Hartford Business.com
July 05, 2008
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The Connecticut Resources Recovery Authority is set to spend $3 million of its own cash to convert the Hartford regional recycling facility into a single-stream system later this year.
The upgrade will allow all recyclables — paper, plastic, cans and bottles — to be dumped into the same container. Sorting will be done by a machine, not by the residents of the 70 cities and towns that CRRA’s Mid-Connecticut Project serves.
The conversion project is set to start later this month and be completed in the fall.
Under the new system, recyclers could continue to use their town-issued 14-gallon bins and skip the sorting. Haulers load those bins on trucks manually.
But for towns and garbage haulers, the real benefit of single-stream recycling will come after the towns provide their residents with 64-gallon or 96-gallon bins. Those bins allow trucks equipped with mechanical arms to pick up the larger bins and dump them in the truck. If recycling tonnage increases as expected, haulers will save money, and towns will receive rebates of $10 per recycled ton.
Towns may balk
Some towns may be reluctant to pay that up-front cost, said Paul Nonnenmacher, a CRRA spokesman.
“A lot of towns are strapped, and even though there’s going to be a payback for them, it’s still hard,” Nonnenmacher said.
Other towns, including West Hartford, say they are committed to moving ahead. Dana Hallenback, director of the Public Works Department of West Hartford, said the town is prepared to pay about $1 million for the new bins.
“We are committed to moving forward,” Hallenbeck said. “There’s a big buy-in in West Hartford. People want to do the right thing.”
The recycling operation immediately north of Hartford near the Connecticut River is operated by FCR, a division of Casella Waste Systems Inc. FCR operates 24 recycling facilities, including one in Stratford. Five of those facilities have been converted to single-stream, and two are currently undergoing such a conversion, said FCR President Sean Duffy.
Big Payback
About a year and a half ago, FCR paid $6.5 million to convert the dated Hartford facility into a high-speed, dual-stream system. Although it required the pre-sorting of recyclables, the new system was easily convertible into the single-stream system that CRRA favors.
FCR paid the multimillion-dollar bill for the first stage of the conversion because it saw the potential to earn more money under a single-stream system. As more waste is recycled, more recycled commodities are available to be sold. CRRA and FCR share the proceeds from those sales.
Duffy said that over the next five years, all FCR facilities will be converted to single-stream. “We think there’s that much value added” for town residents, for haulers and for FCR itself, Duffy said.
Nonnenmacher said the CRRA estimates that it will recoup its $3 million investment in about 10 years.
That financial projection is based on an expected 50 percent increase in recycling under the new single-stream system. The volume estimate was based on the record of other single-stream communities across the country.
Nonnenmacher said other communities have seen volume increases ranging from 48 percent to 200 percent after converting to the single-stream system.
The town of Bristol has been involved in a small, single-stream pilot project serving about 900 homes, Nonnenmacher said. The town has already seen a 90 percent increase in recycling.
“This is the easiest and most convenient way to recycle,” Nonnenmacher said. “We believe that there’s going to be a payback.”
For the towns, the payback comes in several ways. As recycling increases, trash volumes decrease, and disposal of trash will cost towns $72 a ton in the next fiscal year. The reduction in trash removal costs alone will save towns an estimated $26 million over 20 years, Nonnenmacher said.
That savings will couple with the $10 rebates for every ton of recyclables set to be returned to the towns.
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