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BISBEE — Bales and bales of cardboard, newspapers, magazines and office paper are stacked in long lines, just waiting to be recycled.
“We finally found someone to haul it to a seller,” said Andy Haratyk, the city of Bisbee’s recycling manager, as he looked across the 130 or so bales waiting to be hauled somewhere.
Though the city has the commodities to sell, Haratyk has had a bit of problem selling it to recycling firms for the past few months due to the economy. Bales have been piling up and had Haratyk scratching his head about what he was going to do. It took a while and several calls to various municipalities, but a buyer of the cardboard was found.
“I was getting a bit nervous about all this,” he added.
  
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Once the recyclers saw the quality of what Bisbee had to sell, the market opened up.
Thanks to prison laborers who sort through the bins filled with newspapers, office paper, cardboard and magazines, Bisbee has developed a reputation for providing “clean” recyclables that have a better chance of being sold.
“Our guys go through everything. The bales of cardboard are just that — cardboard. It’s the same with all the paper products. We pull out anything that doesn’t belong,” Haratyk said. “Did you know 40 percent of the garbage that goes in the landfill is cardboard?”
Of course, it would save time if people who dropped their recyclables off at the transfer station in Bisbee put the right articles in the right container, Haratyk lamented as he pulled some office paper out of the magazine bin.
The city’s recycling effort has gone beyond his hopes.
“We’re doing really well. In the beginning it would take a month to fill up one of the bins. Now we fill them up in a few days,” Haratyk added. “There has been a huge increase since we started a year ago.”
He attributes the program’s success first and foremost to being a free program for residents and businesses alike. Residents can drop off materials at the transfer station, while he and a crew of inmate laborers go to the businesses to pick up recyclables, especially office paper and cardboard.
Most of the tonnage in cardboard and office paper comes from Bisbee businesses and offices, including the city, the schools and the county.
An added benefit, according to Haratyk, is that each bale of recycled goods actually saves the city $45 per ton at the landfill.
“There’s $5,000 in savings on the ground here,” he said pointing to the rows of bales.
Bisbeeites aren’t the only ones joining the recycling effort. Hereford and Palominas residents bring their aluminum cans and paper trash to drop off, too.
“We have a large number of people who come from outside the city to participate,” Haratyk said.
He emphasized that a metal recycler in Sierra Vista buys the aluminum cans and a paper plant near Phoenix buys up the used newspaper. And 87 percent of all newspaper stays up in Arizona.
“Bisbee continues to be committed to recycling even though the markets are presenting a financial challenge,” City Manager Steve Pauken said. “We will just have to get more imaginative in getting the product to the market. The current prices on cardboard and paper products will not yield the $800 to $1,000 income per load we saw a few months back, but we think we can continue to move the product into the market making $400 to $500 a load.”
Haratyk added, “As long as we break even, we’re doing all right.”
Herald/Review reporter Shar Porier can be reached at 515-4692 or by e-mail at shar.porier@bisbeereview.net.
ABOUT BISBEE RECYCLING
For information on Bisbee’ recycling program, call 432-6000. The transfer station is located at the intersection of Highway 92 and Tovreaville Road. Recyclables accepted include aluminum cans, newspapers, white office paper, cardboard and magazines. Brush and yard debris also is accepted.
Jacqueline OConnor wrote on Jan 4, 2009 2:21 PM: