Austin [TX] Recycling Program Has Not Brought in Expected Profits

In 2011, the Austin City Council hired two companies to handle materials. Austin Resource Recovery, headed by Bob Gedert, originally estimated an annual net income of $488,000 for the program. That estimate was based on projections of $5.25 million in annual revenue from the sale of recyclables against about $4.8 million in processing costs.

In the latest fiscal year, a review of city records shows Austin got a shade under $3 million for its recyclables, even as processing costs hovered around $4.8 million. The city lost $1.9 million last fiscal year and a $2.7 million in the two previous years as recyclable materials have fetched less on the open market than the cost to process them.

As long as commodity prices stay depressed the recycling programs will struggle for profitability and and even their existence.
However.....this isn't a typical liberal issue. Recycling our waste makes economic sense. Our throwaway culture is the problem. Sorry to sound like a lib....but big holes in the ground work as long as two criteria are met.
Ground is cheap and resources are plentiful.
Unfortunately, the problem of recycling waste is very complicated.
To study waste one really needs to look at all aspects of producing goods.
From the insane hamster wheel of MOAR is better reflected in cheap money used to leverage expansion of factories to increase market share and therefore return on investment to shareholders......look at China.
Why are recycling struggling operations struggling now? Greed in China and the investment culture worldwide have made resources so plentiful that the MOAR mantra is distorting the relatively stable value of commodities and goods in general.
Aaahhhhh...this is a good thing? Not in the long run...it is unsustainable.
Sorry to use a lib word from the fraudulent climate BS. Resources are finite in a finite world. Imagination and creativity are limitless. Dosen't make intuitive sense to figure out efficient ways to reuse materials rather than use a stupid hole in the ground. And one more thing. Tbe stupid hole in the ground is part of a process too. Starting with the pick up of trash in front of your nicely kept home.

When I think of the volume of material and the idea folks at these places make minimum wages it does seem odd to me that these centers can’t make money.

Yes, the bottom has dropped out of the metals markets. Doesn’t strike you as strange a $10.00 an hour employee couldn’t find enough metals to pay for his wages in a shift?

As for combustibles, it would seem enough energy could be generated to pay for a crew. We’re not talking about getting rich. We’re only talking about covering wages and a enough to pay for other overhead.

In the olden days, a recycling program meant you separated colored glass from clear glass, paper from plastic, placing each in a separate container.
Then the City would come, pick it all up and haul it all to the landfill. But think about how G O-O-O-D you felt!

FORCING people to recycle is Communism. I won’t do it. Try to enforce it with me and I’ll take my trash and burn it and dump it on the side of a road.

Not making me recycle, and I will throw it in the garbage can where it belongs.

If you can convert the waste to energy, use in our case to process our waste water then I have no problem separating cans and bottles.

In our case it is a net savings. If you don’t feel like doing it, that’s cool. You will pay more for town trash pick up.

This, in our case, is not some feel good BS. It works to keep my taxes reasonable.

Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.