Residential recycling will likely become slightly more expensive in Clark County.
Waste Connections, the company that handles garbage and recycling for much of Clark County, has requested that the county amend a contract that would allow it to charge extra for recycling. This will likely mean a new fee will be passed on to most Clark County households. The fee is meant to help a subsidiary of the company cope with the recent tumult in the world market for recyclable commodities.
At a Wednesday morning work session, the Clark County Council agreed to move forward with a change to the county’s contract with Columbia Resource Company, a subsidiary of Waste Connections, to allow the increase. Although the amount of the fee hasn’t been finalized, representatives of Waste Connections proposed an increase of $2.44 per household per month.
In recent years, China has enacted stringent contamination restrictions on imported recyclables. Because China is the world’s biggest market for recyclables, restrictions have dramatically impacted the world market and created new challenges for companies that collect and process them. Clark County has been no exception.
Jason Hudson, Waste Connections division vice president, told the council that to meet the contamination requirements imposed by China and other markets, the company has had to slow its processing facility to pull out non-recyclable contaminants, such as glass and plastic bags. He said part of the problem is that recycling has been touted as a less-expensive option to the public and there is often confusion about what can and cannot be recycled.
“People err on the side of throwing something into the recycling bin in order to do the best they can to reduce waste,” he said.
In July, Derek Ranta, Waste Connections’ district manager, sent a letter to Clark County explaining that the cost of processing recyclable materials had risen while revenues from their sale had decreased. According to the letter, a consulting firm hired by Columbia Resource Company found it was losing $85.63 per ton of recyclable material. The consulting firm also found that in the first quarter of this year, the company lost $870,579 by processing recyclable material.
‘The new baseline’
During the work session, Hudson said the company had lost about $4 million since last October.
“We’ve never seen anything like this and this has been pretty stable now for the last six, seven, eight months,” said Hudson. “So I think this is the new baseline.”
This isn’t unique to Waste Connections, he said, adding that the cost needs to be passed along to customers as other jurisdictions have done. He presented figures showing that Portland and its adjacent jurisdictions had increased residents’ monthly recycling bills by amounts ranging from $2 to $2.65. Washington’s Pierce and Snohomish counties have added $4 and $5 respectively to their residents’ bills.
The council was presented with the option of increasing the rate for garbage disposal. But councilors opted for the increased fee for recycling partially out of the shorter timeline to implement it. A timeline for the increase was not mentioned during the meeting. The council also agreed it should appear as a separate line on bills as a way of informing residents of the situation.
Under the contract, Waste Connections can increase rates to keep up with rises in the consumer price index. The last major change to rates was in 2009. Councilor Jeanne Stewart raised concerns about the increase.
“I think we’re buying a lot of bad will with that big of a rate increase,” said Stewart. She asked for more detailed data that will be presented to the council next month before it takes action at a public hearing scheduled for Dec. 18.
