Santa Cruz County Solid Waste Division is working on improving the cost effectiveness of their recycling program. There is still a wide disparity between the cost of these programs and the money that they can bring in, mostly because of transportation costs, but also because the market for glass and plastic has shrunk. Then, too, it costs money to sort, store, and bundle materials.
The county recently received a grant of $95,000 for machinery that compacts solid waste more efficiently. Solid Waste Manager, Karl Moyers, explains that this means more tonnage can be shipped on one truck.
Moyers also reports that glass is being dealt with differently now. He thinks that the county can begin to crush glass here using its own heavy machinery. If this works out, it will save the county the cost of buying a glass crusher and mean more material can be moved at one time. He is also looking into finding a cheaper way to get the glass and other products to Tucson. The county’s trucks cost $2 a mile to run whereas other firms with huge fleets of bigger trucks can move solid waste for half that amount. No matter how this shakes out, Moyer says, recycled glass will not cover the costs of crushing and shipping.
The county continues to struggle with recycling. Recommendations—including improving the current facilities to increasing landfill fees—are under consideration. Moyers added that the rumor that Sonoita’s landfill may be privatized is a rumor that has been around for years and that there is no basis for it.
All our recyclable materials are being dealt with. Nothing from the recycling bins is being put into a county landfill. The county continues to lose money, but it is trying to find ways to mitigate this. We can all help by breaking down boxes, sorting out the recyclable kind of plastic (#1 and #2 only), putting wax-coated cardboard and Styrofoam in the trash, separating aluminum cans and putting them in the barrel at the gas station, and taking the lids off bottles. And, please, no garbage.
And, in case you didn’t know, the glass bottles you put in the big blue bin get crushed, separated again by color and end up in Owens Corning fiberglass.