WHY ARE WE THROWING MONEY INTO OUR LANDFILL? – PART 2

Last month’s article introduced you to the Georgia Department of Community Affairs’ Solid Waste Characterization Study. Now let’s look more closely at just what that study has told us about what we here in Rome and Floyd County are actually throwing away.

The recyclables that are being thrown into Walker Mountain Landfill are divided into 7 major material groups. The group that has the largest percentage of good recyclables being thrown away is the paper group at 34.6%, which equals 97,854 tons. Of those tons, 33,554 is paper that is non recyclable – things like tissue paper, napkins, paper towels, paper plates and other paper that has been contaminated with fluids or food. That leaves 64,300 tons of recyclable paper being sent to the landfill instead of being put into some sort of recycling program.

Now – let’s see just what kind of paper makes up these 64,300 tons. Newspaper is tops on the list at 17,488 tons. That is over 34 MILLION pounds of newspaper being thrown into the landfill annually. Since it cost approximately $ 30 per ton to throw anything away at Walker Mountain during the study time frame, someone paid over $500,00 to dispose of this highly recyclable commodity. Who paid? All of us actually – either through user fees in the City (on your water bill) or the solid waste tax on homeowners tax bill in the County. But that is only half the financial story. If that newspaper had been diverted from the waste stream into a recycling program it could have generated over $ 1,500,000 in revenues for our community by getting it to a paper mill paying an average of $90 per ton for that paper. By comparison, the Rome/Floyd Recycling Center shipped out just over 111 tons (222,000 pounds) of newspaper during 2005 and generated just over $100,000 in revenues on that paper.

The second largest category of paper being thrown away is corrugated cardboard at 12,949 tons. That is almost 26 MILLION pounds of corrugated. This category is defined as shipping boxes with a corrugated paper medium (the layer of waffle between two layers of flat paperboard). This category does not include things like cereal box type paperboard. Looking at the same tipping fees and potential revenues, we paid about $414,000 to throw that corrugated paper away and missed out on $ 1,270,000 in revenues. The Recycling Center shipped out 90 tons (180,000 pounds) of corrugated cardboard and generated $ 145,000 in revenues.

Next month we will look at the rest of the paper categories that are being thrown away in detail – office paper, magazines, paperboard boxes and mixed paper like junk mail. Until then, I hope that this information will give us a new perspective on our recycling efforts in Rome and Floyd County and encourage more people to participate in one of our many recycling programs.