By Reece Nations
City of Lubbock Recycling located at 208 Municipal Drive, 79403.
Although the community benefits of recycling solid waste are plentiful, city officials are still hesitant to fully commit to a costly expansion of curbside utility services.
Logistical constraints have long plagued recycling efforts throughout West Texas. Like Lubbock, the cities of Midland, Odessa, Amarillo and Abilene do not offer curbside recycling, according to the Lubbock Avalanche-Journal.
The largest underlying factor hindering curbside recycling is the cost: the City of Lubbock contracts Jarvis Metals to transport recycling materials like tin and aluminum to its buyers, according to the AJ. As previously reported by The Hub, the city stopped accepting glass at its drop-off locations after its glass pulverizer broke down in 2012.
City of Lubbock Recycling located at 6514 73rd Street, 79424.
“Recycling just isn’t cost efficient for anybody, unfortunately,” Lubbock Mayor Dan Pope told the AJ. “It’s like libraries and parks — you have to subsidize it. And one of the challenges we have is the geography, the distance, between us and the buyers.”
Other Lubbock officials, such as City Councilmembers Jeff Griffith and Latrelle Joy, have also gone on the record with AJ with similar concerns. Nick Nowicki, owner of Good Earth Recycling, said he is skeptical of this explanation, however.
“I think they were saying that their glass crusher was $150,000 to replace,” Nowicki said. “I mean, and I found glass crushers without even looking very hard that, you know, around $20,000 that can do the job that they do, and bring in way more glass we would ever be able to bring in.”
The main reason why cities like Lubbock only accept plastic types 1 and 2 at their satellite locations has everything to do with profitability, he said. Because both the city and companies like Nowicki’s rely on a network of private contractors to deliver and process the material, the value of that material as a commodity varies based on its reusability.
Oil recycling container located at 6514 73rd Street.
Even though the composition of plastics 1 and 2 do not vary drastically, their values as commodities do, Nowicki said. Plastics types 3 through 7 are not accepted at recycling plants because their resale value cannot justify the cost to process them.
“The commodity itself isn’t quite as valuable as some other items,” he said. “And these other items that have a higher value — they’re able to be recycled locally a little bit easier within that network of different recyclers that we have access to.”
While plastic types 1 and 2 are the most common, all plastic types are prevalent throughout a typical household, Brenda Haney, director of public waste services, said. Their subtle differences might be easier for some consumers to miss.
“(Plastics type 6) are always kind of a weird item and always have that polystyrene them — which is Styrofoam — which is a lot more difficult to recycle, generally speaking,” Haney said. “And (plastic types) three, four, five and seven are used not in mainstream products, but more specialized products and even those you’re starting to see less and less of them.”
Clothes recycling bun located at 4425 19th Street, 79407.
While recycling markets for these products exist, they are not as widespread as the markets for plastics 1 and 2, she said. Smart choices by consumers can help inhibit this disparity.
About 80% to 85% of everything that goes in a household could be recycled, Haney said. Packaged-food products, personal hygiene products, cleaning products, beauty products, clothes, and even some types of batteries can all be recycled locally.
“It also helps if we have a knowledgeable consumer that is thinking about the way they are purchasing items and being mindful,” she said. “So, I think it’s a combination of things — it also helps if we as a utility make readily available options that are well developed, meaning from the collection to the processing to the sale and repurposing.”
About Reece Nations, Managing Editor
