So, what’s it all doing here, instead of here?
Steve South EDCO President:
South: Every truck and every ton that comes into the facility is subject to an additional tax on recycling. Including Edco. Our own trucks are going to Miramar landfill because we can’t afford to send them to our own facility.
Edco is disposal and recycling company. It opened this construction waste sorting and recycling plant last year. It’s only operating at one-tenth capacity. That’s because it’s actually cheaper to dump than to recycle. It costs about $65 a ton to recycle, only $43 a ton to dump.
This is what the state board that oversees recycling thinks of San Diego’s construction waste recycling policy.
Gary Petersen: This is mind-boggling to me.
Gary Petersen sits on California’s Integrated Waste Management Board.
Peterson: There’s not a lot of time going on in the planet. We have to stop this nonsense and get in the game and start doing the stuff. Collect other fees, go tax cigarette butts on the beaches. It’s not in the game plan.
Even the head of the city’s Waste Management Department concedes providing a financial incentive to recycle is the right thing to do. But, the city would lose millions from all those dumping fees.
Elmer Heap: When you divert material, it’s a beautiful thing because you’re recycling. But at the same token, you’re impacting financially a system in place that was put in place many years ago.
We first told you about this problem last spring. A few months after the story aired, the city decided to make some changes to its policy. Beginning this April, it will actually be more expensive to dump construction waste than to recycle. The city has changed its fee structure at Miramar Landfill.
It could be nearly $100 a ton for large loads, providing an incentive to recycle.
And this summer, a construction recycling ordinance that’s been on city books for years, is finally being enacted. The ordinance wasn’t supposed to take affect until a recycling sorting plant was built in the city of San Diego. Edco’s plant is 40 feet outside city limits. But city council has amended the ordinance to include the EDCO plant.
It all adds up to extending the life of the Miramar Landfill.
