Highlands Today
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Good Market Lifts County's Recycling Income
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Published: July 18, 2008
SEBRING - More demand for recycled materials and better technology to process them have combined to raise Highlands County's revenue from its recycling operation to an all-time high.
Christy Reed, manager of recycling operations, reports the jump in revenues despite a slight decrease in the tons of materials recycled through the county's drop-off bins.
For the first nine months of the current fiscal year, from Oct. 1, 2007, through June 30, the county's 2,555 tons of recycled materials have been sold for $300,647.
That amount, for just nine months, is nearly $33,000 above total recycling revenues from the entire 12-month fiscal year 2006-'07.
Fiscal year 2006-'07 recycling revenue, at $267,380, was well above the $182,991 brought in from the sale of recycled materials in the 2005-'06 fiscal year.
Reed doesn't know why the amount of recyclable materials dropped off at the county's 24 recycling bins is down slightly. But she does know why the price paid for recycled paper of all types, cardboard, steel and aluminum cans and plastic bottles is way up.
"The markets out there for recycled materials are very good right now, and the recyclers have new technology that is reducing their cost to process the materials," Reed said.
All recycled paper products - from newspapers and magazines to office paper and cardboard - are shipped by semi tractor-trailer from the county's recycling facility on Skipper Road straight to Southeast Paper Recycling in Dublin, Ga.
Recycled materials deposited in county recycling bins for the first nine months of this fiscal year averaged 835 tons per quarter year, while the average per quarter year for the previous fiscal year was slightly lower, at 826 tons.
However, Reed said, this year's 12-month total should be below last year's total because the three biggest months for recycling are January, February and March, the height of the snow bird season when the county's population jumps by about 30,000 people.
Drop-off recycling bins are stationed at 24 locations in the county. To find the bin nearest you, call the county recycling office at 863-655-6400.
All revenues from the county's recycling operation go into the county solid waste enterprise fund. That fund operates the landfill and the recycling program, as well as special programs such as hazardous waste and electronic waste collections.
Jim Konkoly can be reached at 863-386-5855 or jkonkoly@highlandstoday.com
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