The Price of Low Cost

A recent blurb in the Business Weekly Section of the Journal mentioned the potential for a “trash collection fee” increase. Mayor Berry says: “The Solid Waste Mgt. Dept. isn’t collecting enough in fees to cover the cost of operations.” Alb. Journal, 12/26/09

Soilutions is glad the new administration is addressing the issue. We are direct competitors for green waste diversion with City and County solid waste departments. We have been fretting over the low tipping fees at the transfer stations (the most accessible option for residents) since before our incorporation. As a privately owned and operated business, we know what it cost to operate a solid waste facility and just can’t reconcile their fees with what we are pretty sure to be their costs. The low tipping fees directly retard the growth of the recycling industry in New Mexico.

According to the 2009 NM Solid Waste Annual Report, NM currently has a recycling rate of 12.4%, well below the 33% national average. According to Wasteage.com, the south central region of the United States (of which NM is a part) also ranks in the lowest in national tipping fee averages at just $23.28/ton (compare to the mid-Atlantic area at $69.07/ton). Because of the perceived abundance of wide open space, it is just cheaper to throw stuff in a hole here. Curbside pickup of residential trash is deemed a right of citizenship and maybe it is. It certainly helps to keep properties clean and safe. It also makes it easy to throw increasingly valuable recyclables away.

There are many ways to avoid raising residential trash service fees: pay as you throw programs, decreased frequency, and increased recycling pick-up to name a few. While an increase of the cost of residential trash service may be difficult to push through in these economic times, an alternative to recouping some of the solid waste department’s costs would be to increase the fees at transfer stations. Transfer stations typically are used by those with more trash than can be carried in a residential cart. Increasing fees at the transfer stations would only impact heavy generators. People not willing to pay the increase would be forced to seek other options. One option is to divert waste (over 70% of what goes into NM landfills is recyclable; at LEAST 35% is organic material). Diverting waste simply means sorting it such that items will go where they can be appropriately managed. This is by far the most environmentally (and thus patriotic) viable option.

Increased fees at the transfer stations will not increase illegal dumping as is generally argued. We already have unbearably low fees in our state and still see illegal dumping everywhere. Illegal dumping is one of those things that just occur. People who dump illegally do so because of ignorance, laziness, or I don’t know what. For example, Soilutions doesn’t charge to receive clean horse manure. Nonetheless, I see trailer loads of it dumped on the side of roads all the time. But by the same token, those that responsibly dispose of waste will do so at any cost. When Soilutions raises our recycling tip fees, we hear some grumbling but when informed why the rates increased, those people accept it. As with most things, education and communication are essential to proper decision making.

Illegal dumping is unsightly, dangerous, and expensive. Solid waste departments could allocate part of the increased revenue to illegal dumping clean-up. Transfer stations that purportedly separate green waste from municipal solid waste (MSW) do not, in fact. A landfill operator once told me that they take green waste for free but don’t have the money to manage it so it sits around and gets contaminated. Increased fees would allow for the extra time and money needed to properly reclaim and manage green waste received at these facilities. Increased tip fees would allow landfills and solid waste departments to generate enough money to establish mandated funds for proper closure, to remediate non-compliance violations, construct landfill cells properly, monitor the facility throughout its lifetime, and for further corrective activities.

Increases in tipping fees nation-wide have proven time and again to be beneficial to recycling programs. According to EPA.gov, high tip fees along with a properly managed recycling program actually reduce illegal dumping. And so, I would suggest to Mayor Berry that a raise in fees for curbside pick-up may not be the answer at this time. Rather, a fee increase at the transfer stations and landfills, where clients are high volume users, would not only generate the income needed to finance curbside pick-up, but also strengthen the recycling environment in New Mexico.

Now if we could just get them to sell their finished material at a profit, we’d be making strides forward.

How to figure a good carbon: nitrogen ratio

Here's a good site to help determine a good ratio for backyard composting.

http://www.mastercomposter.com/ref/calcc_n.html

Winter Innovation

We all slow down when Winter starts to set in. For me, it coincides with the time change. Without much sunlight to work with, but with the same amount of time, I find myself lying in bed a little longer to listen to my wife breathe gently, sitting a little longer over my second cup of coffee in front of the fire, or taking a little longer way to work.

When the crew shows up to work, a little later each week, we chat more about family and kids rather than the work day ahead. The slowness of it all was a welcome relief from the hectic asses-and-elbows mentality of early Spring. But this year is different; it is different for all of us. At Soilutions, we sit in the office and wonder, sometimes aloud, whether this is the year that breaks us. Did we do enough when times were better? True, each winter is tight but we have always had a nest egg from the Spring that, if budgeted properly, would get us through until the phones ring again in late March. We are grateful to the regulars, but they too are worried.

This year is different.

But what I am trying to get to, what the title of this entry alludes to, is that we haven't given up. We have always been a small, diverse group, too smart to take it sitting down. Several years ago we forged an unheard-of agreement with a local government to divert greenwaste from the landfills. We started the Pecan Shell Mulch craze 10 years ago; they used to pay to haul this stuff to the landfill. We were instrumental in getting the construction lumber recycling industry up and running in NM. Then we invented a program that collects foodwaste from local restaurants and hotels. This year we partnered loosely with a company that make wattles, or mulch socks, and services the NMDOT to help mitigate soil erosion on the side of our roads. In short, we have invented, time and again, necessary markets for organics diversion and re-use in NM.

In this dire economic crisis, we feel that we have come through once again. For the first time we are offering a mulch marketed as much for its price as its usefulness. We call it Blower Mulch because it was made originally for use by the large commercial blower trucks that spread thousands of cubic years at a time on hillsides and roadside. It is made of recycled construction lumber, namely dimensional lumber (2x4, 2x6, etc), pallets, crates, and plywood. It is not approved for use on certified organic gardens like our flagship material Premium Compost and other products. We process Blower Mulch much the same way we process many of our products: grind it to 2" and then screen it to 1/2"-1". It's a nice blond material, from a completely renewable resource, economical, and quite useful.


So where's the innovation? Well, granted it isn't on the same scale as starting the only Foodwaste Collection Service in the state, but it is innovative in several ways. Blower Mulch allows LEED construction companies to "close the loop" by using this mulch on it's finished landscapes. It represents a variation on our standard ideology of processing products as little as possible. It forces our customers to look at a product with an open mind; you are not going to find this mulch in the box stores. We have always had the most expensive product on the market; now we beat all private producers' prices for a comparable product.

So come on down and take a free sample home with you.

Finish mulching that 1/2 acre you're tired of weeding but couldn't afford to deal with properly. It's selling for $11/yd3 for the time being until we can all get back on our collective feet again.

Hope to see you soon.

Recycling in New Mexico

It's difficult being in the recycling business in New Mexico. We often feel 30 years behind everyone else. We hear of $70-150 landfill tip fees on the coasts; ours is $3.85/cubic yard residential. California has goals to reduce waste going to landfills by %75 by 2010 but we as a state have a 12% recycling rate. We read of innovative uses for carpet, tires, glass in other parts of the country while it seems the only use in New Mexico for these types of materials is to line the sides of roads and ditches. There IS a lot of local enthusiasm for the "green movement", for recycling, etc. just not a lot of will shown by our lawmakers.

However, in the latest issue of BioCycle, there is an article about a yard waste recycling and composting facility in Kansas City, Missouri. I have roots in KC going back all of my 42 years and then some. One thing that always startled me on visits to the area was a skepticism toward recycling. I have a cousin who actually asked me "why should I recycle." When an Uncle from the area heard I was in this business, he turned me on to Missouri Organic Recycling (MOR); his friend started it years ago with his dad, or some such. Last time I was out there, I dragged my parents out to their (MOR) facility. I might just be the only person who visits dumps on their vacation. Anyway, I haven't felt so at home. With the exception of standing water, the facility looks very similar to ours.

Now back to the article in BioCyle. On the cover is a picture of food waste that looks very similar to large loads of food waste we get here on a regular basis. When I opened the magazine to the article, sure enough, MOR was the featured facility. Change the name from MOR to Soilutions, and ignore all the stuff about the state and all sorts of agencies throwing money at them from both sides to get the food waste collection program running,the article could be about Soilutions. They have the same challenges, the same goals, the same successes. MOR is just 10 years ahead of Soilutions.
So it gives me hope to see that we at Soilutions are developing innovative programs that, while they may not be avant-garde in relation to the rest of the world, they are on the right track to be on a par with the heavy hitting composters of the country.