Regional approach to recycling doable, report says

Mark Thomas of Lincoln unloads a trailer of cardboard Wednesday Oct. 21, 2020 at the Boston Mountain transfer station/recycling center in Prairie Grove. The Sustainability Consortium of the Northwest Arkansas Council released a report Wednesday saying the region has invested well in recycling, but more needs to be done to increase volume, coordinate the flow and create local markets for recycled material. Visit nwaonline.com/201019Daily/ for more images. (NWA Democrat-Gazette/J.T.WAMPLER)
Mark Thomas of Lincoln unloads a trailer of cardboard Wednesday Oct. 21, 2020 at the Boston Mountain transfer station/recycling center in Prairie Grove. The Sustainability Consortium of the Northwest Arkansas Council released a report Wednesday saying the region has invested well in recycling, but more needs to be done to increase volume, coordinate the flow and create local markets for recycled material. Visit nwaonline.com/201019Daily/ for more images. (NWA Democrat-Gazette/J.T.WAMPLER)

FAYETTEVILLE -- Northwest Arkansas should expand recycling to keep more of the entire process in the region, from collection to companies buying the products made from recycled material, according to a report released Wednesday by the Northwest Arkansas Council.

The effort will require collaboration among more than 30 cities, two solid waste districts and hundreds of private haulers and companies, but it can be done, according to the report.

The Sustainability Consortium and the Northwest Arkansas Council spent a year studying recycling in the region to come up with recommendations to keep waste out of the landfill. The Walmart Foundation paid for the study, which included Benton, Washington and Madison counties. The cost of the study wasn't provided.

The Sustainability Consortium is a global organization. The Northwest Arkansas Council is an economic development organization collaborating with cities, schools and nonprofit groups on a number of issues to benefit the region.

Northwest Arkansas needs better data on what recyclable material is collected and where it goes, said Sarah Lewis, director of innovation for the consortium. Then, everyone involved can decide what facilities are needed and which companies would benefit from the process and material, she said.

A regional coordinator is necessary to get cities, solid waste districts and private haulers on the same page, according to the report. Right now, most cities report what material and how much they collect to the Arkansas Department of Environmental Quality on handwritten forms, according to the report. Private haulers aren't required to report, although some do so voluntarily.

Fayetteville runs its own recycling program, while Springdale, Rogers and Bentonville contract their services to companies.

"The first step for this community is to get coordinated, get organized and improve data collection," Lewis said. "Through that, you build transparency. From there, you look at what kind of end markets we can create." End markets are the companies buying recycled material.

The participants in the yearlong study developed an online form all cities, haulers and solid waste districts could use to report recycling to the state, Lewis said. The Northwest Arkansas Council intends to work with the state to pilot the form, the report says.

Contracts between cities and private haulers need to be stronger, according to the report. The report uses Gravette's contract with private hauler Republic Service as an example of a small town with a service catered to its needs.

Gravette Mayor Kurt Maddox said his city saved residents money by having a drop-off recycling site, rather than curbside service. The result is residents who frequently use the service, he said. Material is hauled to the Benton County Solid Waste District.

The city has flexibility to change the arrangement and didn't accept a blanket contract without negotiating, Maddox said.

Fayetteville has self-imposed transparency rules disclosing what is taken to which end markets, according to the report. Such information is usually proprietary and isn't shared, but other cities could adopt a similar model with their haulers, according to the report.

The market needs clean, sorted material now more than ever, especially since China stopped buying recyclables from the United States in 2018 because of high rates of contamination, according to the report.

Only Prairie Grove, Siloam Springs and Fayetteville have hand-sorted recycling programs, resulting in far less contamination where material that aren't accepted for recycling are mixed with recyclables, according to the report. Other Northwest Arkansas cities have systems with automated sorting.

Facilities should be expanded throughout the region to keep recyclables sorted and clean, according to the report.

A unified approach to educate residents on what can be recycled and how also is key, said Robyn Reed, director of the Boston Mountain Solid Waste District, which serves Washington and Madison counties. Many people try to recycle items, such as plastic yogurt cups or deli containers, not knowing there is no market to accept them, she said.

More News

Recommendations

The Sustainability Consortium made the following recommendations to the Northwest Arkansas Council through a report released Wednesday on recycling in the region:

Hire a program manager to coordinate recycling- and circular economy-related activities across Northwest Arkansas.

The Northwest Arkansas Council should collaborate with the solid waste districts, the Arkansas Marketing Board for Recyclables and the Arkansas Recycling Coalition to establish a recycled material exchange.

Use the more than 70 stakeholders who participated in this project to continue developing a recycling and circular economy vision. Stakeholders benefited from shared learning and expressed a desire to stay engaged.

Improve data about what and how much recycled material is collected in Arkansas. The Northwest Arkansas Council should work with the Arkansas Department of Environmental Quality to make it easier to collect information from cities and solid waste districts, using an electronic reporting form created by the consortium.

Work with the University of Arkansas or Northwest Arkansas Community College on a project to characterize material recycled by businesses, industries and institutions. The project would inform companies interested in using recycling material what’s available in the region.

Work with Northwest Arkansas cities to improve trash-hauling and recycling contracts. In the long term, cities should look to maintain ownership of recycled material so they can be active in determining the fate of collected recyclables.

Source: Creating Circular Economies in Northwest Arkansas, report

Stacy Ryburn can be reached by email at [email protected] or on Twitter @stacyryburn.

Upcoming Events