Maximizing Your Recycling Revenues

1
Maximizing Your Recycling Revenues
September 27, 2002

• 2002 Fall Conference of Allegheny County
  Townships, Boroughs and Authorities
• Seven Springs Mountain Resort
• Champion, PA

2
Current status of recycling

• 945 municipalities in PA have curbside recycling
  programs
• 82 of these are in Allegheny county
• 59 are mandated by Act 101
• 23 implemented voluntarily
• 635 municipalities in PA have drop-off recycling
  sites
• 16 of these are in Allegheny county
• PAs 1999 recycling rate 32.6
• Allegheny Countys 1999 rate 28.6

3
Optimizing Collection Costs

• Minimize costs maximize returns
• Contracted collection
• Review bid specifications often
• Give bidders complete and accurate data about
  your community
• Always have a pre-bid meeting
• Use collection-only contracts/pay tip fees
  directly to landfill
• Consider multi-municipal bidding
• Consider pay-as-you-throw pricing

4
Optimizing Collection Costs

• Contracted collection (contd)
• Require annual, or depreciating performance bonds
  for multiple year contracts
• Insurance bond requirements should be the average
  of what cases are paying out - no more
• Encourage competition and negotiation
• Evaluate contractor rebates
• Provide incentives for vendors to reduce costs
• Enforce requirements of recycling ordinance

5
Optimizing Collection Costs

• Municipal collection
• Review program and markets periodically
• Evaluate routes for efficiency
• Go for easy weights first
• Enforce requirements of recycling ordinance
• Consider pay-as-you-throw

6
Recycling Education

• Required 2 times per year
• Notify all persons occupying residential,
  commercial and institutional premises
• Describe recycling program features and
  requirements
• Collection dates

• Education Methods
• Newspaper, radio, TV advertisements
• Official notices
• Newsletters
• Public place notices
• Bill stuffers
• Calendars
• Other direct mail

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Recycling Education

• Where to get help
• County recycling coordinators
• Municipal recycling coordinators
• Environmental organizations
• Local printers in yellow pages of phone book
• PA DEP website http//www.dep.state.pa.us
• directLINK (recycling coordinators corner)

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Recycling Reporting

• Report previous years tonnage to county by
• February 15 (include curbside and drop-off)
• Residential recycling
• Commercial, institutional, municipal, community
  events
• Leaf waste collection
• Potential sources of recycling records
• Haulers
• Businesses, institutions, municipal facilities
• Materials processors

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Performance grants (904)

• Source separated recyclables
• Aluminum, steel and bimetallic cans
• Clear and colored glass
• Corrugated paper, newspaper, high-grade office
  paper, other marketable grades of paper
• Plastics
• Residential and commercial post-consumer
  materials only
• Leaf waste not eligible

10
Performance grant formula

• 5.00/ton for residential tons
• 5.00/ton for commercial tons equal to
  residential tons excess gets bonus
• 1.00/ton for each percent of DEP calculated
  recycling rate
• 10.00/ton bonus for commercial tons in excess of
  residential tons

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Sample performance grants

• 350 residential tons 1,750
• 250 commercial tons 1,250
• 2.7 recycling rate 1,670
• Excess commercial 0
• tons
• TOTAL GRANT AWARD
• 4,670

350 residential tons 1,750 500 commercial
tons 1,750 3.2 recycling rate
2,274 Excess commercial 1,500 tons
TOTAL GRANT AWARD 7,274
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Recycling program development implementation
grants (902)

• 90 percent funding of approved costs
• Project development
• Collection processing equipment
• Drop-off processing facilities
• Recycling education programs
• Pre-application conference required
• DEP Regional Recycling Coordinator
• Sharon Svitek [phone]
• Allegheny County Recycling Coordinator
• Pete Previte [phone]

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Free recycling technical assistance program

• Professional assistance with
• Curbside program design
• Leaf waste collection composting
• Pay-As-You-Throw (PAYT) programs
• Recycling education programs
• Up to 6,000 professional engineering
• One-page application
• Reports posted on DEP website http//www.dep.stat
  e.pa.us
• directLINK (recycling technical assistance)

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Recycling means business in PA

• Recycling/reuse establishments 3,247
• Recycling/reuse employment 81,322
• Annual sales receipts 18.4 billion
• Annual payroll 2.9 billion
• Taxes to general fund (est.) 0.3 billion
• Indirect benefits 1.8 billion
• Total 23.4 billion