Beatrice officials discuss the merits, and drawbacks of recycling

BEATRICE – Ask most people if recycling is good for the environment, you would probably hear, yes. But ask local government if it financially pencils out….the answer is no.

Representatives of the Midwest Area Refuse Solutions garbage service told the Beatrice Mayor and City Council Monday night that the city loses money in its recycling program. Kerri McGrury, who handles finances for MARS, told city officials the entity spends just over $11,000 monthly on recycling services, but takes in just over $7,600.

"Which then gives us a loss of $3,397...or roughly 34-hundred dollars a month."

Director of MARS, Jason Moore says there is no market for recyclables such as glass. Cardboard varies greatly in price….currently at $45 a ton, but sometimes as high as $205.  "Where the companies will literally e-mail me and say, can we send you a truck? I've seen it at twenty dollars a ton...when I had run out of places to store cardboard."

The city and MARS has a recycling drop off site just west of the Municipal Auditorium. It also provides curbside recycling service, a voluntary service which costs residents $8.50 cents monthly….$15 for commercial service.

Councilman Rich Kerr figures the city spends about $40,000 annually in providing recycling services, factoring in various costs, including hauling of material.
"For $40,764 a year...is what this program is costing us. Is there any way you can think of that we can offset that just a little bit? Some of us were on board for this program, but this is starting to get costly."

City Councilman Dave Eskra takes the opposite view, however. "I don't think $40,000 a year to keep that much stuff out of the landfill, is a lot. I really don't. We're a society that is being taught daily to recycle, recycle, recycle. Granted, it probably does cost us. But, I bet it costs every other city in the state to do it, too. I just think it's the right thing to do."

Moore says plastic presents the biggest problem for landfills because is doesn’t degrade.  "Running a landfill and running MARS, to me, I think plastics should stay out of the landfill...plastics are never going to break down, ever. In my opinion, cardboard should go into the landfill, because cardboard is going to dissolve and be gone inside of a couple years. I think we put too much thought into the cardboard side of things...when we know that the cardboard is going to be gone. So, you're paying to keep something out of the landfill that is going to dissolve, anyway."

Elected officials discussed the city’s recycling operations during a work session prior to Monday night’s regular meeting.