July/August 1989
The wide-open spaces of the rural Southwest are presenting unique challenges to communities that have begun recycling efforts—especially where paper is involved.
By Leonard Englander
Leonard Englander is president and general manager of Sunbright Waste Paper Co., Inc., Waco, Texas.
The refuse problems of the Southwest are unique in that there is empty land everywhere, but small communities can no longer simply find or dig a hole and bury their garbage as they have in the past. Disposal regulations make these towns like the sailor on a raft—water everywhere and not a drop to drink. Rural communities, just like crowded cities on the East Coast, now must think about recycling.
While people in such communities, far away from big government, do not like to be told how to run their towns, they are aware of the importance of clean air and clear water. These people have never been part of the throwaway society. They find a use for everything and use it until it is worn out. Now they are combining this frugality with ingenuity to meet the challenge of cleaning up the environment.
The Belton, Texas, Lion's Club started a project two years ago to address disposal concerns. Picking up Christmas trees was an expensive operation for the town's garbage truck and the trees took up valuable space in the landfill. The club suggested to the town council that the city collect and shred the trees to make mulch for the flower beds in the park. The money saved by not hauling the trees to the landfill and not buying mulch was used to buy park playground equipment.
The club was so successful with the mulch project that it decided to start a broader project entailing newspaper, aluminum cans, and glass. It secured a vacant lot on the main street with retired citizens overseeing collections most of each day.
In a related effort, the local elementary school has implemented a recycling education program. Children are taught about recycling many items besides newspaper, cans, and glass. They learn that money earned from the sale of recyclables helps pay for concession stands, new bats, and footballs.
Hillsboro, Texas, has had a newspaper collection project for several years. It started with containers left downtown and at the landfill. Now newspaper is picked up at curbside once a week. Collections average about 10,000 pounds each month. The money from sales of newspapers goes to beautifying the downtown antique district.
While goodwill is plentiful in rural community recycling efforts, there often are two glaring problems with them. One is the proximity of a buyer for the items collected. The other is the depressed prices for newspaper, the highest-volume recyclable.
I visited three small communities, each about 100 miles from Waco, Texas. They had collected a total of 500 pounds of newspaper, glass, and cans and needed help transporting it all. Our joint project began; I now supply these communities with 40-foot closed vans for collections. By crushing cans and glass in boxes and stacking newspapers, they can load 20,000 pounds of recyclable items in one of these trailers. I estimate that they will fill a trailer in a month once residents get used to the idea of collecting.
As the projects grow, processing equipment will be needed for each item. That brings us to the second problem. Very little money is made by communities selling old newspapers to packing plants. Each recycling project chairman told me the same story: Townspeople are all collecting and some monetary results are seen the first month, but for the long term, there isn't enough material to sell to get the best price. One project chairman said, "We know that by saving space in our landfill we are saving money. But our community wants to see bigger dollar results for its efforts. It's hard to see the light at the end of the tunnel."
Rural Southwest communities of fewer than 1,000 people are asking for county help to organize volunteer recycling projects. Residents would bring their recyclables to the county seat's recycling center, which would be paid for, along with equipment, with county funds. Centralizing projects in this way would help boost profits since larger quantities of recycled materials command better prices.
My company is involved because I understand the frustration these communities are experiencing, and I can help. One day, when the paper glut eases and prices rise again, I'll have ready suppliers—and we'll all benefit. But for now, rural communities are facing the problem head on and are meeting the challenge as they have in the past. Each community takes pride in doing its share to keep America's environment beautiful.•
The wide-open spaces of the rural Southwest are presenting unique challenges to communities that have begun recycling efforts--especially where paper is involved.