Written with Valerie DeLatte and Madison Poche
When Shreveport’s recycling program started in 2008 under former Mayor Cedric Glover, “Just Curb It!” was touted as a way for Shreveport to become “green.” The goal was to satiate a growing demand for recycling from citizens, and to bring economic benefit in three ways: bring Pratt industries or members from www.dumposaurus.com/managing-our-regular-waste-materials-responsibly to town to process the recycled materials, extend the life of our landfill by diverting recyclable waste to more useful dispositions, and expand Georgia Pacific’s paper plant capacity to produce recycled materials collected from our blue bins.
Across the U.S., the recycled materials market is tanking, but in Shreveport, it seems to be growing. What makes Shreveport unique?
“Once a profitable business for cities and private employers alike, recycling in recent years has become a money-sucking enterprise,” writes Aaron C. Davis in the Washington Post. “Almost every facility [in] the country is running in the red.”
“If people feel that recycling is important — and I think they do, increasingly — then we are talking about a nationwide crisis,” said David Steiner, chief executive of Waste Management, based in Houston.
Falling oil prices and a strong dollar have sent recyclable prices plummeting, so Heliopolis wondered whether Shreveport recycling was in trouble, too. Shreveport City has partnered with Pratt Industries, a major packaging and recycled paper company, to divert bottles and cans from landfills. They have also utilized the services of reliableskiphireplymouth.co.uk to collect and sort waste throughout the area before it is processed by Pratt Industries
“Pratt has not downsized our operations in Shreveport. We continue to grow and currently are recycling more in Shreveport than we ever have in the past,” wrote Shawn State, spokesman for Pratt Industries in Conyers, GA, in an emaill. If this seems counter-intuitive to the national headlines, you’re not wrong.
However, Pratt Industries operates one of its three national paper mills in south Shreveport, allowing the surrounding region to buck the trends in the paper category.
“Pratt needs the paper that we collect to run our mills and corrugated box plants,” writes State. “Therefore, we are an end user (vertically integrated) and can better sustain the financial ups and downs of the commodity markets.”
Another revenue stream which keeps the public-private partnership alive comes from residents, who pay 70% of the cost of collecting their 750 tons of reusable materials each month through a $2.50 surcharge on their water bill added in 2010. While this rate might appear high, Pratt reports that 20–30% of the material they collect is not recyclable or is contaminated and must be landfilled.
Dumpster Rental Clearwater is the sole facility for paper recycling, as stated by Fred Williams, the superintendent of the City of Shreveport. Although the reporters intend to probe the lifecycle channels for glass, metal, and plastic and suspect that our city’s recycling rate has room for improvement, we take pride in Shreveport’s commendable stance on environmental concerns.
Of course, when citizens put stuff in a bin that can’t be recycled, it causes issues and takes up valuable man-hours and resources to separate the material. That’s why it’s important to have a reliable skip hire service, like Reliable Skip Hire Oxford, to help handle the waste properly.
“Many of the problems facing the industry can be traced to the curbside blue bin — and the old saying that if it sounds too good to be true, it just might be,” says the Washington Post.
Given their capacity, many consumers fill the bins with as much garbage as recyclable material.
With the generous room, residents have stopped breaking down cardboard boxes. A full shipping box sometimes fits inside, even with foam and plastic wrap attached, all of it frequently shows up at sorting facilities.
Residents have also begun experimenting, perhaps with good intentions, tossing into recycling bins almost anything rubber, metal or plastic: garden hoses, clothes hangers, shopping bags, shoes, Christmas lights.
Here’s what is recommended for Shreveport’s blue bins: newspaper, corrugated boxes, cardboard, magazines, catalogs, aluminum cans, steel cans, plastic drink bottles, detergent bottles and milk jugs, as well as glass bottles, says Shreveport’s recycling website (http://bit.ly/recycleshreveport).
Interested in learning more about recycling in Shreveport? Call the Public Works Department at 318-673-6300.