Village board considers recycling options

WATKINS GLEN--The cost of recycling is going up.
Joe Gibson, owner of Cardinal Disposal and recycling contract provider for Watkins Glen, met recently with village officials and explained the reasons why recycling costs are increasing.
Gibson said China issued a recycling ban in January due to finding contaminated material. This ban is having implications for recycling across the United States.
Recyclers are now paying increased shipping and delivery costs for other secondary markets (countries like India and Korea) to accept the recycled material.
Watkins Glen Village Trustee Laurie Denardo said, "We are committed to recycling as a village, but we need to look at all options to avoid residents getting a tax increase." Denardo said the village pays $37,000 per year to handle recycling now and the new costs will raise that service to $54,000. Denardo said, "We are going to evaluate the entire process and decide the best application for our village. Currently, we pick up recycling material two times per month. Denardo said the village may have to look at something different.
Gibson said he takes his recycling material to Casella in Geneva. Casella has published a flyer during the month of May for customers to stay informed of the current recycling market conditions. Casella states the overall value of the traditional recycling stream has seen a reduction of 63 percent over the past 12 months. Casella also said the market value for mixed paper is down over 90 percent and rather than generating revenue from this material-recyclers now have to pay to get rid of it.
China has banned 24 types of material that were previously entering their country as recyclables.