09:06 AM CDT on Sunday, July 9, 2006

By Lowell Brown / Staff Writer

When Joe Ialenti heard the Denton City Council recently wanted to get more businesses and apartments to recycle, he wasn’t surprised.

As the city’s recycling manager during the 1990s, Ialenti said he always believed Denton should focus more on businesses and apartments, rather than offer curbside recycling service to homes.

DRC/Barron Ludlum

Larry Taylor of Trinity Waste Services empties a recycling container on his route in north Denton.

“I was never a fan of curbside recycling,” Ialenti said. “I always thought that, as it has turned out, it wasn’t a fair return on investment of community dollars. Plus, I just think it diverts attention from what the City Council finally noticed, and that’s lack of commercial recycling incentive.”

In May, the council told city staff to research what other cities are doing to increase recycling among businesses and apartments. Council members were alarmed by the amount of waste that continues piling into the city landfill, despite what the city believes is a successful residential recycling program.

As the council prepares to consider its options in coming months, Ialenti warned that “piecemeal” solutions aren’t enough. The only way to get more businesses to recycle is to make it mandatory, he said.

“I think for all practical purposes, curbside [recycling] is a waste of time, effort and money, and we haven’t really gotten into comprehensive commercial recycling,” said Ialenti, who retired as recycling manager in 2001. “So it would be a good time to just decide on an overall strategy.”

Some council members embraced the possibility of mandatory commercial recycling, a proposal that could face opposition from business groups. Others said they’d rather add incentives to the existing voluntary program to encourage more participation.

The problem

Last year, 122,477 tons of waste went to the city landfill, and the amount continues to grow each year as the population increases. By 2025, that number will be 255,084, according to city projections. The landfill is expected to serve Denton through 2040.

About 75 percent of waste put into the landfill comes from businesses and apartments, according to Shirlene Sitton, the city’s current recycling manager. Through curbside residential recycling, the city diverts about 7 percent of all waste from the landfill, she said.

Denton began its residential curbside recycling program in 2002, partly in response to resident demand. Before that, all residents had to use recycling drop-off sites.

The move came seven years after a citizens advisory committee recommended the city implement recycling, primarily aimed at the commercial waste stream, which includes apartments. The council adopted the committee’s recommended curbside residential program, but a suggested recovery facility for recyclable materials, which could make a commercial recycling program more feasible to operate, never came about.

Officials considered a public-private partnership to build and operate a materials recovery facility, which would receive, divide and prepare recyclable commodities for resale, but the facility was deemed economically unfeasible, Ialenti said.

While Denton has no mandatory recycling program for businesses or apartments, businesses can contract the city or a private vendor for the service. Small businesses and apartment dwellers can use the city’s six recycling drop-off sites.

The city has 74 commercial recycling accounts, and an indefinite number of businesses contract private companies. While the city is the sole provider of residential and commercial solid waste collection, commercial recycling companies are free to operate in Denton.

Ialenti said businesses that shun recycling do so because it’s not cost-effective for them. The only way to prompt their participation — and to significantly reduce waste sent to the landfill — is to make recycling mandatory, he said.

“We can curbside recycle till the cows come home, and for all practical purposes we’re hardly making a dent,” Ialenti said.

Options

Since 1999, the city of Austin has required apartment complexes with 100 or more units and businesses with 100 or more onsite employees to provide onsite recycling using private vendors, but the city doesn’t routinely inspect the sites for compliance.

Austin requires businesses and apartment complexes to submit quarterly compliance reports that are checked against their recycling plans on file with the city, and officials also respond to residents’ complaints of noncompliance, city spokesman Jerry Hendrix said. Violation of the ordinance is a misdemeanor punishable by a fine of between $500 and $2,000 per day.

Denton City Council member Guy McElroy said Denton could follow Austin’s lead if voluntary efforts to increase commercial recycling fail.

“I have no problem with mandatory recycling,” he said. “I think it’s something that we’re going to have to do. If people will do it voluntarily that’s great, but if they don’t, we’re going to have to take more drastic measures.”

Mayor Perry McNeill also didn’t rule out a mandatory program.

“Before I could vote for mandatory, I’d have to see all the pros and cons of that,” he said, adding it’s something the council could consider.

Other council members said they’d prefer the city develop more incentives for businesses and apartment complexes to voluntarily recycle.

“I think I’d like to try first voluntary, and I think a business would realize that it was in their best interest, really, to recycle,” council member Jack Thomson said. “I don’t think we need to make it mandatory.”

Mayor Pro Tem Pete Kamp agreed.

“We always want to look at incentives first before we make anything mandatory, and I feel we would do the same thing with this issue,” she said.

Dynamics of business recycling

But some city officials say getting more businesses to recycle will be a challenge.

Many of the businesses considered good candidates for recycling already recycle, Sitton said.

Businesses must weigh whether paying to recycle, rather than sending waste to the landfill, makes economic sense, she said. Likewise, businesses must produce enough recyclable waste to make collection profitable for a hauler.

“Recycling is a business,” Sitton said. “It’s a business like any other business. It has to be cost-effective for both us and our customers.”

The city’s commercial recycling program mostly includes cardboard, paper and clean wood. The ideal candidates for the program have room for a recycling bin, along with their regular trash bin, on their property; can entirely fill the recycling bin at least once each month; and don’t share a regular trash bin with other businesses.

The city asks small businesses interested in recycling to use the drop-off centers, since they generally don’t produce enough recyclable waste to make participation in the program cost-effective, Sitton said.

“Lots of businesses are not good candidates for anybody to recycle, and that’s the problem,” she said. “You’re looking at industrial or retail that are going to be worth the time. None of the large vendors want to drive up to Denton for any small account.”

Vance Kemler, Denton’s solid waste director, said he sees few opportunities to boost commercial recycling. He doubted a mandatory program would be approved because of its expense and public opposition.

“I think you would have a public outcry from the business community and chamber of commerce,” Kemler said. “Having some mandatory recycling program may not be good for every business.”

Chuck Carpenter, Denton Chamber of Commerce president, said his average chamber members, who tend to represent smaller businesses, likely would oppose a mandatory program, and he noted many larger businesses already recycle.

But many businesses would respond positively to extra recycling incentives from the city, he said.

Challenges of multifamily recycling

Recycling at apartment complexes poses its own challenges.

More than 17,000 apartment units currently exist in Denton, representing a large potential market for recycling.

“If it can work for people who live in houses, it can work for people who live in apartments,” said Chuck Norton, who ran unsuccessfully for mayor in 2004 on a platform that included onsite apartment recycling.

Denton “finally went to curbside for houses a few years ago, but they stopped short of what they should have done,” he said.

The city should install recycling bins at every major apartment complex, Norton said, adding he’d gladly pay up to $5 per month to be able to drop off recyclables at his complex.

Denton has a pilot program at The Oaks apartments, near the University of North Texas, to provide onsite-recycling containers for tenants’ use. It works well because the management is on board, Sitton said, but not every apartment manager is so receptive.

Managers must be willing to police the recycling containers to ensure they’re not contaminated with other waste, and able to constantly educate new tenants about the program, Sitton said.

Also, complexes must have room for at least one recycling container, for what’s known as “single-stream” drop-off of a mix of recyclables, or one container each for multiple reusable materials. But many complex managers aren’t inclined to give up parking spaces, and the city doesn’t want the bins on public streets or rights of way, Sitton said.

Kathy Carlton is government affairs director for the Apartment Association of Greater Dallas, which serves Denton County. She said recycling at apartments often doesn’t work because cities expect too much of the onsite management.

Apartment managers have myriad duties and can’t be a “recycling guru,” constantly educating residents and checking to ensure other trash isn’t dumped in the recycling bins, she said.

“If it’s important to the city, then the city should take on the job of educating the public about it,” Carlton said. “We’re not opposed to recycling, but bring us to the table and let’s talk about ways we can do this realistically.”

Even though there’s no onsite recycling at apartments, tenants still pay to recycle. The city charges multifamily tenants a $1.75 a month recycling fee to help pay for a new household hazardous-waste program and other recycling efforts, including the drop-off sites.

“There is no other city that has the audacity to charge apartment residents to drive across town to drop off recyclables in a bin somewhere,” Carlton said.

She said the city has done a poor job of educating apartment tenants about the new fee, and that many don’t know how to take advantage of the hazardous-waste program.

Sitton said the city sent apartment managers a brochure explaining the program and two posters each to display in commons areas.

Residential curbside recycling

Denton contracts Plano-based Trinity Waste Services to provide curbside residential recycling to 23,500 homes.

Homes receive weekly collection, on their regular garbage pickup day, of aluminum and steel or tin cans; glass bottles or jars; some plastic bottles and jugs; newspaper, magazines, and office and school paper; and cardboard.

Residents don’t have to sort the items, just place them in their recycling bin for collection. They pay $3.50 per month to support curbside and other recycling programs.

The curbside program enjoys good participation, Sitton said. On any given day, about half of the homes that could set out a recycling cart do, she said.

When the city studied participation over six weeks in 2003, it found about 70 percent of residents set out recycling carts at least one time during that period, Sitton said.

Bob Montgomery, a Denton City Council member, said he’s pleased with the residential recycling program, an opinion other council members echoed.

“I know we can do better, but this is one of the things that I wish everything went this smoothly,” he said.

The program collected about 5,000 tons of waste in 2005 and more than 19,000 tons since it began in late 2002, according to Sitton.

From 2002 to the present, the city’s recycling budget — which includes all recycling programs and operations — grew from $794,668 to $1.47 million. The latter figure includes about $450,000 in money residents paid to Trinity through utility bills that is not part of the recycling division’s operating budget.

Ialenti questioned whether the residential curbside recycling program’s cost justifies the limited amount of waste diverted from the landfill, especially when the city allows people from outside Denton to pay to drop off their waste at the facility.

“On the one hand, we residents are being charged for the privilege of recycling 5,100 tons a year,” he said. “OK, fine, wonderful; get that out of the landfill. But what are we doing on the other hand? We’re allowing in, from outside Denton, over 10,000 tons annually — over twice as much.”

Although it diverts only a small fraction of waste from the landfill, the residential recycling program is still valid, Sitton said. Many mistakenly believe cities recycle because there’s no room left in landfills, she said.

“The reason to recycle isn’t to save landfill space,” Sitton said. “It’s to save natural resources.”

Also, residents who recycle will need smaller — and less expensive — trash carts for their other waste, Sitton said, noting about 50 percent of household garbage can be recycled.

“So the more they recycle, the less their trash bill is going to be, and they can control that,” she said.

Materials recovery facility

Denton continues to add new recycling programs, including electronics and household hazardous-waste collection. The city also has partnered with the Denton school district to offer recycling at 11 schools.

Still, some want the city to do more to increase recycling options for businesses and apartments, and some say the creation of a materials recovery facility could make that more feasible.

The facility could accept a mix of recyclables from business and apartment waste bins, sort them and prepare them for resale — all in Denton.

Trinity currently takes its collected recyclables to Fort Worth, while Denton transports its “single-stream” recyclables to Trinity’s Plano sorting facility and sells other commodities to various vendors, Sitton said. Transportation costs are significant, Sitton said, and eliminating them could make recycling more profitable in Denton.

Denton resident Ed Soph, who served on the city’s advisory committee on recycling, said he favors expanded commercial recycling and a Denton-based materials recovery facility.

“The more we can do to offset what’s going into the landfill, the better off we’ll be in the long run,” he said.

Sitton said a city-run facility wouldn’t be cost-effective, but she hopes the city eventually can attract a private company to build one in Denton.

Montgomery, the Denton council member, said the city’s next step should be to offer incentives for recycling at apartments. The city’s current recycling programs represent a good first step, he said.

“Every journey starts with a single step,” Montgomery said. “We’re simply trying to change a lifetime of habits here … and it’s a slow process.”

LOWELL BROWN can be reached at 940-566-6882. His e-mail address is lmbrown@dentonrc.com

The following chart tracks, in five-year increments, the past and projected population of Denton and amount of waste sent to the city’s landfill.

*Numbers marked with an asterisk are projected.

Note: Each American produces an average of 4.4 pounds of trash per day.

SOURCE: City of Denton

Residents of homes in Denton receive once-a-week pickup of items in their recycling containers, on the same day as their regular garbage collection. The following items are accepted in recycling bins:

* Aluminum and steel or tin cans

* Glass bottles and jars

* Plastic bottles and jugs,
No. 1 to No. 7

* Newspaper and magazines

* Junk mail and phone books

* Office and school paper

* Cardboard and boxboard

Note: Materials can be mixed together in the recycling container.

The following items aren’t accepted:

* Plastic bags

* Food-soiled paper products or pizza boxes

* Kitchen or yard waste

* Batteries

* Hardback books

* Household hazardous waste* or toxic containers

* Plastic takeout containers or utensils

* Styrofoam

* Scrap aluminum or foil

*A new city program allows for the collection of some household hazardous waste, but residents must call the city to request the pickup.

For more information, call 940-349-8787.

SOURCE: City of Denton

The city of Denton offers six recycling drop-off centers at the following locations:

* North Lakes Park, Windsor Drive at Hinkle Drive

* Shady Oaks, Dallas Drive at Shady Oaks

* Piggly Wiggly, 619 East Sherman Drive

* Cupboard Natural Foods, Congress at North Elm Street

* City landfill, 1100 S. Mayhill Road

The drop-off sites accept the following materials:

* Aluminum cans

* Steel and tin cans

* Office and school paper

* Newspapers and magazines

* Cardboard

* Glass containers

* Plastic bottles and jugs

For more information, call 940-349-8787.

SOURCE: City of Denton