Recycling up, payback down

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The Rhode Island Resource Recovery Corporation (RIRRC) rewarded cities and towns with checks Tuesday from the sale of recyclables collected during the 2015 fiscal year, and while the recycling rate in the state is up, payouts are down compared to previous years.

“Today is always a good day. It’s a rare thing in the state where you get something back for what you do, but this is the right thing to be doing,” said Michael OConnell, RIRRC’s executive director.

Municipal representatives from across the state gathered at RIRRC’s headquarters in Johnston to celebrate their community’s recycling successes. Rhode Island cities and towns recycled 98,400 tons of newspapers, plastics, bottles and cardboard during the last year, up from 97,844 tons collected in 2014. However, where 2014 saw a payout of $1,502,616.16 from the sale of those goods, this year’s payback was about a third of that, totaling $551,700.  

“The money is not as much as it has been in the past because the commodity markets for recyclable materials are down,” said Michael OConnell, RIRRC’s executive director. “It really never recovered from the crash we had back in 2008.”

Municipalities share profits based on the tonnage of recyclables taken to RIRRC by each city and town, including profits from commercial and out-of-state material. OConnell cited a declining world economy, less demand and lower prices for both virgin and recycled materials, especially from China, and lower oil prices – the basis for plastic costs – as reasons for the lower payout.

OConnell also acknowledged that contaminated materials – truckloads of recyclables mixed with trash and non-recyclables – as another factor for the revenue decline and delays in the recycling process.

“We’ve seen a lot more contamination in our materials that come in that have made the process more difficult to run,” said OConnell. “Yesterday, for example, we had a pole from a road sign that somehow got into one of the trucks and into our equipment, and we had to shut down for half a day simply to fix the equipment that was broken.”

Out of the 39 participating communities, Warwick came out on top of the recycling pile, ranking first with 9,862 tons delivered and receiving $52,994.91 for their efforts. The city’s haul was 481 tons less than the previous year, and their check was $94,675.51 less than last years.

“We’re always happy because we end up with the largest check every year for our recycling efforts,” said Warwick Mayor Scott Avedisian. “We always use our money to go back into the recycling program to encourage more and different ways to get people to recycle. We’ve been doing some pilots with our marinas, with shrink-wrap that’s taken off of boats in the spring, making sure that all gets recycled. We also have our calendar to let people know what they can and cannot do. I think it goes to show that, when you give people the opportunity to recycle conveniently, they’ll do it.”

Cranston, which is closing in on Warwick’s population rate, received $39,424.42 for 7,337 tons of delivered materials.

“It’s always exciting to be able to get some dollars back for the recycling efforts that you see in the city. For Cranston, we’ve seen an increase in recycling efforts, so it’s nice,” said Cranston’s Mayor Alan Fung. “While the dollar amount is lower than last year, the continued effort to recycle to help better our community, help better our state, help better our environment, is something that I think is important. Today’s an added bonus where we’re able to get some of those dollars that we can put back towards helping my recycling coordinator continue that effort to increase the recycling rate and do what’s right for our community.”

RIRRC’s host town of Johnston received $33,835.74 for their 1,998 tons of recyclables. While down slightly from last year’s haul of 2,090 tons, the town’s payment was $8,858.22 more than last year. Johnston’s profit sharing is determined by state law as well as its recycling performance, and the town received additional funds from the out-of-state pool, which are designated for storm water mitigation.

According to Johnston’s Mayor Joseph Polisena, the funds will be reinvested back into their recycling efforts, possibly purchasing new equipment. The town, in the meantime, is taking a harder approach when it comes to their recycling program.

“I think obviously this is a great idea. Recycling is very important as it extends the life of the landfill, and I wish we had more recycling,” said Polisena. “We’re still having major issues with those people – we call them pickers – that come to the town and they pick out of the recycling bins. That’s what decreases our tonnage, as far as recycling, or we’d be getting much more money than we’re getting. It’s not fair to the taxpayers, and we’ve prosecuted people already and we’ll continue to prosecute if we catch them going in our bins.”

Overall, RIRRC’s OConnell was pleased with the state’s combined progress and encouraged those present to continue reinvesting into their programs.

“The most important thing is, whether you get a dime or a million dollars, what you’re doing is the right thing to do,” he told the crowd. “It makes total sense. It’s like they say, virtue is its own reward, recycling is its own reward whether you get compensated or not, it’s the right thing to do.”

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  • Broken02919

    How about we step up police patrols to deter people from stealing out of our recycle bins? My trash is being raided within minutes of being put curbside.

    Tuesday, October 6, 2015 Report this