Steuben County DPW to recycle common types of plastic waste
By BOB CLARK HORNELL EVENING TRIBUNE

PHOTO BY LYNN BRENNAN/THE TRIBUNE Polyethylene Terephthalate (left group) is used in soda bottles, water bottles and plastic jars, while High-Density Polyethylene (right group) is used in plastic milk jugs, other nonfood bottles and plastic car fuel tanks.

BATH - Steuben County residents will now be able to recycle water bottles instead of throwing them in the trash.

The Steuben County Public Works Committee voted Jan. 3 to expand the county's plastic recycling program to accept No. 1 plastics, which include plastic beverage bottles and plastic food jars.

The road to more plastic recycling has been a long one, according to Janet Thigpen, Steuben County Environmental Management Council Chairperson.

"I've been on the committee for 15 years, and we have always pushed for the expansion of recycling as much as economically feasible," she said.

"We considered (accepting No. 1 plastics) a few years ago, but we did not find a market for (No. 1 plastic with recyclers)," said Vincent Spagnoletti, Steuben County Department of Public Works Commissioner.

Thigpen said recycling companies that would buy both No. 1 and 2 plastics from municipalities would simply toss out No. 1 plastics if the sale prices of No. 1 plastic was not high enough.

"Sometimes they would throw away what they didn't want," she said.

Spagnoletti added the cost of oil used to make plastic and the demand for recyclable plastic in China helped prompt the county into accepting the new plastic.

"(The Chinese) draw a huge amount of our recycling material," he said.

The new collection should help clean up the countryside, Spagnoletti said.

"We believe it will cut down on the roadside litter," he said, adding approximately 60 million plastic water bottles made from No. 1 plastic are produced annually, and most are thrown into landfills.

Another issue with the high amount of plastic roadside litter, Spagnoletti said, is farmers can accidentally chop up bottles along with silage and feed it to cows.

"It can do a lot of damage to the inside of a cow," he said.

Another advantage to collecting more plastic is larger checks from recycling vendors taking the plastic away.

According to Spagnoletti, the county takes in about 90 tons of No. 2 plastic annually. At the current market price of around $400 per ton, the county can bring in $36,000 a year in revenue.

DPW staff are predicting the county will collect an additional 50 tons of plastic this year by accepting No. 1 plastic.

In comparison, the county collects 200 tons of glass, 1,300 tons of paper, 900 tons of cardboard and 200 tons of steel.

The Steuben County Landfill accepts 90,000 tons of garbage every year, while private garbage collectors transport around 20,000 tons of garbage out of the county.

In order to collect the new plastics, Spagnoletti said, residents can mix the two together.

"We don't want to make this too confusing for people," he said. "So they can just toss them in the bucket together."

The only downside to mixing more types of plastics together is lowering the sale price by forcing vendors to sort it out.

"Mixed together, the price is about $200 a ton," Spagnoletti said. "Collecting Nos. 1-7 lowers the price down as far as $50 per ton.

"Even though what we get paid is going down, but the amount we get increases," he said, adding the increase in recycled plastics should offset the loss of revenue.

The county Solid Waste Program began in the 1970s, and the county started recycling clear plastic jugs, along with glass, paper, cardboard and steel, in the late 1980s. Collection of all No. 2 plastics began several years later.

The county also accepts major appliances, used motor oil, fluorescent light bulbs tires and propane tanks at county transfer stations and the landfill. Latex paint is also accepted at Erwin Transfer Station.