Quote:
Originally Posted by Argie's Wife
News flash, my friend: there's revenue to be had in them there trash heaps. I'm talkin' 'bout glass, aluminum, roofing materials, and you-name-it. Seriously. And those recyclables that bring in money keep your taxes lower in the long run....
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You are right AW and Wolfeboro is a good example.
Wolfeboro residents recycled 18.93 tons of material more in 2008 than they did in 2007. Sales of recyclable materials also set a record at $128,983. Hauling and tipping fees average $98 a ton, so in addition to making $128,983 on sales, the town also avoided $190,964 in disposal costs for the 1,948.61 tons of material recycled. In other words, the recycling program gave Wolfeboro a total economic benefit of $314,947 in 2008. The recycling rate – the percentage of the weight of materials recycled to the total weight of materials collected in 2008 – was 60.5 percent. This was up from 58 percent in 2007. Wolfeboro’s recycling percentage is higher than the one listed by the Department of Environmental Services (DES) because DES does not include shingles in its list of recyclables. Last year Wolfeboro recycled more than 400 tons of old shingles. The shingles are ground up and mixed with gravel to make a material called aggraphalt, which is used in road construction projects.
In 2007 the Northeast Resource Recovery Association gave Wolfeboro a first place award for the most tonnage recycled in for a town with a population from 5,000 to 10,000. Wolfeboro’s 2007 results were within 100 tons of the large population winner, Merrimack, which has a population of 26,613 vs. Wolfeboro’s 6,625.
I don’t know how 2009 will turn out but 2008 sure was a good year for Wolfeboro.
The Solid Waste & Recycling Facility in Wolfeboro is run by a gentleman by the name of Adam Tasker. Maybe other towns should contact him to see how he does it.