Last year The Times was getting over $160 per ton for old newspapers from a recycling company. This month and for the past several months we are lucky to get $40 per ton. That is a big revenue swing. The recession is to blame. When production was high, recycling prices were high. Normally this is an economic indicator that requires action. Should this include the recycling business? If the price were to drop to zero dollars, will The Times throw our waste paper in the trash to be taken to the landfill? No and I hope you won’t either.

Recycling can be confusing. Recycling can be time consuming. Recycling is worth every minute of learning and doing.

I know here in Valdosta many residents get upset when they see their curbside recycling bin dumped into what looks like a “trash” truck. I had the same reaction at first. Before moving to Valdosta I was familiar with having three bins at my house for curbside pickup. Recyclables were placed in their appropriate bin.

The City of Valdosta uses the “single-stream” method. All of the collectibles - aluminum, plastic or paper – are now kept together. When the neighborhood collections are made, the trucks return to the recycling area where the product is stored until the contracted recycle company transports it to Gainesville, Fla. Here all of the material is dumped on to large conveyors in a ‘single-stream.’ Technology takes over here and the waste is scanned and sorted into appropriate bins for paper, aluminum, glass, etc. This method saves us, the consumer, our time in keeping everything separate. In turn the City saves thousands of dollars in labor costs in not having to pick the product up that way or having to keep it separate. Another plus is the City can now contract with one company as opposed to several to buy one or more of the recyclable products.

In the Business Week magazine I read recently, Waste Management, the nation’s largest trash hauler, set a goal in 2007 to triple its recyclables to 20 million tons a year by 2020. “But now the company says its recycling division is headed for a $98 million loss this year,” Christopher Palmeri, the article’s author wrote.

Many municipalities have had contracts with companies like WM using them as a positive revenue source. Denver, Colo. received $1.2 million from them last year based on a 2005 contract. This business model is ending. Just as our own newspaper waste is no longer a good source of extra revenue, the city and county governments around the country are also being confronted with this reality. The Business Week article reported that no one has dropped their recycling programs but the fear exists that some will.

Waste Management is not giving up. They are investing $16 million in a “state-of-the-art ‘single-stream’ sorting facility … that uses optical scanners, blasts of air, and magnets to separate recyclables.” A facility like this can sort “five times more volume at lower costs” than when kept separated. They want to build 12 more plants in the next five years above their current 33, according to the article.

This recession has caused all of us to think the new color Green. Many use this as a subject of puff talk, not much substance. Recycling is ‘green’ and recycling is not puff. Recycling programs have substance and they make environmental and financial sense for all us.

Don’t give up.