing and whether rural counties can do more. But without monetary initiatives, organization, and a rise in the value of recyclables like aluminum, rural areas of Virginia will continue not to recycle while garbage is imported from other states to rural landfills.

Charts Generated from Virginia Waste Management Data and U.S. Census Data

 

The reduction in waste is a combination of changing consumer habits, education about recycling, packaging reduction by manufactures and more material in the recycling stream, according to Steve Coe, Environmental Program Specialist at the Department of Environmental Quality for Virginia.

With an ever-growing population, Virginia has a larger potential to reduce, reuse and recycle.

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