DEPARTMENT: Solid Waste Management Department
DEPARTMENT HEAD: David W. McCary
COUNCIL DISTRICTS IMPACTED: City-wide
SUBJECT:
Recycling Update and Proposed Fee for Diapers in Recycling and Organics Carts
SUMMARY:
The recycling market has shifted from a volume driven low quality standard commodities to a high quality standard requiring greater restrictions and controls to sell recyclables on the open market. The higher quality standards are impacting the recycling industry and present the need for SWMD to propose a $50 contamination fee for diapers placed in the recycling or organics carts.
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 increased and SWMD began an education campaign to ensure that residents knew how to recycle correctly.
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. Currently the contamination rate is approximately 18%, which is approaching out target goal of 15% contamination or less.
Out of all of the contaminants, San Antonio has a particular problem with dirty diapers being placed into the recycling 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 significant. First, dirty diap...
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