Recyclable Market Shifts, Landfill Trips Dip

COURT HOUSE — Globalization is one of the hot-button political issues that animates political debate in the country. Yet its realities only occasionally show themselves in real-world, local issues that impact county residents.
One such moment came at the Middle Township Committee work session Nov. 19.
County Municipal Utility Authority Executive Director Joseph Rizzuto appeared at the session to discuss issues related to the imminent renewal of the MUA’s contract with the township. 
The current contract expires Dec. 31. The MUA seeks a new six-year agreement.
Two components of the proposed contract received most of the attention in the discussion. One concerned tipping fees for Middle Township, the higher the fee the less the net payment to the MUA from the township.
The other issue was recycling material for which the MUA seeks only a one-year agreement due to changes impacting the global market for the material.
Solid Waste Disposal
With respect to tipping fees, Middle Township hosts the MUA’s transfer station on Shunpike Road in Burleigh. The transfer station is used by a number of more southern municipalities which, by using it, avoid direct transport to the Woodbine sanitary landfill.
Rizzuto said that over 30,000 truck trips annually transport the waste material from the transfer station to the landfill. By law, Rizzuto added, the solid waste material cannot remain at the transfer station longer than 24 hours.
For Deputy Mayor Jeffrey DeVico, the township hosts the transfer station but does not get enough of a break applied to the township’s overall MUA costs.
Currently the township gets a tipping fee or user fee of $1.91 per ton moving through the transfer station. In the negotiations for the new contract, the township asked for $2.78. The MUA came back with no change to the current $1.91 rate.
DeVico and Mayor Michael Clark claim this is just another example of Middle not “getting its due” when dealing with the county.
Clark cited the dispute in recent years over municipal charges for using the county animal shelter. Clark pointed to all the land used by the county in Middle Township for which the municipality receives no taxes. Using colorful language, DeVico said the tipping fee rate is an example of situations where the county dictates terms and leaves the municipality powerless to resist.
For Rizzuto, maintaining the current fee at $1.91 is reasonable in the context of an MUA agreement that sets a 2 percent cap on annual increases in user fees and in light of the fact that volume at the transfer station has actually gone down since 2015 when his data showed 37,000 truckloads were transferred from the station to the landfill annually. Rizzuto also cited the MUA’s efforts to establish the landfill on a footing to be a major asset to the county for the next 120 years.
For DeVico, “Everything comes through Middle” and the township does not get fairly treated.
Recyclable Material
The township is being offered a one-year agreement on recyclable material disposal with some who spoke during public comment expressing a worry that this exposes the township to expenses in the near future that are not safeguarded by a contract beyond the next year.
“We could end up paying whatever you decide you want us to pay,” said Stanley Donigar, of Rio Grande. 
Donigar also questioned oversight of MUA expenses that end up having to be covered by its municipal partners.
Rizzuto explained that the one-year agreement on recycling material is due to seismic shifts in the global market for the material. Until recently, Rizzuto said, China accepted 70 percent of the nation’s recycling material. He noted that China has been reducing the amount it is willing to take and moving in the direction of entirely exiting the business.
This has left U.S. recyclers scrambling to find new markets thus making the finances of recycling very unstable. 
Rizzuto said that new Asian markets were developing in Indonesia and Vietnam, but the future market was still volatile and hard to predict. He noted as well that a domestic market was reemerging after a long hiatus with paper mills in the Southeast demonstrating a desire for recycled material.
For Rizzuto, the one-year agreement may place the county in a better place with respect to accessible markets for the material which would benefit future MUA agreements.
In the short term, Middle Township appears to be at a point where reduced MUA expense is not likely and tipping rates for the township will probably not rise as township officials hoped they would. 
An increased “host community benefit” which Clark and DeVico referred to often in the discussion does not appear to be in the plans of the MUA.
Negotiations are not complete, but DeVico made clear his view that the county MUA holds all the cards.
To contact Vince Conti, email vconti@cmcherald.com.