Recycling rates eyed by county

CANTON — St. Lawrence County lawmakers will look at ways to encourage more trash haulers to recycle in hopes of improving recycling rates at transfer stations.

"The recycling effort is dismal," said Legislator Frederick S. Morrill, D-DeKalb Junction. "We just don't have enough people at our transfer stations to tend to recycling."

Scott A. Thornhill, the Solid Waste Department's recycling coordinator, said the recycling rate is about 5 percent, representing the amount of municipal solid waste passing through transfer stations that is recycled rather than taken to a landfill.

"There are success stories in the county, like the village of Massena, which has a recycling rate of 18 to 20 percent, which is phenomenal. But that's because they have an established curbside program," Mr. Thornhill said. "We have recycling operations available for any county residents who wish to use them — they can use the pay-as-you-go program and get tags they can place on their bags of recyclables, or they can come across our scales. Like any process, it could be improved."

Mr. Thornhill has proposed a sliding fee for haulers to replace the $70-per-ton fee now charged for recyclable plastic, glass, aluminum and paper. Instead of a separate charge for haulers to dispose of recyclables, the fee would be incorporated into the per-ton tipping fee. The current $97-per-ton tipping fee will increase to $105 next year.

"It would basically reward individuals who are recycling and provide a financial incentive for non-recyclers to recycle," he said.

Fees would range from $110 per ton for those who separate recyclables as they collect trash to $130 per ton for those who do not.

The Development Authority of the North Country charges the county $42 a ton to dispose of trash at its Rodman landfill.

"The guy who hauls my trash has a pickup truck, and I recycle, but I don't know what he does with it after he takes it," said Legislator Alexander A. MacKinnon, R-Fowler. "In order for him to become anything other than just a municipal solid waste hauler, he has to be able to keep recyclables separated. We have to consider how it will impact all these guys who make a living with a pickup truck."

Mr. Thornhill proposed the sliding-fee scale to legislators during 2010 budget deliberations, but lawmakers chose not to discuss it until after the budget was adopted.

"We need to make sure we take time to discuss this," said Legislator Tedra L. Cobb, D-Canton. "Part of the problem is the layout of the transfer stations. We need to figure out how we should set up our facilities to encourage recycling, and how we can encourage small haulers to do it."