-----Original Message----- From: John Lisenko [mailto:jlisenko@no.address] Sent: Monday, November 24, 2003 12:14 PM To: tcpw@no.address Subject: [Tcpw] FW: Cost of garbage vs. recycling for league of cities
Question: What is the cost of the collection and processing of recycling vs. garbage?
The City of Foster City is a member of a JPA that jointly owns it's own processing facilities for recyclable materials and the transfer of solid waste. Each member agency of the JPA has a contract with the franchised waste hauler for the operation of this facility and the collection of disposed materials within each of the Cities.
Our rate structure is set up so that the costs of all operations (for both recycling and garbage collection) are spread across the garbage bill. There are no additional fees charged for recycling. As we continue to add recycling programs to comply with the mandates of AB939, the operational costs to run these programs are increasing, and so are the garbage rates.
As we face having to increase the garbage rates to compensate for new recycling programs and the migration of current garbage accounts to recycling accounts, the question that continues to come up is how close are we to getting recycling to pay for itself? and what is the true cost from point of collection to end use for recycling vs. that of garbage?
For recyclables, we are talking about the cost of pick-up, sort and process, as well as all returns from recyclable markets. For garbage, the cost of pick-up and transfer to landfill.
Has anyone ever figured it out? (a cost per ton for each?) Or at least which is more costly and by what %?
Thanks for your input. Please respond to:
jlisenko@no.address
I will summarize and distribute whatever responses are received.
Thanks