New Mexico Recycling Coalition

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NM Recycling Legislation 2010

The 30-day budget-oriented legislative session started last week and several bills have been introduced that deal with recycling and solid waste issues. NMRC is taking a conservative stance on bills this session, as the theme is really surrounding solving our budget deficit crisis and we only wish to support legislation that will create a lasting impact on recycling in New Mexico. A couple bills, such as the Plastic Bag Act and Safe Paint Stewardship Act first must be ruled as germane or relevant to the session before proceeding.

All bills will be tracked by NMRC at http://www.recyclenewmexico.com/bills.htm. You may also check out the NM Legislature website at http://nmlegis.gov/lcs/default.aspx to follow bills. The last day for bills to be introduced is February 3^rd.

Sustainable Schools SB84: Sen. Cisco McSorley

Requires that all new schools set aside funds in order to put into place a variety of optional sustainability practices, one of which is to place recycling receptacles. NMRC is taking a neutral position on this bill.

Plastic Bag Recycling Act HB59: Rep. Karen Giannini

Requires all stores larger than 7,000 sq ft with 3+ stores in NM to have a plastic bag receptacle in a visible location. Also places enforcement requirements and penalties. NMRC is taking a neutral position on this bill.

Environmental Gross Receipts Tax Increase HB42: Rep. Rudy Martinez

This bill would increase the current 1/16% optional Environmental Gross Receipts Tax that a municipality can levy for solid waste, water, waste water, sewer and related systems, bringing it up to ½%. NMRC is taking a neutral position on this bill.

Disposable Carry-Out Bag Tax Act HB133: Rep. Karen Giannini

The act imposes a $.05 fee on disposable carry-out bags, including plastic and kraft paper bags. Funds generated would benefit public schools, NM youth conservation corps and NM Environment Department. NMRC has not taken a position yet.

Safe Paint Stewardship Act HB135: Rep. Karen Giannini

The bill creates a pilot paint reduce, reuse & recycling program hosted by NMED that assesses a fee on paint manufacturers to fund. NMRC has not taken a position yet.

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Southwest Solid Waste Finds Gold in Scrap Metal

Silver City Sun-News Dec 30, 2009

SILVER CITY – The Southwest Solid Waste Authority has changed the way it handles scrap metal, and will bring in more revenue as a result. Up until recently, the Solid Waste Authority sold its scrap metal to a company in Anthony, Texas, which paid for the cost of the scrap and provided a trailer to haul it on, but left the authority with the responsibility of hauling it. They had to provide a truck and driver to transport the load down to Anthony.

CJ Law said the high cost of transportation prompted him to take a look at alternative measures. “We were making $50 to $60 a load,” CJ Law, manager of the Solid Waste Authority, said. “But we had to pay to have it hauled off, so we were only cleaning $50 to $60 on 10 to 12 tons, which is only a few dollars a ton.”

In the new arrangement, Southwest Solid Waste Authority has partnered with Ed’s Recycling in Clovis, which comes to Silver City with a portable metal baling machine and bales piles of the Southwest Solid Waste Authority scrap metal and hauls it off.

Mike Lingnau, owner of Ed’s Recycling, said the company’s Aljon balers can compact piles of scrap metal into five-foot-by-two-foot bales. “You can put maybe 20 washing machines in and it will compact it into a bale,” he said.

The company then loads the bales onto flatbed trucks and transports them to mills in Houston and Denver to be shredded. The mills set the price on what they are willing to pay for the scrap metal, Lingnau said, but in the new arrangement, right now based on the current price, the Southwest Solid Waste Authority will get close to $100 a ton. The service costs the Southwest Solid Waste Authority nothing and they will net much more per ton than they did under their previous arrangement.

“We don’t know yet exactly how much we’ll get but we were told to expect in the area of $80 a ton,” Law said, “as compared to $5 per ton. We will increase our income exponentially.”

Previously, the Authority had to transport its own scrap metal to the buyer, but they had no way of compacting the metal to get more in each shipment. “A maximum load for us was 10 or 12 tons,” Law said, “This guy is getting 18 to 19 tons on a trailer. Plus he has a market that caters to what he provides. These are highly condensed bales or lumps of metal about the size of a refrigerator.”

The relationship with the company in Anthony had been a long-standing one, Law said, and Silver City’s remoteness prevents many recycling vendors from looking to do business here. “Given our location, we were not really aware that there was much of an alternative,” Law said. “Our distance from any kind of a metropolitan area makes a lot of recycling relationships very difficult. I just got on the computer and stared looking and found this metal recycling company in Clovis and their territory extends to our area.”

Ed’s Recycling has been in business since 1996 and bales scrap metal at landfills and recycling yards from Albuquerque – and now Silver City – to Oklahoma City, Lingnau said.

The company is a member of the New Mexico Recycling Coalition and has increased its processing from 1,500 tons of recyclables in 1996 to over 25,000 tons in 2008. There are no pollutants involved in the process, Lingnau said.

Law is also looking into other ways of improving recycling operations at the Southwest Solid Waste Authority. He is looking in to purchasing a glass crusher to crush the many glass bottles that have been stockpiling at the landfill. There hasn’t’ been a cost-effective way of disposing of the glass that is collected from residents in their recycling buckets, but with a crusher, Law said, the Authority would be able to use the crushed glass as cover for the trash – something they have to do every single day. Currently they use dirt. Law said he is also looking into a tire shredder, for the same purpose.e.

Another item that would be beneficial to use at the landfill, Law said, would be a hydro-mulching system, which many landfills use. “A hydro seeder is a significantly good investment,” he said. The machines, which cost around $10,000, can be used to cover the daily trash mixture with a sprayed-on mulch.

Law noted, “We are trying to make improvements across the board in the way we dispose of trash and in recycling. Our ultimate goal in recycling is to increase the amount of material that is recycled and that will make the landfill last longer.

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Las Cruces Garbage 101:

What you need to know about what you need to get rid of

Las Cruces Sun News - January 25, 2010

LAS CRUCES - Wives nag husbands to deal with it. Government officials agonize over the best ways to collect it and dispose of it and - as "green" consciousness raises - join citizens and environmentalists in pondering ways to produce less of it and recycle more of it. Garbage is an escalating problem and finding solutions can be complicated.

The city of Las Cruces recently mounted an information campaign and it took three large hangtags on each door just to cover the basic rules and regulations of weekly trash collecting, a schedule for the big Grappler truck (which collects large items every other week) and recycling options.

And what if you live outside city limits? Online and phone directory sources list four regional sources dealing with refuse, including Miles Hauling Services, Southwest Disposal Corp., Silva Sanitation and Mesilla Valley Disposal.

Despite pilot programs and experiments, recycling in Doña Ana County remains largely a do-it-yourself enterprise, though many recycling sites have sprung up in recent years (including the Las Cruces Sun-News, which offers a bin for recycling newspapers in our lot at 256 W. Las Cruces Ave.). There are also bins for paper and cardboard recycling at several area elementary and middle schools, malls and superstores.

And the city has two major sites to drop off your recyclables: Foothills Landfill, 555 Sonoma Blvd., the city's old landfill site, which accepts paper, plastics and yard waste and the Amador Avenue Recycling Center, 2855 W. Amador Ave., which accepts everything from paper, aluminum, electronics, appliances and scrap metal to household cleaners, pesticides, herbicides, motor oil, cooking oil, anti-freeze, rechargeable and vehicle batteries, paints, stains, "or any item considered ignitable, poisonous or corrosive," with the exception of ammunition and medical waste.

And there could be more recycling help coming very soon, said Patrick Peck, director of the South Central Solid Waste Authority (SCSWA). "Our focus now is on single stream curbside recycling. That means all recycling gets commingled in a single container and we're about to issue an RFP (Request for Proposals) to finally get a contractor to do the processing," Peck said.

That means there may come a day when you could place several different kinds of recyclables, from plastic to paper and metal cans, in a single container, which would be picked up with your other trash and taken to a source that would do the separation for you. Peck thinks people are more willing to recycle these days. "I think it's slowly building momentum. It's getting a big push from some of our new inhabitants and we're seeing an increasing interest and participation," he said.

For those who'd like to help, the SCSWA hosts meetings of SCRaP (South Central Recycling Partnership) at 10 a.m. the second Thursday of each month at SCSWA headquarters, 2865 W. Amador Ave. The next meeting will be Feb. 11. SCRaP is a regional group of agencies, businesses and volunteers "who care deeply about recycling and want to see the program grow and succeed."

They sponsor "programs and events and look for ways to get the (recycling) message across. SCRaP was behind last year's electronic recycling program and they will have informational booths at Earth Day events around the area April 22," Peck said, adding that anyone interested is welcome to join monthly meetings.

Many are working hard to help us clean up the trash, but we also have to do our part. And there's a solution, if peer pressure and polite requests fail to inspire people to take care of weeds, piles of trash or other conditions that create unsanitary and unsightly conditions.

Call the city's code's enforcement office at (575) 528-4100. "We'll send someone out who can either cajole them into compliance or present an immediate citation that could mean a fine of up to $500 or 90 days in jail," said city codes officer Vincent Pettes.

There's no excuse for trashy behavior, since city residents have garbage service available.

"And the Grappler will come pick up big items and is included (in city garbage pickup fees). All they have to do is put the stuff out," Pettes said. If there are health or disability issues or extenuating circumstances, codes officers "try our best to work with people, within reason. We're not Nazis. We try very hard to issue citations only as a last resort," Pettes said.

In addition to unpleasant sights and smells, trash issues can be serious, he stressed. "Harboring trash, weeds, and wastewater creates unsanitary conditions that can be a breeding place for insects and rodents, and injurious to public health," Pettes said.

If you have questions about garbage and recycling services, call (575) 528-3700 or visit online at www.las-cruces.org

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