County recycling program losing money

'But it's the right thing to do,' director says

The Flathead County Solid Waste District's recycling program is saving valuable space in the county landfill, but right now it's a money-losing proposition.

Commodity prices for recyclables such as aluminum and cardboard have "tanked," causing the county to lose $11,241 for its recycling efforts in June alone, County Public Works Director Dave Prunty told the county commissioners last week.

"It was our worst month ever," he said. "Right now we're just trying to weather the storm."

Just a few months ago the commodity price for aluminum was 8 cents a pound; now it's 4 cents. Newspaper - the biggest recyclable for the county - brings just .0325 cents a pound at the moment.

"Recycling is a struggle to run profitably," County Public Works Director Dave Prunty said. "The county has broken even or turned a tiny profit two years out of 12."

In June the county collected 229,223 pounds of recycled materials that produced $7,530 in revenue. But it cost $9,288 to haul the recyclables, $7,412 to handle the materials, $1,197 for site maintenance and $572 to rent the recycle bins.

Many county residents don't realize that the county contracts with Valley Recycling to have recycle bins at green-box collection sites, Prunty said. The recycling bins often are overflowing, but the county would lose even more money to pay Valley Recycling to empty them more often or install more bins, he added.

"We don't have to do this," he said about the county's recycling effort, "but it's the right thing to do."

Recycling saves space in the landfill. Exactly how much space is being calculated by engineers, Prunty said.

"In the big picture, the community is recycling more," he said. "But in Montana, it's expensive to haul it, so you try to counter-balance that with air-space savings in the landfill."

The county has the capacity to add another 21 million cubic yards of space, and all totaled has about 45 to 55 years' worth of space remaining. The lifespan depends, of course, on how much garbage is produced, Prunty said.

In September 2008 the Solid Waste District took on responsibility for recycling bins previously operated by the city of Kalispell. For years Evergreen Disposal had provided recycling bins at sites in Kalispell and Evergreen, but over time it also was a money-losing endeavor, Prunty said.

When Evergreen Disposal decided to discontinue the service, the Solid Waste District stepped in, Prunty said.

Kalispell spent about $30,000 to buy some of the bins and the county district rents the others. The district assumed responsibility for maintaining all of the bins, located at Glacier High School, Flathead High School, Kalispell Middle School, downtown Super 1 Foods, Albertsons and Tire-Rama.

Taking on the extra recycling containers has caused the county's recyclable poundage - and the cost of handling - to increase considerably.

So far in 2009, 1,137,900 pounds of recyclables have been collected and the district has lost $55,442 on recycling. Prunty estimates roughly 2.3 million pounds will be recycled this year, at a loss of about $110,000.

By comparison, in calendar year 2008 the district recycled 1.9 million pounds at a loss of $33,761. In 2007, recyclables totaled 1.3 million pounds but the loss was only $1,580 because commodity prices were high that year.

"It's a horrible year for commodity prices. It's like the rest of the economy," Prunty said.

Features editor Lynnette Hintze may be reached at 758-4421 or by e-mail at lhintze@dailyinterlake.com