(BLAINE) – The City of Blaine and Walters Recycling & Refuse are about halfway through the company’s current contract to provide curbside garbage and recycling pick-up for residents. According to city staff, that agreement allows opportunities to re-open contract negotiations given a number of factors.
Walters President and CEO Mike Moroz spoke to city leaders at a city council workshop last week about the challenges facing the company, including the pending closure of the Great River Energy garbage incinerator in Elk River and what many call the global collapse of the recycling market.
“(Walters’) service, overall, for us has been fantastic,” said Roark Haver, city recycling coordinator. “We haven’t had any of these kinds of issues that are resident-driven to work out.”
But Haver said the conversation was the perfect time for both sides to update each other about how to best move forward given the challenges facing the refuse industry.
“Most people just aren’t informed about what’s happening because it’s happening so fast,” said Moroz, referring to the challenges in the global recycling market. He said the biggest—and most abrupt—change came this March when China stopped accepting recycling goods from other countries. He said the U.S. had sent about 30 percent of its recycled materials to China, and as much as 50 percent of the world’s recycled goods ended up there.
Moroz also notes that continued contamination of recycled goods is pushing costs for collection higher and higher. Contamination is often due to items that customers put in recycling bins that are actually not recyclable. It means an entire bin’s worth of items has to be discarded.
“It’s slowing down the processing facilities as they’re trying to sort out garbage,” said Moroz. “Costs are going up dramatically, and by extension, we have to raise our prices.”
Prices for customers in Blaine haven’t risen yet, and Haver said the city and Walters are working together to educate customers about cleaner recycling practices in an effort to ward off any changes in service or fees.
According to city staff, customers should remember the following items are all allowed in recycling bins:
- Plastic containers
- Plastic bottles
- Newsprint
- Paper mailings
- Phonebooks
- Corrugated card board
- Metal cans
- Metal (food) containers
- Glass bottles
- Glass (food) containers
Otherwise, if customers are unsure if something is recyclable or not, the city and waste industry leaders nationwide have adopted a new slogan.
“When it doubt, throw it out,” said Haver.
Moroz said there could be a situation in the future that refuse companies like Walters may have to adjust which items they’re willing to collect from curbsides in order to cut down on the high cost and inefficiency of contaminated loads.
“We’re all trying to send the same message, Metro-wide,” said Haver. “Let’s have the cleanest stream possible.”
Haver encourages anyone with questions to contact him at Blaine City Hall at (763) 785-6192 or on e-mail at rhaver@blainemn.gov.
