Contract expands recycling options

Contract expands recycling options

By Beth Wade Friday, 10 April 2009

After more than two years of negotiations, the Williamson County Commissioners signed a new landfill contract with Waste Management March 3. Included in the contract is a directive for the company to take over operations of the Williamson County Landfill Recycle Center and implement new recycling programs. The center has been operated by Williamson County since opening in 2005.

“Right now we are working … to get everything lined up so we don’t have any interruptions in service,” said Steve Jacobs, landfill operations manager. “The hours at the recycle center will more closely match the landfill. We wanted to make certain that people coming in to use the landfill would have the availability of stopping and dropping off material at the recycle center.”

The contract requires Waste Management to take over the recycle center 90 days after signing the contract and also directs the company to complete a recycling master plan within one year of the contract’s effective date.

“[The plan] is intended to include additional types of recycling processes or facilities that would go out there, as well as a timeline for construction and installation of those facilities,” Jacobs said. “We are already starting to work at that internally to develop a plan as to what other recycling processes we can add, and we will be working with the county to get that approved.”

Waste Management and the commissioners will review the completed master plan every 24 months for changes dealing with new technology and the recycling market, said Ron Morrison, Williamson County precinct four commissioner.

Household Hazardous Waste

Since 2004 Williamson County has hosted two Household Hazardous Waste collection days that allow county residents to dispose of all HHW materials. The events take a lot of time to prepare and are expensive, said Pete Correa, precinct four executive assistant.

In the 2009 contract, the county has mandated that Waste Management spend up to $50,000 a year on HHW recycling and host a minimum of two free HHW collection events per year in the county.

The county will help with the cost of hosting collection events through matching funds or seeking grants if necessary, Morrison said. When those events will be has not been determined.

Jacobs said the company is looking at adding some HHW items, including different types of batteries, compact fluorescent light bulbs, some oil-based and latex paints to the list of items accepted daily at the landfill recycle center.

“Some of the things that we are looking at like the paints, the batteries and the light bulbs are currently being handled through HHW facilities or collection days, and what the commissioners wanted to do was to give the residents of the county a more permanent place where they could take this material in addition to [the two HHW collection events] when they could drop it off,” he said.

Whether or not there will be a fee for that service is still being considered.

“We are not certain whether all that will be free,” Jacobs said. “We are hoping to keep it as close to free as possible, but most of those [items] require another third party vendor to actually do the recycling. There might be a charge for some of that, but all that will be posted prior to us taking over operation of the facility.”

According to the contract, Williamson County will receive 6.5 percent of all gross receipts for recyclables received, 2.5 percent of proceeds from the sales of recyclables for the first $200,000 and 5 percent from sales over $200,000 during the first 10 years of the contract. After 11 years the county will receive 5 percent of gross receipts on all sales.

Other options

Just outside of Georgetown in Weir, the Williamson County Recycle Center, which despite its name is a privately run company, accepts HHW materials for a fee. The center opened in 2006 and is, currently, the only permanent drop-off location in the county for HHW.

The cities of Georgetown and Hutto participate in a voucher program through WCRC that allows citizens to bring HHW to the facility.

Vouchers are available to residential utility customers through the cities’ utility departments. Through the program, a city customer can take the voucher to WCRC with the HHW items to be disposed. Then WCRC will invoice the city the cost of disposal and provide an itemized receipt so the city can track what is taken to the disposal center.

The City of Hutto, through a $34,000 grant from the Capital Area Council of Governments, began a voucher program in mid-January and has issued 12 vouchers.

Hutto Customer Service Manager Roe Gawlik said she expects the program to pick up as residents become aware of it.

Hutto’s program pays 100 percent of the disposal costs for its utility customers.

The City of Georgetown began its voucher program in April 2008, and more than 200 vouchers have been redeemed since Oct. 1. Georgetown’s two-tier program covers 100 percent of the disposal costs for citizens living within the city limits and 50 percent for customers living outside the city limits.

Vouchers are required to be used within 30 days of issuance and can be requested every three months.

“This is much more convenient for our residential customers than having single-day collection events,” Georgetown Environmental Services Coordinator Rachel Osgood said.

The city has budgeted $22,000 in fiscal year 2009 for the program. A one-day event costs approximately $60,000, she said.

Other recyclable materials, including paper, plastics, metal products, magazines, phonebooks and appliances are also accepted at no charge.

“We decided that [to] give back to the community, because all businesses should give back, we were going to help people with their recyclables,” WCRC Chief Operating Officer Hugh Tidwell said.

The company’s primary business is HHW recycling and disposal, and 60 percent of its revenue comes from the collection of paints, he said.

Tidwell worries the county’s new contract could drive them out of business.

“If you take 60 percent of our business away from us, and we are a new company, you are going to significantly hurt us and possibly and very probably put us out of business,” said WCRC Chief Financial Officer Deann Tidwell.

Morrison and other commissioners said the court wanted to offer county residents additional options, including more locations for HHW disposal.

Williamson County recycling initiatives

Construction and demolition debris accounts for approximately 500 tons of garbage hauled to the landfill, but through a Waste Management program some of those materials are being reused and recycled. At the landfill a machine separates the materials, including metal, wood, concrete, brick and sheetrock. A pilot program at the landfill recycles asphalt shingles to create a product that can be used for new shingles or spray-on asphalt. Shingles make up approximately 100 tons of trash per day.

For more information, call 759-8881.

Williamson County Recycling Centers

• Hutto (Williamson County facility)
  • • 101 Landfill Road • 846-2756
    • Mon.- Fri. 8 a.m.-4 p.m.
    • Sat. 8 a.m.-noon
  • Accepted:
    • Used oil
    • Scrap metal (including tin cans)
    • Cardboard
    • Newspaper, phone books and magazines
    • Aluminum cans
    • Cell phones
    • E-Waste (computers, monitors, keyboards, mice, cables)
    • Plastic
    • Appliances (must have Freon removed)
  • Not accepted:
    • Wax-coated or foil-coated boxes such as ice cream cartons, frozen vegetable boxes and some pizza boxes
    • Diapers
    • Styrofoam
    • Paint
    • Glass including auto glass
    • Chemicals and pesticides
    • Televisions
    • Tires (although the landfill accepts these for recycling)

• Taylor (Williamson County facility)
  • • 900 S. Main St. • 365-2311
    • Mon.-Fri. 8-11 a.m.
  • Accepted:
    • Used oil
    • Cardboard
    • Scrap metal

• Georgetown Collection Station
  • • 250 W.L. Walden Drive
    • Mon.-Sat. 8 a.m-5 p.m.
    • 930-1715
    • Must provide photo ID and current City of Georgetown utility bill
  • Accepted:
    • Brush, yard waste
    • Tires
    • Refrigerators
    • Air conditioners
    • Batteries
    • Antifreeze
    • Oil, oil filters
    • Corrugated cardboard
  • Not accepted:
    • Paint/paint products
    • Hazardous waste

• City of Taylor Recycling Center
  • • 1424 N. Main St.
    • Sat. 8 a.m.-5 p.m.
  • Accepted:
    • Newspapers/magazines
    • Plastics
    • Aluminum cans
    • Tin cans
    • Glass
  • Not accepted:
    • Cardboard
    • Telephone books
    • Foil pie pans, siding, aerosol cans
    • Scrap metal
    • Car windshields

• Williamson County Recycle Center
  • • 495 CR 156, Georgetown
    • 869-7287 • www.pa-jer.com
    • Mon.-Wed. by appointment
    • Thu.-Fri. 8 a.m.-5 p.m.
    • Sat. 8 a.m.-noon
  • Accepted:
    • Paint
    • Yard chemicals
    • Aerosols
    • Gasoline
    • Poisons
    • Used oils
    • Antifreeze
    • Pool chemicals
    • Fertilizers
    • Paper, newspaper, magazines, phone books, books
    • Cardboard
    • Plastics
    • Metal, tin, aluminum, appliances (must have Freon removed)
  • Not accepted:
    • Brush
    • Explosives
    • Biohazard waste
    • Propane cylinders
    • Glass

Mayors’ coalition

After seeing participation in the Hutto curbside recycling program grow to 35 percent since beginning in 2007 and hearing of the success of other Williamson County cities’ programs, Hutto Mayor Pro Tem David Begier thought he could find a way to collaborate and brainstorm with the leaders of those communities.

Begier began the Williamson County Mayors Coalition for Recycling in October to look at recycling on a regional basis.

“There were a lot of different thoughts that went through my head with this,” Begier said. “With the Hutto recycling program, it just reminded me of when I was a very young child. Recycling at home was a no-brainer. We just automatically did it.”

The group meets once a month at various locations in Williamson County and includes city leaders from Cedar Park, Florence, Georgetown, Granger, Hutto, Jarrell, Leander, Liberty Hill, Pflugerville, Round Rock and Taylor, and Williamson County Precinct Four Commissioner Ron Morrison.

Begier said the group’s purpose is to determine what each city is currently doing and how they could help each other expand to offer more to their residents, including possibly trading recyclables between cities that accept different materials.

The goal is to create a regional approach to recycling that would let each city work together, he said.