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RECYCLING IN DELAWARE

Paul Wilkinson, Chairman, Recycling Public Advisory Council

Presented to UHELP and League of Women Voters

October 23, 2003

The Recycling Public Advisory Council was established by Executive Order 82 signed by Gov. Carper in the year 2000.  There are nine members on the Council representing the various stakeholders in trash collecting and recycling.  We are responsible for advising DSWA and DNREC on matters pertaining to recycling.  Our goal is to achieve a 30% rate of diversion of recyclables from the Residential Solid Waste (RSW) stream.  Note I said residential.  The Municipal Solid Waste (MSW) stream comes from both residential and commercial sources.  Currently, we have a goal for only the residential sector.

The Council also has a responsibility to work with DNREC to issue grants for work on recycling.  We are limited, however, to $50,000 per year.  We have had some good results from these grants.  For example, if you have been on the beach at Rehoboth in the past two years, you may have noticed recycle bins set up under the grant program.  This effort has returned several thousand dollars to the city from the sale of aluminum cans.  The grant program also helped get a curbside program going in Delaware City.  About 300 people are in this program.  It seems to be working well and is growing.

Delaware generates 700,000 - 800,000 tons of Municipal Solid Waste each year.  Sixty percent of the waste comes from our households and yards.  The rest is created by the commercial sector.  We are recycling about 23% of the MSW, or about 180,000 tons/year.  The number you have been hearing frequently is 13% recycling.  That is the level of the residential recycling.  The commercial sector is doing much better at about 40% recycling.  If you want to compare DE to the other states, use the 23% number.  However, even that falls short of the 35-38% recycling that neighboring states achieve.

It is obvious that we have a lot to do if we are to meet the goal.  For RSW, we are at 13% and our goal is 30%.  So how can we get from here to there?

First, we need to establish curbside recycling for the products we are currently taking to the DSWA “Recycle Delaware” drop-off centers.  The DSWA program is an excellent drop-off program, but it is getting us only about a third of the recyclables we could get by a good curbside program.

Second, we need to collect and compost yard waste from both residents and business.  We are collecting only about 5% of this material at this time.

Let’s discuss yard waste first.  Many people do not recognize yard waste composting as a part of recycling, but it is.  In fact, yardwaste makes up 12-15% of the MSW.  That is 100,000 tons/year.  Only recyclable paper, at 230,000 tons/year, exceeds yard waste – and that includes all of the paper, not just what comes from households.  The amount of yard waste generated by homeowners exceeds the quantity of paper generated by homeowners.  So it is obvious that we must remove the yard waste from the trash if we are going to achieve our goal and reduce landfill material.

There have been many discussions about ways to reduce yard trimmings.  One is to encourage the use of mulching mowers and backyard composting.  We are pushing this concept with compost demonstration sites in state parks and Master Gardener education programs.  Data suggest that the homeowners manage, through composting, mulching, and grasscycling, about 40% of the yard waste that is created.  (We refer to this as source reduction.)  That is 40,000 tons, so we are contributing.  Several of the incorporated towns collect material from their residents, compost it, and give the material back.  Newark has the largest program, recovering about 2000 tons a year.  Even so, over 80,000 tons of yard waste is probably finding its way to the landfills of the state.  In order to start the ball rolling on collecting and composting this material, the RPAC has sent a letter to Secretary Hughes asking DNREC to ban the disposal of these materials from the state landfills by April 1, 2005.  This could keep more than 50,000 tons of material out of the landfills.

A common complaint from people moving into Delaware is that we do not have curbside recycling.  If the 30% goal for residential recycling is to be achieved, curbside recycling in New Castle County is a must.  Since cost is a vital factor in any decision on starting a curbside program, the RPAC commissioned a study of curbside recycling in NCC to determine the cost to the residents under a variety of collection systems.  The report showed:

·        A single-stream Materials Recovery Facility (MRF) is needed for low-cost collection of recyclables.  In fact, this is what I call the gateway to efficient, economical curbside recycling.  (“Single stream” means that the residents put all of their recyclables into one container and place it at the curb for collection.  The recyclables get separated at the MRF.)

·        Current collections in New Castle County by Recycle Delaware have a recovery rate of about 6%.

·        Curbside collection costs would range from about $5 per month for subscription collection (your hauler would collect and bill you) to $3 per month for weekly organized collection such as provided for trash in many incorporated areas.  As you might expect, the recycling rate also varies – from 8% for subscription service to 19% for organized collection.

·        Organized collection of both trash and recyclables in the unincorporated areas could be accomplished at little or no cost above what residents currently pay for trash collection alone.  There is a difference of $4 per month between the organized collection in Wilmington and the open collection in the unincorporated areas.

·        Grasscycling (leaving grass cuttings on the lawn) could keep as much as 30,000 tons out of the landfills at no cost.  Mulching mowers make this practical and effective.

·        Curbside recycling combined with composting of yard waste could keep 75,000 tons out of the Cherry Island landfill each year.  This is 28% of the residential solid waste from New Castle County.

We know that recycling and composting on a large scale will require legislation.  Also, effective, low-cost recycling would require a change in trash collection.  Legislation has not been forthcoming in the past, but the circumstances are different now.  These changes can be put in place if the people of NCC wish it to be done.