Recycling Makes Cents for Florida

The state of recycling in Florida is like the proverbial glass of water. Depending on your point of view, it’s either half-empty or half-full.

On the half-full side, nearly every large city in the state has curbside pick-up, and Floridians are recycling more than 30% of their trash. On the half-empty side, St. Petersburg is the only large city in the state that requires its residents to deliver their recyclables to collection centers. But even that has a flip side — Pinellas is still ranked as among the top 20 counties for total recycling because its residents participate even if it isn’t convenient. “Pinellas is one of the most environmentally aware counties in the state,” notes Ron Henricks, environmental administrator for the waste reduction section of the Florida Department of Environmental Protection.

And yet another contradiction: In 2008, the legislature mandated that local governments recycle 75% of their solid waste by 2020 to minimize the need for landfills. Last year, however, it decided to count trash burned in waste-to-energy (WTE) plants as recycled material. Although WTE will boost recycling rates in Hillsborough from 42% to 67%, and from 32% to 59% in Pinellas, many people question whether burning trash is truly recycling even if it does produce energy.

“Florida is the only state in the nation that counts WTE as recycling,” Henricks adds. The environmental constraints of landfills, coupled with the natural aversion to locating them anywhere near peoples’ homes, have resulted in just one new landfill permitted in Florida over the last 10 years.

At the same time, global markets are recognizing the value of recycled materials. It takes significantly less energy to manufacture commodities like glass, aluminum, plastic bottles and paper from recycled materials than virgin materials — even before you begin to count the value of natural resources like trees, bauxite and petroleum.

That means that the price of recycled materials is rising. The cost of recycled plastic, for instance, doubled over the past few years as the price of petroleum skyrocketed. Glass is made from sand, but requires a lot of energy to manufacture. Paper and used electronic components can travel to China relatively inexpensively because the ships that deliver goods to American ports would otherwise return home empty. In fact, one expert has referred to US recycled paper as a “Chinese forest of sorts.”

In most cases, payment for recycled materials goes directly to the service provider, but that may change, at least in Hillsborough County where new bids for trash collection have been requested. Several innovative companies have set up shop here, in large part because of the international access offered through the Port of Tampa.

Easier Said Than Done

Across the state, meeting the 75% goal will be challenging within the current infrastructure. (See The Zero-Waste Project article for a detailed look at how kids counted every ounce they threw away.) Some is out of the hands of the average resident: construction debris, for instance, represents about 25% of total municipal trash but only about 27% is recycled. Schools are another biggie. Each student produces a half-pound of waste per day. If schools could recycle 75% of their waste, we’d achieve 6% of the statewide goal while the schools save money. Pasco earned nearly $70,000 from the sale of recycled materials in 2008, while saving $145,000 in landfill fees. Composting organic materials offers even greater savings — about $704 per 1,000 students, plus producing 1,300 25-pound bags of high-quality soil amendment that could be sold or used in community gardens.

Finally, the commercial sector– small business but not manufacturing or agriculture — generates about 67% of total municipal waste but only a few counties require commercial recycling. The highest overall recycling rate in the state has been earned by Sarasota County, where residents demanded commercial recycling beginning in 1991. Commercial customers pay collection costs but most save money because the recycling rate is now 53%.

“If I were king, I’d have two strategies to meet the (75% recycling) goal,” Henricks said. “First you need to address commercial accounts but then I’d make all cities set up Pay As You Throw (PAYT) programs.” Rather than picking up as much trash as a resident generates, trash pick-up is treated like a utility service and charged by the pound while collecting recyclable material is free. Gainesville, one of the few cities in Florida with a PAYT program, saw an 18% decrease in waste and 25% increase in recyclables its first year — plus a savings of nearly $200,000.

Bottle Bill is “Win-Win,” Says Lobbyist.

Big business and environmentalists aren’t always on the same side, but glassmaker Owens Illinois Corporation is leading the charge for a deposit on beverage containers in Florida. “It’s a win-win for everyone,” says lobbyist Phil Leary.

Beverage containers are the most common litter on Florida’s roads, parks and beaches. Aluminum and glass also are the most valuable recycled commodity and there is significant demand for those materials in the state. “Floridians use about 36 million beverage containers every day but only about 16% are recycled so the rest end up as litter or in landfills,” Leary said.

Owens Illinois currently imports recycled glass from other states because there isn’t enough recycled product available in Florida. “If we can use 50% recycled glass, we cut our energy use by 50% – and our carbon emissions by 50%,” Leary said. “That’s why our company has pledged to use 50% recycled glass in all batches by 2020.”

Beverage makers and retailers are fighting the deposit bill, although both groups could win if the legislation were passed, Leary said. “Making bottles is a competitive business so manufacturers would pass the cost savings on to their buyers. Retailers could set aside a few parking spots as collection centers, then return the deposit to customers as coupons to their stores.”

A University of Florida study published last year concludes that the impact on beverage consumption “is likely to be zero for all practical purposes.” Experience in other states indicates that deposits reduce beverage container litter up to 84% and total litter up to 65%.

Owens Illinois and Sierra Club are kicking off a grassroots effort to get a bottle deposit bill on the 2013 legislative agenda.