MOUNT VERNON – Republic Services is canceling subscription curbside recycling pickup in several Central Ohio counties – including Knox County – at the end of August, according to Jenna Hicks, director of the Delaware, Knox, Marion, Morrow Solid Waste District.
While the scope of the service cancellation is unclear, Hicks said that all counties within the waste district could be affected. Multiple attempts to contact regional and national authorities within Republic, which is based in Phoenix, Arizona, were unsuccessful.
In speaking with Republic representatives, Hicks said the reason for the service cancellation seems to be a shortage of truck drivers. This issue has also caused trash pickup to be late in the region during recent months, Mount Vernon Mayor Richard Mavis said.
“I heard three to five drivers left,” Mavis said. “So that’d be quite a hit in a city our size. They expect to have that remedied.”
Hicks said that her office has received phone calls in recent months from residents across the district who have complained about Republic’s service shortfall.
“We at the district office have been receiving phone calls from people who are very upset that their trash has not been serviced, it hasn’t been collected in three weeks so we keep putting it out and nobody’s getting it,” Hicks said. “They’ve tried contacting the company and have had limited success with that. So it’s really hit-or-miss service.”
Republic regional official Terry Thompson told Mavis the company will send additional drivers from Columbus to help cover the area in an effort to improve pickup times.
While Republic will end curbside recycling pickup in Knox County, it will continue to do so in Mount Vernon because of the city’s recycling permit requirements. For a company to pick up trash in Mount Vernon, it must also pick up recyclables – otherwise, it will not be permitted to do business within the city. Mavis said Republic confirmed to him that it would continue to pick up both trash and recycled goods at the curb.
Lack of drivers
One reason for Republic’s driver shortage may be because of competitive wage issues. Mavis confirmed, after speaking with local Republic officials, that the company lost drivers to other trucking firms that offered bonuses.
The bigger reason, however, likely coincides with a national problem: there are increasingly fewer people willing to get behind the wheel.
According to Tom Balzer, CEO of the Ohio Trucking Association, the U.S. is currently experiencing a shortage of 50,000 truck drivers. That number is expected to go up in the future because of changes in the economy and workforce.
Balzer said the retirement of the trucking industry’s core driver group – the average age of a truck driver is in the high-50s – will hurt the industry more and more, as will the recent growth of the U.S. economy. He noted that the change in freight flow due to e-commerce has altered the dynamic of truck driving as well.
Balzer said these issues will trickle down to all levels of truck driving – from freight delivery to waste collection services.
“That driver shortage, you’re going to see trickle down to all types of drivers that are out there,” Balzer said. “There is a significant (driver) workforce shortage in this country.”
Flooded market
Along with the driver shortage, another hindrance to local recycling services could be related to a decision made halfway across the globe.
China, which Hicks said receives “a good portion” of U.S. recycled waste, recently tightened its ban on contaminated waste. China previously accepted recycled waste that was 1.5 percent contaminated (meaning it contained waste that was not recyclable), although Hicks said that rule was rarely enforced.
Now, China has imposed a 0.5 percent contamination rate and is enforcing it, in an effort to make the sorting process more efficient. This has come at a cost for U.S. recycling companies, Hicks said, which are having to slow down their own sorting processes before sending bales overseas.
“Some recycling centers are slowing down their sort lines, so people that are sorting it can pull out more stuff. They will be spot-checking loads, breaking apart bales that they’ve already put together and just spot-checking to see how clean it is before they send it out. So it’s costing more to process the recycling in that respect,” Hicks said.
While Hicks said that most of the material collected in her four-county waste district does not go to China, the consequences of this overseas maneuver can be seen in the local recycling market.
Most local waste haulers take their recycled goods to local markets. However, less major haulers are sending their recycled waste to China because of the new contamination restrictions, which is causing local recycling markets to become flooded. There is less demand now for recycled waste at local markets, which is driving the price of that waste down.
“So when a local recycler used to get $100 a bale for cardboard and now they’re getting $30 a bale because it’s a flooded market. It’s really impacting the profitability of the recycling. So that can then lead to increased costs for municipal programs,” Hicks said. “It’s the way of the world. You know, in the recycling world, markets go up and down, up and down. But this has kind of been a more long-term ‘down.’”
Hicks noted that the driver shortage issue is much more prevalent locally, however, as China’s contamination restrictions have had a larger impact on West Coast states at this point.
Curbside cancellation
Hicks said the two areas in Knox County likely to be hit hardest by Republic’s curbside recycling cancellation will be Fredericktown and Apple Valley, where she said there are “hot pockets” of residents who subscribed to the service.
While it is unclear how many residents in each area will have their curbside recycling subscriptions canceled (Fredericktown officials declined to comment for this story and Apple Valley Property Owners Association general manager Jeff Harmer could not give an estimate), Hicks said that 18,240 tons of recycled goods were collected in Knox County in 2017 – both through commercial curbside pickup services and residential drop-off locations.
Hicks estimated that over the four counties within her district, the amount of residents using Republic’s recycling service is “a very small percentage.” She said there is a large portion of Delaware County that uses Republic, and then it’s “hit or miss” in Knox, Marion and Morrow.
Hicks said Republic has sent residents in the district a letter notifying them of the service cancellation. Hicks has told local residents to either switch to another provider or bring their recyclables to a local drop-off location. There are 15 locations in Knox County with about 70 containers, set up through DKMM in a partnership with Rumpke.
Hicks worries that these containers might fill up if former Republic customers begin using them all at once, however. Because of this, Hicks recommends that former Republic customers try to find another curbside pickup provider (many use either local providers or Rumpke, she said).
“We do have another drop-off location at Apple Valley and we do have one at Fredericktown, but those are both drop-off sites that are heavily used and it would have huge impacts if other people started using them. We don’t have the ability to add much more service,” Hicks said.
“We can’t add more containers to Apple Valley, they’re already serviced twice a week on the schedule. We can’t add service there. So we really need people to try to keep it at the curb.”
Nearly 1,500 tons of recyclables were collected at Knox County drop-off locations in 2017.
Harmer seemed optimistic about the sustainability of Apple Valley’s drop-off location, as he believes that he and Hicks will have time to look at possible alternatives if the bins become too full.
“Our timing couldn’t be much better because quite honestly, the load reduces somewhat after Labor Day. So we’re going to play this thing out a little bit,” Harmer said.
“I’ve met with Jenna Hicks the other day and we’re going to look to put some programs together and see if we can encourage people to look at alternatives – not necessarily coming up here. And we’re just going to work through the issue, because it’s just thrown upon us. The best thing we can do is come up with a permanent solution, and that’s months away.”
Harmer said he is going to monitor recycling bins and he hopes Apple Valley residents will be considerate when using them.
“If everybody’s a good neighbor to each other and they collapse their cardboard boxes, that gives room,” Harms said. “Just those kind of things will help us out a ton. Realizing what’s recyclable and what’s straight up trash.”
Hicks said the four-county district could look into establishing more drop-off locations in the future, although right now the focus is on educating.
“We’re just going to have to try to work with people on the options. And if we need to put out more recycling drop-off locations to accommodate the added material… I mean, our hope is that people don’t stop recycling because of it,” Hicks said.
“We hope that they look at other alternatives and keep going. Because those people that are paying extra for recycling, those are the people that are committed to recycling, they want to do it. So we’re hopeful that they continue to do that, because they’re committed.”
