By Justin Dennis

jdennis@vindy.com

YOUNGSTOWN

As Mahoning County commissioners request bids to renew recycling hauling services for another three years, Solid Waste Management District officials brace for a rate hike, partially due to recyclables’ flagging economy and new, stringent Chinese import regulations.

Commissioners approved bid advertisements during a Thursday meeting and set Feb. 20 for bid openings.

The county’s current hauling contract with Republic Services of Youngstown, expiring June 14, was set at $22.65 per container lifted. The district maintains 36 recycling drop-off sites around the county, eight of which are dedicated to their specific locations and not for public use. Between those sites are a total 160 recyclable containers.

Recyclable hauling totaled about $414,000 in 2018, making it the Mahoning County Solid Waste Management District’s most expensive program, said district Director Lou Vega.

But in the three years since the county’s last hauling deal was struck, the recyclables market fell off. Entities that once made money off processing recyclables are now paying to get rid of them, Vega said. Mahoning County has been “insulated” from market volatility in years past because it let haulers broker payment for the material they collect.

“If the markets get better, their profit margin will increase, but if the markets go south like they have, it might eat completely into their profit margin,” he said.

He said he’s preparing for the worst, which would be a 40 to 50 percent markup from the county’s previous contract, or $200,000 to $300,000 more. If it’s a minimal increase, the district could consider absorbing the extra cost.

If it’s not, the district may consider changes to the program, like possibly refusing glass, which has virtually no value despite being difficult to transport and process.

“We decided to go out [for bid] as early as possible, so if we need to make adjustments to the scale of the program. ... It’ll give us a few months,” Vega said.

Barbara Walton, director of the joint solid waste management district for Columbiana, Carroll and Harrison counties, said the district took over recyclable hauling operations in August 2017, to avoid a 49 percent increase in contractor’s costs. In the first year of operations, the district saved about $130,000, she said.

In the last five years, China, the world’s largest recyclables importer, has become increasingly strict on its level of contamination, which is when different types of recyclables mix or come into contact with nonrecyclable trash, Vega said.

Last year, China’s acceptable window for imports shrank from 5 percent contamination to 0.5 percent, he said.