Charlestown residents discuss, “sort out” plastics problem

By Patrick Adrian [email protected]
CHARLESTOWN — For Charlestown and similar towns the conundrum of managing plastic waste may require “sorting out”, both literally and figuratively.

At Wednesday’s selectboard meeting Charlestown residents briefly discussed what to do with the town’s plastic recyclables, in wake of the recycling industry’s market plunge which have shrunk revenues and spiked costs for municipal transfer stations nationwide.

Keith Weed, Charlestown’s transfer station superintendent, told the selectboard that, on the plus side, the Keene transfer station has decided to postpone its rate hike for municipalities to deposit plastics for at least 90 days. Last month Keene had increased its charge for plastic recyclables from $55 per metric ton to $95.

In part in response to that increase, Weed had proposed sending the town’s plastic recyclables to the landfill in Bethlehem instead, which would cost only $53 per ton. While Keene’s reversal of decision meant that Charlestown could resume sending its plastics to Keene for the short term, that rate hike was not the only reason for Weed’s proposal.

According to the transfer station superintendent, the Keene station said that it only wants towns to send plastics with coded one or two, like drink bottles, milk jugs and detergent containers. Keene also expects the town stations to sort the plastics before sending, which Weed said Charlestown cannot do.

“We don’t have the manpower to pull plastics out of our container to make sure that all they receive are ones and twos,” Weed said. “The dollar amount is not the issue. They don’t want these other plastics, but we don’t have the ability to separate them ourselves.”

Charlestown’s station, like many towns, collects “commingled” recyclables, which allows residents to combine their plastics, aluminums and steel cans in the same containers. This practice grew in popularity over the past decade when the recycling industry accepted a wider range of plastics and more companies were willing to sort through the materials.

But China’s halt on importing the world’s recyclables dealt a severe blow to the recycling industry, particularly to the market for plastics. In 2016 China received about 7 million tons of the world’s plastic. Last year China only accepted one percent of that.

“There’s just no market for them,” Weed said.

Weed preferred to have residents continue to bring plastics to the station so that people will keep the habit of recycling. He worried that once people stopped recycling they might never restart.

“We’ve been collecting plastic recyclables for 15 years,” Weed said. “We don’t want to stop it.”

Residents in attendance worried that not sending the plastics to Keene will discourage people from saving plastics regardless.

“I agree that only a small percentage of plastics get recycled,” said resident Erin LeDrew.“But I would be interested in a committee to educate the public about the types of plastic to sort for the recycling the bin.”

Selectman Jeffrey Lessels supported LeDrew’s interest in starting a committee, as did several residents, who suggested a committee could also study how surrounding towns manage their recycling program to exploring whether switching to a zero-sort service would be preferable.

Because Keene restored the price for plastics Weed indicated that he could resume sending the station’s plastics for recycling with the selectboard’s approval. He does not know how long though Keene will retain the current rate or how it might enforce its plastics restriction.