Curbside Recycling Has Arrived in Nogales!

ADEQ, the Arizona Department of Environmental Quality, has awarded Nogales $200,000 to implement a curbside recycling program. The City Council has underscored the City's committment with a match of $200,000. This is truly a great advance for our city.

Goal: To establish a strong solid waste recycling program in the community.

Why?

"We are only on this planet for a short time, we did not inherit the earth from our parents, we are borrowing it from our children." Author Unknown 

• Because recyclables typically take up 40 - 50 percent of the space in the green garbage cart.
• The City and its residents can save money by using only one garbage cart instead of two, or by using a smaller garbage cart.
• Because the cost to pay for solid waste to be hauled to a landfill may be reduced.
• Because the City and its residents can help the environment by reducing the amount of raw materials that need to be harvested or mined.
• Because the cost to process recycled materials is cheaper and uses less energy than processing raw materials.
  

How?

To achieve this goal, the City of Nogales has developed a workable plan that can actually be implemented and is requesting funding assistance. The City of Nogales is taking the leadership initiative in involving the community through distribution of the recycling plan to all households, schools, businesses, and neighborhood recycling centers and the placement of recycling bins. Beginning in 2003 the City has actively sought community support for recycling through public meetings and presentations at schools and local community groups. Civic and business leaders within the community recognize the importance of the recycling initiative for the community and the negative consequences of inaction both locally and globally. They have expressed support and a willingness to participate in the implementation of the recycling program.  Additionally the City has recruited the involvement of the schools, which is essential for the long-term success of the recycle program. The City of Nogales has a demonstrated, sustained commitment to the Recycle program and the recycle goal is included in the City’s Strategic Plan to improve residents’ quality of life and to prolong the life of the Santa Cruz County Landfill. One of the City’s Councilmen writes and contributes a regular weekly recycling information column published in the Nogales International, the local newspaper.  In addition, a transfer station has been conveniently placed at the City of Nogales Public Works facility. The response has been overwhelmingly positive and it is clearly time to take the next step the award of this grant will support.

What is the Community Impact of Solid Waste?

The City of Nogales understands that there is a need to think globally and act globally. Toward that end we have researched the impact that solid waste reduction can have locally and globally. Recycling makes a difference. It's the right thing to do. Not only does Nogales preserve resources by recycling but it also saves tremendous amounts of money by not paying for disposal.  Every ton recycled is a ton the City doesn’t have to pay to throw out. Significantly it is also a ton that will delay the closure of the County landfill that is tentatively in 7-12-years.

In 2003, the City paid a tipping fee of $32/ton to deliver about 16,000 tons of material to the landfill. Last year the City paid $37/ton for over 20,000 tons of material. It is estimated that a full 60-percent of the waste tonnage was recyclable materials. Of that volume, the City is anticipating initially recycling paper, aluminum, glass, and plastics. During the first full year of recycle operations, it is estimated we can recapture approximately 40-percent of the present waste stream resulting in savings of about $177,600 that can be invested in the program.

Like the rest of the nation, almost everything we do creates waste.  “In 1999, U.S. residents, businesses, and institutions produced more than 230 million tons of MSW, which is approximately 4.6 pounds of waste per person per day, up from 2.7 pounds per person per day in 1960.”

In Santa Cruz County, as with most other counties, we bury most of our garbage in the county landfill.  But landfills are filling up, including those in Santa Cruz County, and closing down all over the country. In 1986, there were 7,683 municipal solid waste landfills.  A survey done in 1995, showed only 3,581. The additional long-term benefit to the community will be the savings realized from delayed closure of the landfill. To permit and build another landfill would take approximately 10-years and cost an estimated 70 million in today’s dollars.

In The Solid Waste Dilemma, An Agenda for Action published by the EPA/530-SW-89-019 in 1989, integrated waste management was referred to as “the complementary use of a variety of waste management practices to safely and effectively handle the municipal solid waste stream with the least adverse impact on human health and the environment.”  When deciding how to handle your solid waste you should consider the alternatives in this order:  source reduction (includes reuse), recycling, incineration then landfilling.  This hierarchy has remained unchanged and is still regarded as the best way to handle solid waste. 

Did You Know?

Recycling, as the word indicates, is a cyclical process. After purchasing a product and using it to its’ full potential a choice becomes evident.  Throw it away or recycle it.  If there is an available market choose recycling.  Here are some reasons why recycling is the best choice for Nogales: 

• Every year we save enough energy recycling steel to supply L.A. with nearly a decade's worth of electricity.

• Making one ton of recycled paper uses only about 60% of the energy needed to make a ton of virgin paper. 

• Every aluminum can that is recycled saves 95 percent of the energy that it would have taken to manufacture a new one from bauxite. In other words, when you toss a can in the trash you throw away as much energy as if the can was half full of gasoline. Recycling one aluminum can to run a TV for three hours. 

• Recycling glass lowers the melting point for the new glass, saving up to 32% of the energy needed for production.

• Recycling reduces our dependence on landfills and incinerators. 

• Every year Americans throw away nearly 10 million tons of newspaper. If these papers were all recycled, over 150 million trees would be left standing, less than half as much energy would be used, and air pollution from the manufacturing process would be cut by more than 70 percent.

• America imports most of its' oil and it is costing more every day.  Saving energy by recycling means we depend less on foreign supplies and reduce environmental problems such as global warming, acid rain and oil spills directly linked to our energy use.

• Recycling reduces the amount of pollution created during the manufacturing process.  The end result is cleaner air, land, and water.  Our resources are finite. If we don't reduce, reuse or recycle them, we'll use them up. 

What Happens Next?

The City of Nogales is proposing the implementation of a co-mingled curbside recycling program as well as providing recycling containers to residential consumers using the City’s established collection routes. The proposed recycle items collected include paper, newspaper, colored paper, aluminum, glass, and plastics #’s 1 and 2.

The recycling plan calls for an aggressive initial public awareness campaign, which has begun. The City of Nogales will erect way finding signs by the recycling points to provide information and notification. The signs are estimated to cost $500 each and the City is proposing to purchase at least 12-signs for a total estimated cost of $6,000. The City will also market the program on its web site, advertise in the local newspapers and distribute informational flyers throughout the school and community. The cost of the marketing campaign is estimated at $10,000.  Local television stations will be asked to highlight the program on their community interest segments as well as through public announcements and run program reminders and updates on regular news rotations. News Releases will be issued as the situations warrant. A brochure describing the types of materials that will be recycled has already been printed on recycled paper and is ready for distribution. The printing, valued at $7,000, was donated by Santa Cruz printers, a local printing company.

The next step in the action plan is to procure and distribute the equipment required to implement the program. The City plans to upgrade three garbage trucks by retrofitting the equipment with hydraulic lifters.  The retrofit will cost an estimated $3,000 for each of the three trucks. The City will procure the 68-gallon carts for distribution to 6,000 City of Nogales households, which will cost an estimated $210,000 ($35/unit estimate).

Program implementation will begin immediately upon confirmation that funding is awarded and the required contracts are signed. For purposes of the timeline, award is assumed to occur in October 2005. The timeline is as follows based on an December 2005 award: 

• January-March 2006 – 1. Initiate awareness campaign; 2. Develop IGA’s.
• February 2006-July 2006 – 1. Retrofit trucks; 2. Purchase and distribute equipment.
• April 2006 – Initiate collection service.