Jan Larson McLaughlin
BG Independent News
The cost of recycling is 3.5 times the cost of sending Bowling Green’s garbage to a landfill per tonne.
As of September, it cost about $142 to recycle a ton of material on the street compared to about $42 to landfill a ton of waste.However, city officials have no plans to stop collecting recycled items from the streets.
Bowling Green’s director of public services, Joe Fawcett, reported rising recycling costs to the city council’s finance committee earlier this month.
Costs jumped nearly 30% from May when the cost per tonne was $107.92.
“There’s a pretty dramatic shift,” Fawcett said.
The reason, he explained, is the recyclable market. Bowling Green has a cost-sharing arrangement with The Republic, which has a contract with the City Hall of Bowling Green to sell recyclables that it collects on the street.
According to Fawcett, the per-ton rate is offset by average commodity returns from recyclable goods. So if the average return on the product is low, the cost of the bowling green will be high.
The current ACR is $37.63 per ton.
In May 2020, the city experienced higher recycling costs when the cost per tonne peaked at $156.
Fawcett said average product returns have been trending downward since May of this year.
“I wouldn’t be shocked if the cost per tonne goes back in 2020,” he said. .
Despite the cost, city officials are working on curbside recycling programs.
“As far as I know, there has been no discussion of discontinuing recycling,” Fawcett said.
In the first nine months of this year, the city collected 3,630 tons of garbage and 670 tons of recyclable garbage, according to information filed with the Finance Committee. Costs during this period were $163,000 in landfills and $94,000 in recycling.
“I applaud Alderman Robinette for requesting these reports. It’s good for us to track these numbers so everyone can recognize them,” Fawcett said.
Bowling Green switched to Republic services in 2020. This is because the BG recycling center can no longer accept recycled items on the street. The center still operates a 24-hour drop-off site.
The city has solicited bids for recycling services. “The Republic was the only one who responded,” Fawcett said.
