Recycling policy shift not popular

Move away from commingled loads draws criticism

KINGSTON, N.Y. » Ulster County Resource Recovery Agency board members on Wednesday received limited support for their proposal to raise the agency’s rates for accepting single-stream, or commingled, recyclables, six months before the agency plans to stop accepting it altogether.

At an informational session, agency officials said the change is due to the shrinking market for single-stream recycling as China, in particular, cracks down on loads that contain contaminated recyclables.

“Contamination for single stream ... (is) vastly greater than dual stream plants,” agency Executive Director Tim Rose said.

“The Chinese government has decided they are not going to deal with these contamination issues anymore,” he said. “In the past 10 years, there’s been an environmental awakening in China and now they’re really seeing what’s happening environmentally in their own country, and they want to bring those standards up.”

County Legislator Manna Jo Greene, D-Rosendale, suggested the county Legislature reconvene its Recycling Oversight Committee and begin to develop cost estimates for the county to operate a single-stream recycling facility.

“We should really seriously (be) doing a consensus-building process for the long term,” she said.

County Legislator David Donaldson, D-Kingston, questioned why dual stream facilities could not be used to sort single-stream loads.

“I understand that the paper gets contaminated ... but the plastic doesn’t get contaminated and the cans don’t get contaminated when you’re doing a singlestream,” he said. “Even in a single stream (facility) when it gets separated out, you’re still going to get the money for the plastic and the cans.”

Rose responded that a single-stream sorting facility is expensive to operate and subject to shutdowns six or seven times a day to remove plastic bags from the equipment.

Agency officials say the $20 per ton fee charged to accept single-stream loads has not kept up with disposal costs. They said the only facility that accepts the material currently charges $56 per ton and is expected raise its rates over the summer.

Kingston Mayor Steve Noble told agency board members it was their responsibility to find a way to continue accepting single-stream loads.

“The point of the agency ... is really to manage the county’s waste stream, and I really do feel that with the Ulster County Recycling Law as it’s written really tells the agency that it’s your responsibility to also manage recycling in the county,” he said. “Obviously, as recycling markets have changed, the agency has not necessarily changed.”