Processing costs remain steady in Austin, Texas, while recycling revenue declines

According to an article in the Austin, Texas, American-Statesman, recycling costs are growing for the city as it works toward achieving its zero-waste goal.

The Austin City Council hired Balcones Resources and Texas Disposal Systems in 2011 to process the city’s recyclables, projecting the city could see $500,000 annually from their sale, the newspaper reports.

However, the article notes, that hasn’t happened.  

“A review of city records by the American-Statesman shows that Austin lost $1.9 million last fiscal year and a total of $2.7 million in the two previous years as a majority of recyclables have fetched less on the open market than the cost to process them. And city officials admit they don’t know the final resting place of some of the items that Austinites put in their blue bins, leaving open questions about the final environmental benefits of recycling,” the article states.

However, the city has not backed away from its zero-waste goal, according to the article. Instead the city argues that the more residents recycle, the easier it will be to profitably sell the higher volumes of material locally.

To assist with that goal, Austin plans to build a “[re]Manufacturing Hub” where businesses will use recyclables as raw materials to produce new products.

Bob Gedert, the head of Austin Resource Recovery, says his office’s projections of $500,000 in annual profits from the sale of recyclables was based on projections of $5.25 million in annual revenue from the sale of recyclables minus $4.8 million in processing costs, the newspaper reports.

However, because of what Gedert terms a “general depression” in markets for scrap metals, plastics, glass, newspapers and other recyclables, Austin received less than $3 million for its recyclables, while processing costs remained in the $4.8 million range.

City officials say the numbers for recycling would improve if residents sorted recyclables from their trash more thoroughly, the American-Statesman reports. Austin Resource Recovery representative Memi Cardenas tells the paper almost 45 percent of the materials residents send to the landfill could be recycled.   

“If Austinites actually recycled that material, the cost per ton to recycle would be lower than the cost per ton to landfill,” she told the paper.

Kerry Getter, CEO of Balcones Resources, tells the paper that if the city were to cut back on recycling, it would miss out on potential profits when markets increase.

Getter told the paper it is profitable for him to recycle 70 to 80 percent of the residential waste stream.

However, the American-Statesman points out that glass makes up about one-quarter of the recycling stream by weight. “The city has received $11 for every ton of glass it delivers to its recycling contractors but pays at least $75 per ton to process it,” the article notes.

The numbers are better for plastics, for which the city receives from $370 to $1,120 for every ton of plastic it delivers, which exceeds the per-ton recycling processing fees, the newspaper reports.

Council Member Don Zimmerman told the paper he’d like to see the city abandon its zero-waste goal.

However, Austin City Council member Leslie Pool, chair of the council’s Open Space, Environment and Sustainability Committee, tells the American-Statesman, “As stewards of the environment, it’s not always about making money.”