On Monday, the El Paso City Council heard a presentation from Ellen Smyth, Director of Environmental Services for the City of El Paso, and Morris Friedman, President of Friedman Recycling. At issue was the proposed renegotiation of Friedman’s existing recycling contract with the City of El Paso. This is in response to China banning 24 types of recyclables that recycling programs across the US have accepted and sent to China for the past decade.
Friedman Recycling is the only recycling processor in our region. In the Friedman plant in northeast El Paso, the company manages recyclables from the cities of El Paso and Las Cruces. Since January 1st (in anticipation of the March 1 implementation of China’s new quality standards), Friedman has added 55 new employees in their El Paso plant and slowed their conveyor belts, to sort and throw out the no-longer-acceptable recyclables. This increased costs for Friedman, leading to today’s presentation. The El Paso City Council took no action.
The South Central Solid Waste Authority (SCSWA) also contracts with Friedman to take recyclables from Las Cruces and Doña Ana County and is now waiting for a new proposal from Friedman Recycling.
“For now,” says Patrick Peck, Director of the SCSWA, “we are asking all residents and businesses in Las Cruces to continue recycling. We will notify the public as details emerge.”
Peck stresses it’s important that we focus our recycling energies on high quality materials:
1) Recycle only acceptable items
2) Be sure they are clean and dry
3) Especially recycle: plastics 1 & 2 (water bottles, milk jugs, laundry detergent jugs) – clean corrugated cardboard – printer paper – aluminum cans and steel cans
“The SCSWA was named the #1 government recycling program in the nation (by the National Recycling Coalition) 6 months ago,” says Peck. “The Las Cruces community has a very strong 70% recycling rate; our recycling program is well supported by Las Cruces residents and businesses who value this environmental effort.”
Peck adds, “The SCSWA and Las Cruces are carefully watching to see how this plays out to determine how we move forward with recycling in our community.”