Roanoke’s recycling program faces challenges

According to the Virginia Department of Environmental Quality, the city’s recycling rate – measured as the amount of paper, cardboard, metal, glass and other waste reused rather than thrown away – will be 25% by 2022.

Ten years ago, Roanox’s rate was about 50%.

Then, in 2017, the recycling industry as it’s known in the U.S. changed dramatically, said Brian Haynesworth, the municipal solid waste manager who oversees recycling efforts.

After years of importing large amounts of recyclable materials from the United States, China has begun cutting off imports, leading to a backlog of orders and difficulty finding other buyers for recyclable materials. Processing centers that accept locally collected materials, such as Roanoke’s Recycling and Disposal Solutions Center, have been forced to raise rates to cope with an increasingly tight market.

As these issues reached critical mass in 2020, the pandemic hit.

This makes it more difficult to collect recycling numbers from businesses that are not part of Roanoke’s curbside recyclables collection. It also limits outreach programs aimed at promoting the program.

Haynesworth said only about 30 to 35 percent of Roanoke’s more than 43,000 households participate in municipal recycling.

Residents must request light blue wheeled carts to store old newspapers, cardboard boxes, empty cans and bottles and other items destined for the landfill. Once every two weeks, residents can place their carts at the edge of the street, where city trucks collect the contents and haul them to recycling and disposal solutions.

Haynesworth said when it comes to recycling, a lot of it has to do with residents’ behavior. Recycling and waste reduction events work best when you educate the community and conduct outreach events.

Haynesworth said the city is working to increase the number of school events aimed at educating students about recycling.

If you can get young people to convince their parents to change behavior at home, he says, you’re more likely to increase recycling rates.

At the same time, Hainsworth’s department is reestablishing ties with businesses, many of which have lost contact during the coronavirus outbreak. The city collects information on recycling activity and reports it to DEQ along with the residence number. About half of the city’s recyclables come from businesses and industry.

Each year, DEQ collects information from various locations and compiles recycling rate reports.

The 2022 report, the most recent year, put the statewide rate at 43%, down slightly from the previous year. Virginia’s regional recycling rate reached its highest level in 2018, at 46%.

The DEQ report attributes the decline to ongoing recycling challenges, a lack of recycling markets in some areas and difficulty obtaining recycling information from private industry.

Since 1989, Virginia has required 71 waste systems serving its cities, towns and counties to meet recycling rate requirements of at least 25 percent in urban areas and at least 25 percent in areas with smaller populations or higher unemployment rates. Reach 15%.

DEQ spokesperson Irina Calos said localities are currently compiling data for 2023 and the next report will be released in October.

This year’s report shows Vinton, the only other jurisdiction in the Roanoke Valley to offer curbside collection, has a recycling rate of 60 percent, among the highest in the state.

“We have a successful program,” Assistant Town Manager Cody Sexton said. Our citizens see it happening and we need it too.

Roanoke, by contrast, has a larger number of tenants, who often have to go through their landlords to participate. In more rural areas, the distance between homes often makes kerbside collection more costly.

Other recycling rates for the region in 2022: 40% for New River Resource Authority (including Redford, Giles and Pulaski counties); 37% for Franklin County; 31% for Montgomery County; Salem 31%; Craig County 22%; Floyd County 17%.

Under laws that apply to larger jurisdictions, only Montgomery County (which includes the counties of Blacksburg and Christiansburg) and Roanoke County are required to submit annual reports to the DEQ.

Smaller districts and solid waste planning units must report every four years, but some districts have chosen to voluntarily share their 2022 recycling rates with DEQ. Botetourt and Roanoke counties did not submit numbers. The next time all 71 Virginia regions and solid waste planning units must report is in 2024.

Most places that don’t offer kerbside collection have drop-off points where residents can pick up their recyclables. There are also private companies that charge a fee to collect the rubbish people may generate and deliver it to recycling centres.

But market difficulties persist, with some places forced to cut programs and recycling centers struggling to stay afloat, according to a 2019 DEQ report.

Hainsworth said you also have to weigh the value of recycling to residents, in addition to maintaining the services people rely on. This is balance.

A key goal of recycling is to reduce the amount of waste that ends up in landfill. To do that, there must be a business-friendly environment at recycling centers that source materials locally and find buyers for them, said Dan Baxter, president of the Virginia Recycling Association.

There’s a bit of a push and a pull here, Baxter said. What’s best for the economy, what’s best for the environment.

Ultimately, the success of a recycling program depends on the participation of residents and businesses, which often depends on the ease of the local recycling process.

Baxter said it’s a personal responsibility. If you give people a choice, they will choose to recycle. They know what the right decision is; it’s not a matter of hitting them over the head. It’s a matter of making it accessible.