DEPARTMENT: Solid Waste Management Department
DEPARTMENT HEAD: David W. McCary
COUNCIL DISTRICTS IMPACTED: Citywide
SUBJECT:
Proposed Fee for Diapers in Recycling and Organics Carts
SUMMARY:
This ordinance would amend Chapter 14 of the City Code, Solid Waste, to establish a $50.00 contamination fee for customers placing diapers in the blue recycling and green organics carts. This new fee will not affect the current $25.00 contamination fee for general contamination in the blue recycling and green organics carts and will be administered utilizing the same process. The fee is estimated to generate approximately $3,700.00 in additional revenues annually within the Solid Waste Operating and Maintenance Fund.
BACKGROUND INFORMATION:
The City of San Antonio’s Recycling Program began with a pilot program in 1993, and went city-wide in 1995. Customers were provided manually collected 18-gallon green recycling bins. At that time, contamination (such as trash and other non-recyclable materials) was not an issue. Between 2007 and 2010, the City converted to an automated collection system and provided residents with a 96-gallon garbage cart and a 96-gallon recycling cart. As a result, recycling tonnages and contamination have increased. SWMD began an education campaign to ensure that residents knew how to recycle correctly.
While contamination was acknowledged in the recycling stream, the market was more forgiving and the revenues from the recyclable commodities were enough to cover the cost of processing contaminates out of the recycling stream. The market for the recyclable commodities was strong and recycling revenues were steady. Since 2013, the recycling commodity markets have seen a long-term, sustained depression. The industry has become much more sensitive to the quality of materials.
Today, the recycling market standard is demanding high quality commodities, so contaminated recycling is being rejected and sent to landfills. San Antonio’s contamination rate has always fluctuated; last year, contamination was as high as 28%. The Department implemented a strong program consisting of outreach and enforcement to address this issue; one piece of which is the current $25.00 contamination fee enacted by City Council in 2015. This fee is assessed by Route Inspectors who observe the contamination through audits of individual carts on the collection routes. Fees are issued to residents who, after being warned about the mistakes, continue to place major sources of contamination in their recycling carts, including diapers and trash.
This fee and the warnings that inspectors administer have been successful in reducing the overall contamination rate. The current contamination rate is approximately 18%, which is approaching our target goal of 15% contamination or less by the end of FY 2018.
Despite the dropping level of general contamination in our recycling stream, San Antonio has a particular problem with dirty diapers being placed into the blue recycling cart and the green organics cart. Diapers are not recyclable; they belong in the brown cart. Although diapers are a small part of the contamination stream in recycling, they are a significant burden to the City. First, dirty diapers are a health hazard to the workers that have to remove them by hand. Second, ReCommunity, the City’s recycling processor, charges the City approximately $1.2 million annually for the negative impact diapers have on their ability to process and sell materials. This does not include the additional cost of clean recycling materials destroyed by the diaper contamination, the lost recycling revenue, and the increased cost of sending the contaminated recycling materials to the landfill.
While the overall contamination rate is dropping, the pounds per hour of diapers processed are actually rising. In fact, diaper processing has increased from 53 lbs. per hour in August 2016 to over 11,700 lbs. per hour in February 2018.
The Department intends to build on the program success of the current $25.00 fee and proposes establishing a new $50.00 contamination fee specifically for diapers only placed into the blue recycling or green organics carts. This $50.00 fee will only be assessed after a resident has been warned and continues to place diapers into the blue recycling or green organics cart. Because of the contamination caused by the diapers, additional processing costs are incurred by the City. For example, a second collection truck is required to go out and collect the diaper-contaminated cart. This fee will help offset the additional processing costs, including the cost of the second truck, loss of recycling revenue, cost of landfilling the recyclables, and also offset some of the $1.2 million in additional fees charged by ReCommunity for processing diapers. The Department hopes by adding an additional fee of $50.00, residents’ awareness of the problem will increase, residents’ behavior will change, and the diaper contamination rate will significantly decrease. If a resident contaminates and has dirty diapers, they will receive the diaper fee of $50.00 only.
ISSUE:
The Solid Waste Management Department proposes to amend Chapter 14 of the City Code, Solid Waste, to establish a $50.00 contamination fee specifically for diapers placed into the blue recycling or green organics cart. The goal of this fee is to change the behavior of residents to stop placing diapers into the blue recycling and green organics carts, help offset the additional processing costs incurred by the City, and help offset the $1.2 million in additional fees charged by ReCommunity for processing diapers in the recycling stream.
SWMD will continue education on this fee through existing communications and outreach programs, including utilizing the current inspections teams and departmental marketing. Upon approval of this Ordinance, a letter will be sent to all customers explaining this fee. Stickers currently on the carts will be replaced with new stickers stating the $50.00 fee for diaper contamination.
ALTERNATIVES:
Should City Council not approve this ordinance, it is anticipated that the City will see no immediate or significant reduction in dirty diaper contamination in the recycling stream, and the additional processing costs to the City, both direct (payment to ReCommunity) and indirect (safety issues, requirement for a second garbage collection vehicle, loss of recycling revenue, additional cost to landfill), will only continue to increase.
FISCAL IMPACT:
Due to the anticipated change in behavior after the initial warning is received, the fiscal impact is expected to be minimal. The fee is estimated to generate approximately $3,700.00 in additional revenues annually within the Solid Waste Operating and Maintenance Fund.
RECOMMENDATION:
Staff recommends approval of this Ordinance amending Chapter 14 of the City Code, Solid Waste; to establish a $50.00 contamination fee within the Solid Waste Operating and Maintenance Fund, specifically for diapers placed in the blue recycling or green organics carts in order to offset additional costs caused by contamination by diapers and educate residents that diapers belong in the brown garbage cart.