Recycling conundrum: Santek took recyclables to landfill amid rising costs, contamination
Bluff Park resident Robin Schultz tries to be sensitive to the environment by separating items that can be recycled from his household garbage and putting them out on the curb to be picked up by Santek each Wednesday.
But he was disturbed to find out that not all the trucks that pick up items from Hoover residents’ recycling bins each Wednesday were actually making it to the recycling center in Birmingham.
Upon inquiring, Schultz learned that the number of Santek trucks taking loads to the Birmingham Recycling and Recovery center dropped from an average of 59 a month in 2017 to 38 a month in 2018 and 24 a month in the first half of 2019, dropping to only 10 trucks from Hoover in June of this year.
At the same time, the number of trucks picking up items from Hoover residents’ recycling carts had increased, so there should have been more loads going to the recycling center instead of fewer, Schultz said.
So the question was: What was happening with those items people were trying to recycle? The answer: They were going to the landfill instead.
People for years have made accusations that Santek workers on occasion were dumping items from recycling bins and items from garbage bins in the same truck.
Sam Dillender, the former general manager for Santek in Alabama, in years past told the Hoover City Council that sometimes his work crews were indeed dumping both cans in the same truck, but only because the recycling bins were “contaminated” with things the recycling center can’t take.
Dillender told the council that Santek would begin leaving the contaminated loads on the curb, with notes to explain to residents why the recycling load could not be accepted. Or in some cases, they would just put the contaminated loads in with the garbage going to the landfill.
RECYCLING TRUCKS AT LANDFILL
But records from the recycling center indicate that even many of the recycling loads that were picked up by Santek weren’t making it to the recycling center.
The volume of materials Santek took to the recycling center from Hoover fell from an average of 289 tons per month in 2017 to 201 tons per month in 2018 and 124 tons per month for the first six months of 2019, according to Birmingham Recycling and Recovery records. The decline began in April 2018 and got as low as 47 tons in June 2019, records show.
Santek provided the city with slightly higher numbers, saying that perhaps Birmingham Recycling and Recovery miscounted some of its trucks from Hoover as being from other cities. But even Santek’s numbers showed an average of 170 tons per month for the first six months of 2019, which is a 15% decline from the recycling center’s 2018 count and 41% decline from the recycling center’s 2017 count.
Schultz said it was disappointing to find out that the time he and others had spent sorting out recyclables may have been for naught.
“Those of us who actually go to the trouble of recycling — of separating all our things — would like to not have our things end up in the wrong place,” he said.
The city of Hoover paid Santek $7.6 million this past fiscal year, city records show. “We should expect them to do the job we’re paying them for,” Schultz said. “We should hold them accountable.”
Efforts to reach Santek officials about the missing loads were unsuccessful.
The company appeared to be in violation of its contract with the city. When Santek bid on the job, bid specifications specifically stated that “recyclables will not be taken to any landfill under any circumstances.” The city even has the right to fine Santek for contract violations.
CHANGING MARKET
But Hoover City Administrator Allan Rice said city officials want to be reasonable. The global market for recyclable materials has changed dramatically since the contract with Santek was drawn up, he said.
China, which according to the Washington Post was for decades the world’s largest importer of waste paper, used plastic and scrap metal, in 2018 stopped accepting certain kinds of recyclables and significantly tightened the acceptable level of impurities.
This caused havoc in the recycling industry and has pushed recycling companies in the United States to dramatically change their pricing structure.
In years past, Birmingham Recycling and Recovery paid trash haulers to bring recyclables to the center. In 2011, trash haulers were paid $55 per ton. That worked its way down to $5 per ton in June 2013, and in September 2015, Birmingham Recycling and Recovery began charging to accept the materials instead of offering rebates.
At first, the fee was $15 per ton. Then in March 2018, when China’s new rules took effect, it went to $30 per ton, and in mid-October of this year, the fee climbed to $65 per ton.
Birmingham Recycling and Recovery also started charging trash haulers even more for contaminated loads. When a truck arrives at the recycling center, a worker assesses how much of the load is contaminated, and the trash hauler must pay an extra $50 per ton for that portion of the load to cover disposal costs, said Chris Bartlett, general manager for Birmingham Recycling and Recovery.
“The market has just continued to be decimated, and we couldn’t afford to absorb losses anymore,” Bartlett said.
These price increases have left trash haulers such as Santek in a bind, Rice said.
It appears Santek decided it was less expensive to take contaminated loads straight to the landfill, which it manages, than to pay the recycling center more for a contaminated load.
While the city of Hoover is not OK with Santek not fulfilling the terms of its contract — to take all recyclables to the recycling center — the city also understands the current contract needs to be revisited due to the realities of the changing recycling marketplace.
Yes, the city could fine Santek, but the city wants to be reasonable, Rice said.
Since Schultz raised the issue of trucks not going to the recycling center in early August, the numbers have rebounded. The number of recycling trucks from Hoover making it to the recycling center climbed from 10 in June to 24 in July, 57 in August, 47 in September and 53 in October, according to the recycling center. The volume of materials went from 47 tons in June to 113 tons in July, 273 tons in August, 217 tons in September and 248 tons in October.
CONTAMINATION CHALLENGE
However, there has still been a significant problem with contamination, Bartlett said. People either don’t understand what items are recyclable now, or they are not being careful enough when they load their recycling bins.
On average in recent months, about 37% of the materials that Hoover residents send to the recycling center cannot be recycled there. That material ends up going to the landfill, and costs more to process.
Those costs will eventually be passed back to the cities that contract with the trash haulers, so several cities in the Birmingham area — including Hoover, Homewood, Mountain Brook, Mulga, Tarrant and Vestavia Hills, — have entered a contest to see which city can lower its recycling contamination rate the most by the end of April.
When averages were figured, the contamination rate was 37% in Hoover and Mountain Brook and 32% percent in Homewood and Vestavia Hills, Hoover Councilman Casey Middlebrooks said. The industry average is 25%, so council members want to reach, if not get below, that benchmark.
The contest was put together by a group of council members from over-the-mountain cities that have been meeting on various issues. The council representatives who lose the contest have agreed to make a contribution to a charity selected by the council member from the winning city.
Vestavia Hills Councilwoman Kimberly Cook said it’s a matter of being environmentally responsible, but also a matter of saving money.
Homewood Councilwoman Jennifer Andress said she believes people want to recycle correctly. “They just need to know how.”
One of the biggest changes people need to make is to stop putting recyclables in bags, she said. Those bags and whatever is in them will just wind up in the landfill because the recycling center can’t take bags, said Leigh Shaffer, sales manager for Birmingham Recycling and Recovery.
Items accepted include any paper, steel cans, aluminum cans, tin cans and plastics with a No. 1 or No. 2 in the recycling triangle on the item.
However, Birmingham Recycling and Recovery cannot accept No. 1 plastic cups or any black plastics, Shaffer said.
Other items not accepted include glass, polystyrene foam (such as food takeout containers), cardboard milk and juice containers (because they have a wax coating), straws, anything with food residue (including pizza boxes), and other items such as garden hoses, rope and rubber balls.
Bartlett said the joint effort by the municipalities to reduce contamination is amazing. “I have no doubt we’re going to get this thing fixed,” he said.
Meanwhile, Hoover officials also are evaluating whether they want to continue paying a trash hauler to handle garbage and recycling or start providing the service with city employees.
Rice said initial indications are that the city could achieve some efficiency and savings by doing the work itself, but that will be a decision for the City Council.