City of Coos Bay OR : Market for Recycling Declines

Representatives from the two local waste haulers in the City of Coos Bay came before the City Council January 16, 2018 to discuss recycling. Per Bill Richardson with Les' Sanitation, the recycling apple cart is upset. The global market has changed and is more particular about what materials haulers can pick up for recycling. One of the problems has been residential customers mixing garbage with their recyclables. At this point, drivers picking up recycle bins will not haul recycled materials that are mixed with garbage instead, they are leaving the bins with the material curbside. With this practice in place, they are noticing commercial bins are starting to have more garbage dumped in them.

Previously, local waste haulers would get paid for the collected recycled items as there was a market for the materials, particularly in China. Since the market is now stagnant, haulers are required to pay for discarded recycled materials. These costs are being passed on to their customers. Richardson stated that if we don't change by keeping the garbage out of our recycling stream, we may have to bring all our materials to the landfill. This may result in customers needing larger garbage containers. Richards suggested that customers pay attention to product packaging, encouraging them to purchase products which opt for minimum waste and recycling.

The following link is an interesting presentation about the contents of our local recycled materials: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CvjqtLf_5X0 or search 'coosrecycling' on YouTube.