1993 Recycling Report
Since 1987, legislative committees and marketing studies in the Commonwealth of Virginia have made recommendations to improve recycling and waste reduction efforts and identify strategies to improve markets. In 1989, the Virginia General Assembly adopted legislation which set recycling rates for communities: 10 percent by December 1991, 15 percent by December 1993 and 25 percent by 1995. Other initiatives are a recycling equipment tax credit, tire end-user reimbursements, non-competitive grants to localities and establishment of the Virginia Recycling Markets Development Council.
According to the reports and surveys from local governments submitted to the Department of Environmental Quality in 1993, Virginians recycled 33.43 percent of their household waste stream and that portion of the industrial waste stream that is comprised of recyclable material. The reported total was 2,891,708 tons of materials recycled. Of this, 22 percent came from the residential sector, 32 percent from the industrial sector and 46 percent from the commercial sector. The majority of the 84 communities reporting did reach the mandated rate of 15 percent for 1993. Those that did not are considered rural areas and report problems with availability/feasibility of markets due to distance and/or volume.
Current recycling programs in Virginia include 146 run by local governments -- 119 of which are run by counties or cites, and 27 by towns. Within the areas served by these 146 programs, there are 608 public collection centers, run directly by the local government or by contract with a private company. The number of collection centers has more than doubled since 1990, when only 247 centers were operating. In 1993, 50 collection centers opened.
Curbside collection of recyclables has steadily increased. Since 1992, there has been a 50 percent increase with the service being offered to more than 681,000 homes. On an average, local governments spent approximately 12 percent of their solid waste budgets on recycling programs.
A breakdown of 2,891,708 tons of materials recovered in 1993 is: paper, 27 percent; metal, 26 percent; organic, 12 percent; glass, 3 percent; plastic, 1 percent. The balance was made up by: commingled, 1 percent; miscellaneous, 9 percent; and supplemental, 21 percent.
Finding markets for recyclables and staying within feasible program costs is difficult for 75 percent of the local recycling coordinators throughout the state. Rural Virginia lacks the population density and subsequent material generation rates to be attractive to markets. These regions also lack the financial means to purchase equipment to more efficiently process and market recyclable/reusable materials. For the recyclable materials collected, approximately 75 percent of localities have markets within the state, with an average transport distance of 47.4 miles. The remaining 25 percent of localities send their materials an average of 130 miles out of state. Rather than sending their materials to an end-user, most localities send material to an intermediate processor. Therefore, the majority of recyclables in Virginia are making at least one stop between arriving from the collection site to the end-user.
Plastics and mixed paper are identified as two recyclable commodities with shortfalls that result in local and regional marketing barriers. Post-consumer plastic is the most frequently cited material that localities have difficulty marketing in practical financial terms. Transportation costs and few end-users located within the state have been identified as the primary problems.
The market for mixed paper is currently expanding in Virginia, particularly with new end-user facilities and a strong export market. Many localities are keenly interested in collecting the wide variety of papers that combine into a mixed paper grade. Improvements in access to information, transportation and collection infrastructure for paper would facilitate more widespread mixed paper collections throughout the state. Increases in collection rates would help satisfy the growing capacity for mixed paper in the state.
Virginia State agencies report an average recycling rate of 30 percent. Many agencies have developed comprehensive programs. The recycled material reported in 1993 was 50 percent greater than that reported in 1991. During 1993, 14,554 tons of recyclable materials were collected, and 56,493 tons were collected for reuse. The largest amount of material collected was yard waste and corrugated cardboard.