Syracuse, N.Y. – The Onondaga County Resource Recovery Agency has agreed to pay the local privately owned recycling facility up to 23% more to process paper, plastic and other recyclable materials that residents set out in their blue bins.
The higher cost is not being passed onto residential customers for now. But it might be in the future if the prices for recycled materials don’t improve, OCRRA officials said.
The agency recently signed a new four-year contract with Waste Management’s Recycle America, agreeing to pay the Liverpool facility $85 a ton to process recycled materials picked up from local households. That’s up from $69 a ton last year.
The higher cost stems in large part from “millions of dollars’' in capital investments Recycle America has made over the past 18 months or so to improve efficiency, said Kristen Lawton, director of recycling and reduction at OCRRA
The fee Recycle America charges OCRRA is reduced by whatever selling the materials yields in revenue. The upgrades will improve the quality of materials coming out of the facility, which should mean higher prices.
For now, prices remain low. OCRRA is eating the higher processing fee this year rather than pass it onto to residents, but will reevaluate next year, Lawton said.
OCRRA first began charging for residential recycling in 2021, after providing the service without charge for decades. The agency collects $34 per ton from municipalities and haulers that pick up residential recycling.
Commercial building owners – whose recycling is not handled by OCRRA -- may get hit with higher recycling fees soon. Recycle America this month increased its month-to-month tipping fees for commercial recycling to nearly $90 a ton, one hauler said. That’s up from as little as zero a year ago.
Rod Brand, owner of Brand Trucking Inc., said his tipping fee more than doubled to $87 per ton in January. Last spring, the fee was near zero. Haulers now pay nearly as much to drop off mixed recyclables as the $100 a ton they pay to dump garbage at the county incinerator in Jamesville.
“I couldn’t believe it,’’ Brand said.
Brand said he has not passed the higher cost on to his customers yet, but he probably will soon. He said he wants customers to know about the higher tipping fees so they don’t blame waste haulers if their prices go up.
One cause of the higher fees is a sluggish market for recycled materials, said Chris Lucarelle, area director of recycling operations for Recycle America. Recycled cardboard that sold for $165 a ton last May, for example, now brings just $35 a ton, Lucarelle said.
The less Recycle America can earn from selling recovered materials, the more it charges OCRRA and the haulers, he said. The recycling industry took a big hit several years ago when China cut back on its purchases. But the market could come back, Lucarelle said.
If governments and corporations demand more use of recycled materials in new products, the prices for plastic and other recycled materials will rise, he said.
“We need to use more recycled content and that’ll drive up the value of commodities,’’ he said.
Another thing that could increase the value of recycled material is to remove impurities, Lawton said. Every time someone sets out their bottles and cans inside a plastic bag – which is not recyclable – the materials get contaminated and can’t be sold, or they sell for a lower price, Lawton said.
“The single most important thing I think residents can do is to re-familiarize themselves with what belongs in the recycling bin.’’ she said.
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