Recycling, once a way to generate some modest revenues, is becoming a cost burden for cities and towns, according to the Connecticut Conference of Municipalities.
The green-to-red shift is the result of a collapse of the recycling market, fueled by China’s recent crackdown on accepting contaminated bales of recyclables.
That’s suppressed prices recyclers can fetch for bales, creating the threat of higher costs municipalities must pay to move recyclables from their local transfer stations.
On Monday, CCM detailed 15 communities that have seen municipal recycling move from a revenue generator for their town government to a growing expense item.
“This change will result in significant cost increases for local governments and a potential higher tax bill for local property taxpayers,” CCM Executive Director Joe DeLong said in a statement.
The timing of CCM’s report is no coincidence, as it is urging lawmakers not to pass new recycling mandates and to consider rising local costs when determining how to dole out the pot of local aid.
The 15 municipalities listed by CCM are largely outside of Greater Hartford. None has recycling contracts with the Materials Innovation and Recycling Authority in Hartford.
Thomas Gaffey, MIRA’s director of recycling and enforcement, said the approximately three dozen communities contracted with MIRA for trash and recycling are sending their recyclables to the plant for no tipping fee, under the existing contract with Republic Services, which runs to 2021.
The picture will almost certainly change then, when MIRA has to negotiate a new deal. He said the board has declined requests from Republic to reopen the contract early.
“There’s going to be pain coming, but why would you inflict it on yourself now?” Gaffey said.
MIRA’s board recently approved a $30 per ton tipping fee for recyclables from towns without a contract, he said. Those towns used to pay zero.
For communities struggling with higher costs, policy changes could help the state develop new markets and keep recycling tipping fees down, CCM said, such as a ban or tax on plastic bags and straws, adding a deposit to glass and plastic containers, and restricting packaging materials and sizing, among others.
Here are the communities CCM said have seen recycling shift from an overall revenue generator to a cost center, with larger municipalities, like Stamford, seeing costs rise well into the six figures:
Bridgeport, Columbia, Fairfield, Hamden, Milford, Montville, Naugatuck, North Haven, Plymouth, Union, Seymour, Stamford, Stratford, Union and Waterbury.
Editor’s note: This story has been updated to include comment from MIRA
