[greenyes] RE:the cost of municipal curbside recycling

["Reindl, John" <Reindl@no.address>]

Hi Frank ~
 
At least in some cases, adding recycling can result in an overall reduction
in program costs.
 
As part of a Federal lawsuit in 1998, we looked at the cost of the City of
Madison's solid waste management costs to estimate the financial impact of a
mandatory recycling program.
 
Using a base of 1990 -- before the comprehensive recycling program started
-- we estimated what the city's solid waste costs would have been in 1996 if
recycling had not been instituted and then compared that with the actual
costs that the community was incurring. 
 
The result was that the total system costs with mandatory curbside recycling
and yard materials composting were 6% below what we estimated that the total
system costs would have been without these components. About 50% of the
generated material is recovered in the city's program. 
 
Is this the type of data that you are looking for, or are you looking for
the allocated cost per unit for curbside recycling? If it is the latter, in
the city of Madison, with a population of about 210,000, in 2003, the
allocated cost per unit was approximately $30.00 for the year. This includes
collection and processing and a rebate of 80% of the market price from the
sale of recyclables. 
 
John Reindl, Recycling Manager
Dane County, Wisconsin 
 

 -----Original Message-----
From: RicAnthony@no.address [mailto:RicAnthony@no.address]
Sent: Saturday, April 09, 2005 8:03 PM
To: greenyes@no.address
Subject: [greenyes] Question from the GRRN website



Forwarded Message: 


Subj:	 	
Date:	 4/7/2005 8:57:13 AM Pacific Daylight Time	
From:	 frankmazur@no.address <mailto:frankmazur@no.address> 	
To:	 GRRN  <mailto:o@no.address> 	
	

Can someone provide me a sample of what it costs communities to recycle on a
per capita basis and what percent of their trash is recycled?  Is there any
national averages or benchmarks that can be used to measure the cost
effectiveness of these programs in our communities or states?