State of the Recycling Industry Jeremy Starritt City of Frisco Environmental Services Manager
Questions for discussion • Where is the money in recycling? • How far has Recycling come? • What’s happening with Recycling today? • Where is Recycling going in the future?
Glass ceiling • After 20 years of expansive growth, the rate of increase in recycling has begun to decline. We are recycling the basic commodities at high rates, making growth in rate of increase difficult.
Average Curbside Recycling List So what is missing? Hard Plastics, Shredded Paper, Plastic film, Styrofoam, Food Scraps, etc.
Adding new commodities
Facilities in Dallas MRF’s Landfills • Republic- Arlington Landfill, Camelot • PWS- 1 (McKinney) Landfill (Lewisville), Lewisville Landfill, Fort Worth Southeast Landfill, ECD Landfill • Republic- 2 (Fort Worth, (Ennis) Plano) • 121 Regional Disposal Landfill (Melissa Landfill) • Waste Management- 3 • McKinney C&D Landfill (GreenStar, Fort Worth, • PWS- Forth Worth C& D Landfill, Turkey Creek Landfill (Alvarado) Garland) • Waste Management DFW Recycling and Disposal Landfill (Lewisville) • CWD- 1 (Dallas) • McCommas Bluff/ City of Dallas Landfill • Pratt-1 (Denton) • CM Hinton Jr Regional landfill (Rowlett) • Mesquite Regional Landfill • Balcones- 1 (Dallas) • Denton Landfill • Texas Recycling/Surplus Inc- • City of Grand Prairie Landfill Hunter Ferrell Landfill (Irving) • 1 (Dallas) • Republic Maloy Landfill (Campbell) Recycle Revolution- 1 (Dallas) • • Sherman Landfill (WM)
Total MSW generation (by material), 250 million tons (before recycling)
MSW management in the United States
Recycling Rates Over Time
Recycling rates for selected products, 2011-2012
We have seen growth in collections
We have seen growth in processing
We continue to grow
Recycling’s progress Yes, more than 10,000 communities, where 63 percent of Americans live, now collect recyclables curbside. Yes, 193 million Americans can set out recyclables weekly. But our progress has slowed. Recycling rates have flattened out.
Aluminum can recycling rate
PET bottle recycling rate
Paper recycling rate
Steel recycling rate
Recycling’s progress And then we encountered the Great Recession of 2008-2010. While recycling rates were not severely affected, recovery economics became ugly.
Impact on exports in the first quarter of 2009 Material Volume Price Paper - 14% - 22% Plastics + 15% - 32% Aluminum - 40% - 31% Ferrous Scrap + 12% - 26%
HDPE milk jug bale prices
Aluminum can prices
PET bale prices
Recovered paper prices (18 grades; weighted average)
Old newspaper price
Ferrous scrap prices (No. 1 heavy melting steel)
Recycling’s progress And we have seen a • fundamental shift in critical recycling markets. The continuing rise in Chinese demand during a recession has resulted in systemic changes in the American recycling market.
Plastics exports
Ferrous scrap exports
Recycling’s progress Recycling’s progress • The crunch created by high export demand and a crushing recession has been toughest on the domestic paper industry.
Paper collections continue
Use of recovered fiber by U.S. paper industry sector
Recovered paper exports
2011 recovered paper market 2011 2011 Million Million Versus Versus Marketplace Marketplace Tons Tons 2010 2010 Domesti 57% 57% 30.5 30.5 -3.0% -3.0% c 43% 43% Exports 23.2 23.2 +11.8% +11.8% Total 53.7 53.7 +2.5% +2.5%
Newsprint: a paradox North American shipments in million tons: 2007: 12.2 2008: 11.2 2009: 8.1 2010: 8.6 2011: 5.9 2012: 5.8 This is a loss of more than 50 percent over four years.
Paper recycling markets: Bankruptcies AbitibiBowater Newsprint Caraustar Paperboard Newark Group Paperboard Smurfit-Stone Paperboard SP Newsprint Newsprint .
Paper mill closures Blue Heron Oregon City, OR Caraustar Chattanooga, TN Caraustar Richmond, VA Caraustar Charlotte, NC Franklin Boxboard Franklin, OH International Paper Albany, OR Smurfit-Stone Missoula, MT Sonoco Rockton, IL Sonoco Lancaster, OH
Recycling’s future Ten issues or trends will help form where recycling in Texas is headed in the next decade.
More programs and materials • Adding and increasing local recycling efforts • Higher commodity prices mean higher profitability for recyclers and customers • Addition of new commodities means more items for sale (also less going to landfills = money)
Rising focus on toxics Local and state initiatives targeting the management of toxics in solid waste will grow in number and effect.
Stewardship Extended product stewardship will become the prevailing waste management model in the coming years. However, current EPR initiatives require remodeling if they are to become truly sustainable.
Product Stewardship Current Bills • HB1916 – Relating to sale, recovery, and recycling of certain television equipment. • HB1811 – Relating to the establishment of a program for the collection, transportation, recycling and disposal of mercury-containing lights • HB695 – Relating to the establishment of a program for the collection, transportation, recycling, and disposal of mercury-added thermostats. • HB405 – Relating to the storage, transportation, and disposal of tires; providing criminal penalties.
Food Look for more and more North American communities to add food discards – both commercial and residential – to organics collection and composting systems.
Convenience More large, regional, hub-and- spoke MRFs will come on-line and you’ll see smaller and smaller communities moving to single- stream recycling collection. Big MRfs in urban areas (Dallas, San Antonio, Austin, etc.) will dominate the marketplace.
Convenience And more people will be provided single- stream recycling collection service: 2005 – 29 percent of the population had access to single-stream collection 2010 – 64 percent had access
Continued consolidation More and more recyclables will be collected and processed by fewer and fewer players. Mergers and acquisitions will continue.
The impact Big supplier Million tons/year ReCommunity 1.8 Republic/Allied Waste 3.3 Waste Connections 1.0 Waste Management 12.9
The impact Big consumer Million tons/year Abitibi-Bowater 2.0 Caraustar 3.0 Cascades 2.6 Georgia-Pacific 4.0 International Paper 5.0 Rock-Tenn/Smurfit 4.7
The impact Steel company Processing plants Commercial Metals 36 Nucor 58 Schnitzer Steel 42 Steel Dynamics 27
The impact Paper company Processing plants International Paper 33 Newark Group 11 Rock-Tenn/Smurfit 37 Sonoco 17 SP Newsprint 21
Market Development The lack of attention in the U.S. toward an industrial policy will hurt recycling. As piles of recyclables climb, states will be urged to, once again, launch recycling market development programs.
The green fence is real This may become the year when recycling quality and the cost of recycling both rise, but for a good reason. China no longer wants to be the world’s dumping ground.
Reframing We will move towards better metrics. Less attention will be focused on recycling rates, and more governments and industries will consider global warming and life-cycle issues when making decisions. The U.S. EPA is already rethinking how it addresses wastes.
EPA ReThink Programs
Sustainability We are far from being a sustainable practice, and more effort is required for us to truly succeed. That is recycling’s greatest challenge going forward.
Energy consequences of not recycling Energy Value Lost Barrels Annual lbs (@$75/bbl in Saved per per Barrels Lost billion Value per Material Household Ton Annually dollars) Household Fiber 1,821.6 1.70 85,425,000 $6.407 $116.14 Aluminum Cans 27.0 40.00 28,936,875 $2.170 $40.47 PET Bottles 39.0 16.30 28,115,870 $2.108 $23.87 HDPE Bottles 30.1 16.30 20,454,870 $1.534 $18.41 Glass Bottles 883.4 0.12 4,543,855 $.341 $3.98 Steel Cans 19.2 1.80 1,141,756 $.085 $1.30 Source: SWANA/SRI Total 2,820.4 1.93 168,618,226 $12.645 $204.16 168,600,000 barrels or 3.5%
We are sending money to the landfill
Other forms of Diversion and Conversion Energy from Waste Recovery Conversion Diversion • Thermal: Incineration, • Composting gasification, pyrolisis • Chipping for Mulch • Non-Thermal: Anaerobic • Reuse/Recover Digestion, Fermentation • Recycling • Physiochemical: Synthetic crude oil or biodiesel
Breakdown of MSW in 2011
Thanks for Recycling Jstarritt@FriscoTexas.gov
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