INDIAN RIVER COUNTY — Indian River County officials are reevaluating how the county handles recycling as changes to a long-standing agreement with St. Lucie County are expected to bring new costs.
For years, St. Lucie County processed Indian River County’s recyclables under an arrangement that did not require direct payment for processing.
Himanshu Mehta, managing director for the county’s Solid Waste Department, described how the system previously worked.
"They were processing the materials to us, and it's all market-based. Once they basically process it, make the bales of aluminum and cardboard and so on and so forth, they market it, they sell it, and at some point in good market years, there was an opportunity for some revenue share," Mehta said. "And there was no cost to us. Our cost was to collect it on the streets, our cost was to transport it there, but there was no, in essence, a direct check written by Indian River County to St. Lucie County."
That arrangement is now shifting as operational costs rise and equipment challenges affect the processing facility in St. Lucie County.
Mehta said the neighboring county has requested changes to the agreement that would introduce a per-ton processing fee.
"The cost to operate and maintain a processing facility is continuing to increase. They've had some challenges there with some of their equipment. They basically came back to us earlier this year and gave us a notice that they would like to amend the interlocal agreement. The big impact is a cost for processing the materials," he said. "I think they started about $55 a ton. We were able to negotiate that down to $45 a ton for all incoming material. Whatever we sent to their facility that they process, there's a flat charge per ton for them to start processing materials."
At about $45 per ton and roughly 22,000 tons of recyclables collected annually, the added processing and transportation costs are expected to total about $1 million, according to Mehta.
Despite the increase, Mehta recommended continuing with the agreement in the short term while exploring alternatives, including backup options with private vendors if capacity becomes an issue.
He said preliminary outreach has already begun to gauge potential costs for contingency processing.
"Right now, what we've done is just some preliminary informal pricing from some of these vendors to say that if you have capacity to take emergency materials from Indian River County, what would that cost be? We factored in the transportation cost of that, and as the agenda item shows, we're looking at a total cost with transportation and processing by these other private vendors instead of a million. We're talking about $1.8 million," he said.
Longer term, county officials are considering whether to develop their own recycling processing facility as population growth drives increased demand.
"We need to start looking at the feasibility of looking at a processing facility in Indian River County. As our community grows over the last 20, 25 years, we've seen our quantity grow. I think we've got a great education program, a great collection program. Our quality of our material is very good as well," he said. "I think we're at the right stage of taking a look at this, doing the feasibility analysis, seeing what the private sector comes back with to see what their interests are, and collaborating with Indian River County to hopefully do it locally."
County commissioners signaled support for exploring that option.
Commissioner Joseph Earman said staff should examine ways to establish a local recycling solution.
"We definitely need to allow staff to look into the feasibility of some way to do our own recycling, be it through ourselves or through a public-private partnership, and start doing that," Earman said.
Commissioner Joseph Flescher also backed the idea, pointing to changes in the county over time and the need for a more modern approach.
"It evolved. Things are ever-changing, and we are having some challenges with our recycling. I think it is time that we look at some sort of recycling mechanism other than those simple concrete bins from many years ago, and something that we can make a positive impact, reduce the cost," he said.
Commissioners ultimately directed the Solid Waste Department to conduct a feasibility study on whether a local recycling processing facility would be viable.