2021: It’s In The Bag

Eight years ago I was walking the streets of San Francisco with my family. Recycling was about the furthest thing from my mind. Keep Alliance Beautiful’s 2020 numbers did bring back those memories, after a fashion. Last year, the area KAB serves (Box Butte County and as far away as Chadron, Rushville and Ellsworth) recycled a record 770,655 pounds, close to the number of people who lived in the City by the Bay when I last rode a cable car.

A few months ago, I forecast a finish for the year of more than 800,000 pounds and predicted KAB and our loyal recyclers would be chasing the elusive one million mark. I stand by the latter though now I would peg that goal at the end of next year — 2022.

Before delving into the numbers and trends, it is important to note that the amounts mentioned are weights of materials shipped and marketed from the recycling center not weights accepted prior to sorting.

Recycling volumes have taken an overall upward swing over the past four years with the previous record amount at 745,271 pounds for 2018. Year end totals were 562,050 and 665,300, respectively, for 2017 and 2019. With one or two exceptions, the fourth quarter of 2020 proved in line with the first nine months.

So, what does nearly 400 tons look like? Picture three loaded coal cars and one loaded a few feet below the rim. If every person living in Box Butte County (source: U.S. Census 2018 estimate) would have brought in an equal share of last year’s total, every bag would have weighed 71.5 pounds.

According to Clint Fankhauser, landfill supervisor, the volume of trash received at the Alliance Municipal Landfill — 7,510.96 tons in 2020, is 19.5 times what left through our loading bay doors. If everything we recycled here HAD gone through the gates on East Kansas Street, it would have represented 4.87 percent of the refuse intake.

When I started at KAB my main task was collecting cardboard from businesses. Now, I sort curbside and dropped off bags when not otherwise engaged with tasks such as picking up materials or feeding one of our two balers. After handling a portion of the boxes we processed the past two years, I am still surprised at how we saw more cardboard last year than 2019, 342,309 versus 301,403 pounds. The brown shape we love to see on our doorsteps when arriving home brings KAB $42 per ton (all current numbers are as of Dec. 30, 2020), up from $15 the year before but not as good as the $50 paid in Oct. 2018 — the year cardboard volumes hit a record 193 tons. That figure includes Kmart, which was KAB’s chief source before it closed. Barb Niehues, in the KAB office, pointed out that the big box retailer contributed 70,137 pounds in 2018 — just under the number posted for that material during the second quarter of 2020. In comparison, another major cog in the local economy, the Parker plant, recycled 18,422 pounds of cardboard last year.

Cardboard is easy to sort, with the exception of paperboard that finds its way into our trailers. Curbside brings those two materials — and everything else. Total pickups increased significantly over the past two years, adding up to 3,350 (1,864 regular and 1,486 seniors) in 2020, a jump from 2019’s 2,419 (1,549 regular, 870 seniors).

Volumes reflect curbside (including a few at rural residences/business), requested pickups, trailers (Alliance and Hemingford) and dropoffs at the center. Box Butte General Hospital has the most comprehensive trailer requested by any business. BBGH collects most of the categories accepted by KAB. Their volumes totaled 5,282 pounds this past August – December. Also, 2020 was the first full contracted year for transportation through the Kimball Recycling Center’s manager, Earl E. “Spud” Rowley, who hauled our bales and loads on 81 trips with UPS shipping the other two.

Other highlights in 2020:

Newspapers declined from 92K to 38.5K pounds, 2018-2020

No. 1-7 plastic increased by a third over 2019 to almost 43K pounds

Aluminum cans, bringing 26 cents a pound, nearly tripled in weight to 12,947 pounds. A woman brought in hundreds of pounds in one load last week.

Paperboard (fiber) went from 39.6K to 50.8K, 2019 to 2020.

Electronics went back to 2018 levels (almost 22K) after a surge to 42K in 2019.

Glass posted an astounding leap: 51.5 tons shipped out in 2020 following three years at the 20-ton mark.

Finally, higher levels for Hefty Energy Bags (6,516 pounds), batteries (485 pounds), and “other” — which for 2020 meant 920 pounds of fabric bean totes and 3,669 pounds of lick tubs.