By MIKE CAPUTO
But despite the changing revenue potential, towns and sanitary districts do not appear to be giving up on their recycling practices, saying the environmental benefits outweigh market fluctuations.
Far East nations have stopped accepting shipments of recycled paper from the United States, which, according to one sanitary district official, has contributed to the drop in the commodity's value from a summer figure of $100 a ton, to its current approximate rate of $5 a ton.
Hempstead Town Sanitation Commissioner Dick Ronan noted that the market for recycled paper and other re-usable materials has had a history of flucuation, and the municipality had anticipated the most recent decline in its current budget.
"We were in unrealistic prices during the summer and didn't anticipate that would keep up forever," Ronan said. "But I don't have a crystal ball - I didn't anticipate that it would drop $95 a ton."
Despite a decrease in revenue, the commissioner said the town can afford to operate and even expand its ever-growing recycling program, which service-area includes East Meadow, Salisbury, Bellmore, Merrick, Lido Beach and Point Lookout.
"We are not getting hit quite yet with it," he said. "We have gone up and down before and we are certainly going to continue to recycle because it is the right thing to do."
Nat Swergold, spokesman for Sanitary District 1 in the Five Towns, explained that the degree of impact on a municipality depends on the contract with its recycling vendor.
"Those muncipal entities who have agreements with their vendors calling for the vendor to absorb negative markets are OK," Swergold said. "Those who share in the negative market are not quite as OK. And those who bear the negative market obviously are getting killed."
The current contracts for both the Town of Hempstead and Sanitary District 1 call for the vendor, Omni Recycling in Westbury, to absorb the negative market. An Omni representative did not return requests for an interview as the Herald went to press.
Despite contracts that seemingly protect the town and the sanitary district from bearing the burden of the negative recyclable market, Ronan said he expects to hear from the vendor very soon.
"It really hasn't affected our contract yet," Ronan said.
"But when the indicators drop to this low, I will be getting a letter from [the vendor] saying 'we can't operate.'"
The collapse of the paper market can be linked to a lack of demand from China, which typically uses recycled paper to produce such things as cardboard for packaging. Ronan recalled a similar collapse in the paper market during Desert Storm in the early 1990s, when container ships filled with paper and recyclables stayed put at major U.S. ports.
Since the summer months, prices have also dropped on other recyclable materials, like scrap metal and plastics, officials said.
A practice that once garnered reven ue, or was provided at no cost, has become a financial burden for both municpalities and companies in the private sector. Swergold described an instance when the district had a contract with a vendor that provided balers and container trucks at no charge and would pay the district over $100 dollars a ton to take the paper. Today, the district no longer is provided with bailers and container trucks, and has to pay the vendor to remove the materials.
"These are very, very volatile markets that flucuate for a variety of reasons, some of which are totally unexplainable," Swergold said.
The ever-changing rates have shown that wastepaper can be a moneymaker, but Ronan suggested that environmental benefits are the key value of recycling.
"You can't do it if you want to make money; you have to say this is the right thing to do," Ronan said. "We just don't value the environment that much in our economy."
Comments about this story? MCaputo@liherald.com or (516) 569-4000 ext. 287.
