BRISTOL — Yankee frugality meshed with concerns over the environment when communities began their recycling programs. Not only were towns extending the lives of the landfills, the money they made by recycling glass, paper, and aluminum could subsidize the entire solid waste disposal effort. So when the bottom fell out of the recyclable market, it created a real dilemma. It now costs nearly twice as much to get rid of the recyclables as it does to send everything to a landfill.
In Bristol, town officials were already trying to keep a tight lid on spending in order to stay within the budget that voters approved in March. Town Administrator Nik Coates estimates that continuing the recycling program will leave the transfer station operations $25,000 in the red by year’s end — and that is after asking residents to separate glass from the other recyclables.
Looking at it from an economic perspective, it appears to make more sense to just throw everything into the solid waste bin.
Michael Durfor, executive director of the Northeast Resource Recovery Association, urged selectmen to refrain from making that choice.
“The cheapest way to get rid of used oil is to dump it on the ground, if you’re just going to count beans,” he said. “It’s not the right thing to do, and those things have a cost.”
In fact, he argues that making the cheaper choice now will end up costing more down the road.
Durfor said New England landfills are closing or reaching capacity, and there is a possibility that, within the next eight to 10 years, there will be 5 million tons of solid waste with nowhere to put it.
“If you know you’re going to have a shortfall in space to get rid of trash, you want to preserve that as much as possible,” he said. If towns abandon recycling and throw everything away, the landfills will reach capacity much sooner, and then they will be facing much higher costs to get rid of their solid waste, he said.
Bristol selectmen are hesitant to make that choice without first asking residents how they feel, and are considering scheduling a public hearing to discuss the options.
Other municipalities have already decided: Franklin is combining the contents of residents’ recycle bins with regular solid waste and hauling it away. Laconia is asking residents to toss their bottles in the trash. Gilford followed Bristol’s example and asked residents to place glass in a separate bin to cut down on the weight of the recycled materials.
Glass can be crushed and used with or in place of gravel during road reconstruction, and Durfor said his organization can help towns obtain glass crushers. He said that, by removing the glass from other recyclables, communities can save $100 per ton.
Durfor emphasized that recycling remains profitable for those who are able to separate items, and he advocates “source separation” — keeping plastics, cardboard, glass, and aluminum in separate recycle streams.
Laconia City Manager Scott Myers said the New Hampshire Department of Transportation could help create a market for glass by including a certain percentage of glass in its road specifications.
“That would create a demand for glass to be crushed,” he said.
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