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Explore our latest coverage of environmental issues, climate change and more.

Chittenden County Says Preparation Is Key To Keep Recycling Despite Low Commodity Prices

Last week VPR reported on a recent downturn in commodity prices that has some waste district managers scrambling to make ends meet to comply with Vermont's universal recycling law. Our story drew a response from officials with the Chittenden Solid Waste District, because they say planning for exactly this kind of circumstance has left them in a much better position.

They were responding to our story about Windham's solid waste district in Brattleboro, which is struggling to increase capacity at a time when the amount of money they receive for recycled material is dwindling.

Tom Moreau, branch manager of the Chittenden Solid Waste District, spoke with VPR about measures being taken in his district, and the challenges surrounding implementing Act 148, Vermont's universal recycling law.

Recycling has been mandatory for Chittenden County since 1993. Given the prices for recycled materials are pretty volatile, Moreau says the district works to set aside money when prices are good to help it afford to continue recycling when commodity prices are low.  

“The cost to process recyclables— to take them in at a factory, prepare them and ship them off the market— is pretty constant. So right now it costs about $58 a ton to process [recycled] materials,” says Moreau.

Moreau says sending that same material to a landfill would cost somewhere between $100 and $130 a ton.

“We just plan for those kind of commodity prices and knowing full well that they're going to occur, and never ever depend on the recycling to run our other programs.”

So even though the price districts can get for recycled materials dropped in 2012, Moreau says the recycling program is still well supported financially.

A graduate of NYU with a Master's Degree in journalism, Mitch has more than 20 years experience in radio news. He got his start as news director at NYU's college station, and moved on to a news director (and part-time DJ position) for commercial radio station WMVY on Martha's Vineyard. But public radio was where Mitch wanted to be and he eventually moved on to Boston where he worked for six years in a number of different capacities at member station WBUR...as a Senior Producer, Editor, and fill-in co-host of the nationally distributed Here and Now. Mitch has been a guest host of the national NPR sports program "Only A Game". He's also worked as an editor and producer for international news coverage with Monitor Radio in Boston.
Kathleen Masterson as VPR's New England News Collaborative reporter. She covered energy, environment, infrastructure and labor issues for VPR and the collaborative. Kathleen came to Vermont having worked as a producer for NPR’s science desk and as a beat reporter covering agriculture and the environment.
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