Recycler acquires extension of 3 years
No glass, rate rise in LR’s contract
After more than a month of deliberation, the Little Rock Board of Directors on Tuesday opted for a threeyear extension of its recycling contract without bringing back glass pickup.
The new rates will go into effect in April, when the existing contract expires.
The terms of the contract increase the cost incrementally over three years. In the first year, the monthly rate will be $4.90 plus $3 for extra carts; $5.07 plus $3.11 for extra carts in the second year; and $5.25 plus $3.22 for extra carts in the third.
The current curbside recycling rate in Little Rock is $4.29 a month, plus $2.07 for extra carts.
Waste Management had offered a higher-cost option where it would pick up glass again after ceasing the service in April 2019. City directors were skeptical that the company’s proposal to bring back the service would actually result in more glass being recycled.
Waste Management’s role is to separate out recyclable materials and distribute them to manufacturers. Glass goes to an out-of-state facility, but glass that has been broken into small pieces cannot be recycled and goes to a landfill.
When Waste Management removed glass from its list of recyclable items last year, the company said China, previously a major buyer of recyclable material, had decided to accept much less.
City Director Joan Adcock said in an interview Tuesday that she hadn’t gotten a clear answer from Waste Management on how the company would resume glass recycling.
Staff members in the city’s public works department had recommended adopting the option that included glass.
At-large City Director Dean Kumpuris made a motion during Tuesday’s board meeting to exclude glass recycling from the contract. Ward 4’ Capi Peck, Ward 6’s Doris Wright, Ward 7’s B.J. Wyrick and Gene Fortson and Adcock, who serve at-large, voted for the motion along with Kumpuris. Ken Richardson of Ward 2 and Kathy Webb of Ward 3 voted against it. Erma Hendrix of Ward 1 voted present, and Ward 5’s Lance Hines was absent.
As part of the new contract, Waste Management has added some items to the list of materials it will pick up for recycling, including gable top containers, such as cardboard milk boxes, and juice boxes, which it calls aseptic containers, George Wheatley, the company’s senior manager of market planning, told the Board of Directors in June.
Opinions about the contract among community members have been mixed.
On June 29, the board of Keep Little Rock Beautiful, an environmental nonprofit, wrote a letter to the city board urging members to extend the contract, emphasizing the importance of maintaining a recycling program in being a sustainable and progressive city.
“Eliminating recycling in a city of our size would do detrimental damage to not only our landfill and our reputation, but also to our citizenry,” the nonprofit’s board wrote, citing the program’s 70% participation rate. “It would reverse years of educational effort that has driven consumer action to such a high participation rate in the curbside recycling program.”
The city also received several other emails in support of a recycling program with glass.
But the city also received an email last month from a woman who said she did not support any increase in fees, and that she felt like she already did a large part of Waste Management’s job by washing containers and breaking down boxes.
“What more would they like? Bring it to them, stand and sort it out, then bundle it up so they can get paid for it?” Letitia Huggler wrote.
The contract is a regional agreement of Little Rock, North Little Rock and Sherwood and Waste Management. North Little Rock and Sherwood already had approved the terms, and the contract was contingent on Little Rock’s approval.