BOZEMAN, Mont. – Many cities across the country have decided to discontinue recycling after China stopped importing trash from other countries last year.
Recycling is not required in the city of Bozeman but about 4,500 people still do. Although you have to pay to recycle in Bozeman, there’s an upside to paying the small fee.
“What’s great about that is it does lower their garbage costs. What they would normally be throwing away in a larger tote, they can downsize their garbage tote to a smaller, maybe a 45-gallon tote, and pay less for that and then also have recycling,” City of Bozeman Solid Waste Superintendent Kevin Handelin said.
But once your recycling is picked up, where exactly does it go?
“Once we collect it, we take it out to Four Corners recycling, out to their facility. They bail it and get it ready for processing so they take care of the shipping to an MRF (materials recovery facility) and they are the ones that play in the market and deciding which MRF is paying the best for the commodity and they will ship anywhere, whether its Portland to Denver, Salt Lake City,” Handelin said.
As of right now, Bozeman doesn’t plan to discontinue recycling.
“China’s new policies certainly have dealt a recycling blow to the entire country, and I think we’re all trying to scramble to figure out where the next markets are, and hopefully some markets do start developing maybe within our own country that we can process this stuff,” said Handelin.
In the past, the city recycled glass though they do not anymore because Handelin says it is not a viable commodity.
