Recycling center to reopen for six months
Temporary reopening to run from January through June
The Town of Taos Council voted unanimously Nov. 23 to temporarily reopen the recycling center on Bertha Street starting in January of next year, one part of an “eight-point intermediate and long-term plan for sustainable, community wide recycling,” according to the town.
After the center was shut by the Taos Landfill Board on Sept. 10, it seemed as if the town, which owns the center and managed it previously, was intent on shutting down the center permanently. Town Manager Rick Bellis cited the low diversion rate of just 7.6 percent as reason to close it down and keep it that way.
Bellis had stated previously that the town had no intention of reopening the center. Instead, he recommended to the council that it be used for storage.
In a previous email, he said “it is neither legally, financially nor logistically possible to reopen the [recycling] program.”
Town officials appear to have changed direction since then, including the decision to reopen the recycling center in their expanded eight-point plan.
Along with reopening the center, the plan includes an outline that supports the national Break Free From Plastic Pollution Act; a goal for additional state level plastic and recycling regulations; continued “green waste” recycling at the landfill; incentivizing the private recycling sector; creating a regional community recycling board; regulating single-use disposables; and focusing on public education.
In order to fund the re-opening of the center, the town plans to use approximately six to seven months of reserves of the former 75-cent town recycling fee.
However, the recycling center
isn’t looking toward an immediate opening, or a permanent one. Because of the upcoming holiday season and the amount of time it takes to train individuals to run the center, Bellis said the goal is to be open by early January 2022.
The approximately $60,000 in recycling fees will be enough to cover the cost of the operation through June, he said, at which time the town hopes a more formal and regional recycling proposal will be introduced.
In terms of what items will be accepted, Bellis said “at this point our recommendation is to reopen the center as it closed, starting with just cardboard and letting the market dictate whatever we can get rid of and collect and move.”
Going forward, Bellis said the 75-cent fee would be waived, and recycling would be free for all individuals. He did mention, however, that they would charge a fee for for-profit recyclers who provide
curbside service and then bring their loads to the center.
During previous county commission meetings, District 5 Commissioner and Chairwoman Candyce O’Donnell had introduced a resolution to reopen the Bertha Street center at a $21-per-year cost to Taos County taxpayers. However, the resolution required the help of the town, given that they own the building. O’Donnell’s resolution, which was discussed during a Nov. 23 commission meeting, was tabled.
Bellis said waiting for the county to pass a resolution could have cost too much time. “The county then would have had to apply for a permit, hire and train staff to be certified under [New Mexico Environmental Department], so it could have been a year. I don’t think that would have satisfied the concerns of the public,” he said during the town meeting.
O’Donnell said the county may try to look into using the eight transfer stations as possible recycling centers but that it would require the hiring of a consultant and quite a bit of time. She said the
goal is to “enhance our own recycling at the county level.”
However, she added that the county commissioners eventually agreed to begin drafting a resolution or ordinance to formally support the town’s plan to reopen the center.
“Hopefully this leads to further collaboration and willingness on all sides to sit down and put differences and egos away for the betterment of the community,” said Councilman Darien Fernandez of the vote to support the town’s eight-point plan.
He said he hopes several points of the plan that put pressure on the state will have an effect. “Longterm, we should be moving away from plastics as much as possible,” he said in an email. “I would like to see New Mexico move in the direction of other states that have glass and aluminum deposit programs so that we can incentivize more recycling and production of multiuse items.”
Fernandez added he sees “the town and county coming together on recycling as a foot in the door to other partnerships that are desperately
needed.”
“I think this is a very reasonable compromise,” said Councilman Fritz Hahn of the eight-point plan. In a phone call, Hahn expressed his dissatisfaction with the recycling program, saying he personally believes it is a “feel-good operation” that does little to solve the environmental problems.
He said the plan to reopen the center through June was a “compromise” by Mayor Barrone, balancing the suggestions from Hahn to close the center and the community and county’s push to keep it open. “The mayor I think has hit upon a great compromise. I disagree with it. I feel forthrightly that we should just buy less, be more informed in our consumerism, but I also applaud the mayor for trying to find a compromise to this situation,” said Hahn.
Town Councilman Pascual Maestas said during a phone call he thinks “public pressure and the [upcoming March 2022] election are on their mind” when it comes to the town staff and mayor’s decision to reopen the center (Maestas and Barrone are both running for mayor in the upcoming March election).
“It’s interesting that this proposal is really asking the state and the feds to save our recycling program… even though the county is ready to help support it financially,” said Maestas.
He said he was confused as he felt the county’s recycling resolution kept waiting for a commitment from the town, while the town seemed to be relying on the county to make the first move.
“This feels like a very temporary solution. I think people will be disappointed when they realize they can’t take anything except cardboard,” said Maestas.
At the end of the discussion, the eight-point plan passed unanimously. In addition to the reopening of the recycling center, an 11-member “Recycling Regional Community Advisory Board” will be formed as a way to start conversations about long term, community-wide recycling.