County landfill seeks new markets for recyclables

Following a Chinese ban on imported recyclables that has affected markets worldwide, the Lincoln County Landfill manager is trying to find new markets for at least some items.

On Jan. 1, China — the world’s largest processor of recyclable materials — stopped accepting imports of 24 kinds of recyclable waste, forcing Kootenai Disposal on Dec. 20 to stop accepting consumer recyclables from the Lincoln County Solid Waste and Recycling department.

Since then, Bryan Alkire, the landfill’s manager, has been scouring the internet and trade magazines to see what can be done.

“The demand for No. 1 and No. 2 plastics” — certain bottles and jars and items such as milk jugs — “has remained strong but, there are a very limited number of companies that are able to broker the commodity to the end users,” Alkire said Thursday via email. “There is also a lot of competition for the limited opportunities that are available. We will have to work with our recycling buyer to see if we can begin to collect those articles once again.”

Meanwhile, those and other formerly collected items are now being taken to the landfill. When Alkire mentioned this at Wednesday’s Lincoln County Commission meeting, Commissioner Mark Peck asked how it would affect the fill rate of the landfill’s current cell, as the county anticipates needing to create a new cell in the next five to six years at the potential cost of $2 million.

“It’s going to increase it a little bit,” Alkire told Peck.

Peck also asked why the market for such materials doesn’t exist in the United States, to which Alkire responded that most manufacturers that create goods from recyclables are based overseas.

Jennifer Nelson of the Lincoln County Health Department, which oversees the solid waste and recycling department, told the Commission that even Chinese-based manufacturers are “looking for other locations in order to do the work,” a reflection of their country’s reported desire to clean up its environment as a result of the ban.

“Hopefully this is going to be a short term problem and new opportunities become available for this resource soon,” Alkire wrote.