The City of Valley Center could drop curbside recycling service.
The council on July 17 learned that the city’s franchise trash and recycling hauler, Waste Management, wants a monthly fee increase to cover the cost of recycling, even though its contract with the city through 2020 doesn’t call for one.
Ammon Taylor with Waste Management said the recycling industry underwent a seismic shift when the world’s largest purchaser, China, put clamps on the purity level of the recycling it would accept and banned certain products altogether at the beginning of the year, increasing processing costs and decreasing revenue.
For example, Taylor said, the price recyclers got for a ton of mixed paper last year was $75. It dropped to 53 cents this year.
With crashing prices, Waste Management was forced to pay tipping fees for recycling, like it does for regular trash. Before a $90-per-ton fee was put into place in mid-June, Waste Management paid nothing to dump its recycling at a Waste Connections transfer station, because Waste Connections made money from the recycling it received. Not anymore.
To recoup the costs, Waste Management is asking the city to add $1.63 to each residential customer’s bill. Residents in Valley Center pay $15.25 per month for trash and recycling service.
(Read more: Valley Center Newswire)