The co$t of curb$ide
Text 
No Comments [ Add Comment ]By Loretta Park
Standard-Examiner Davis Bureau
lpark@standard.net
Recycling is one thing, but most towns can't afford to bring it to your doorstep
LAYTON -- Top of Utah officials say cost stops most cities from implementing curbside recycling programs.
Instead, many cities are now looking for alternative ways to reuse trash.
Layton City Mayor Steve Curtis said, "Traditional recycling is a very, very costly service. It simply doesn't pay for itself."
Layton officials have examined the program and said it would cost $1 million a year for the city to participate, which is money that can be used for other programs.
So Layton, along with most Davis County cities and Morgan, sends its trash to Wasatch Management District. The trash is burned and creates steam and electricity, said Nathan Rich, executive director of the Wasatch Integrated Waste Management District.
Hill Air Force Base buys the heat from the burn plant, which it then uses to generate electricity to power about 700 homes on the base. Within a year, it will double that number, Rich said.
Burning the garbage reduces its volume by 90 percent, and the ash is more stable than piles of garbage, Rich said.
"We're not anti-recycling, nor are we anti-curbside recycling," Rich said.
The best curbside recycling program in the country only keeps 15 to 20 percent of the trash out of a landfill, he said. The burn plant diverts about 50 percent of the waste from the landfill.
It also provides recycling bins that cities, like South Weber, North Salt Lake, Morgan, Clearfield and Clinton, use, Rich said.
"Those are really popular," said Mike Child, public works director with Clinton City.
"Heck, we've got to dump them a minimum of once a week," Child said. "Most times, it's twice a week."
About four years ago, Wasatch brought the bins out to Clinton at 1740 W. 1750 North, said Clinton City Manager Dennis Cluff.
There are similar bins available to residents in Clearfield at 497 S. Main, said Kim Dabb, the operations manager for Clearfield City's public works.
Those bins are dumped at least every other week, Dabb said.
When asked why Clinton doesn't do a curbside recycling program, Cluff said it's not cost-effective. In order to make it pay for itself, the city would have to require everyone to pay a fee for a program that 20 to 100 people may use.
Cluff said when he worked as a city manager in Oregon, curbside recycling was mandatory throughout the state. He visited the areas where the glass, plastic and paper were being stored.
"There was mountains and mountains of storage along the Columbia River," Cluff said, because there was no market for the items.
The city also recycles tree limbs and branches, Child said. Anyone can bring their limbs and branches to the city's public works' yard. There, city employees will grind up the limbs and branches and use the sawdust to line the city's walking trails.
In Ogden, people can take their grass clippings, limbs and branches to the Weber County Compost facility. The items are ground up and mixed into the composite mixture, which is then sold to the public, said Jim Chivers, the facility's site supervisor.
At Wasatch, Davis residents can also take their grass clippings and branches to the landfill where a composite is made and it is also sold to the public, Rich said.
Only a few cities -- Ogden and North Ogden -- have mandatory curbside programs.
North Ogden has had the curbside program for a number of years, said Annette Spendlove, the city's recorder.
Residents are not charged extra for the separate trash can that is picked up every other week by Waste Management. If residents want a second can, the cost is $5.30 a month, Spendlove said.
Gary Laird, solid waste supervisor with Weber County Solid Waste, said Rocky Mountain Recycling comes to the waste facility and picks up the recycled trash left at curbsides in Ogden and hauls it to a facility in Salt Lake City for recycling.
Ogden tried recycling at the Weber County facility, but it was not cost effective, Laird said. Currently cardboard, paper, metal and few plastics are recycled.
"And no one recycles glass anymore," Laird said. "There is not a big market for it."
Add Your Comment
