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Beyond the Curb: Conshohocken Waste & Recycling
by Anthony Garcia
I’ve lived in Conshohocken with my family since 2001 but grew up in Staten Island, NY. Staten Island is home of the Fresh Kills Landfill, once the largest landfill in the entire world. In my mind, I was thinking that our Conshohocken garbage was filling in some cavernous rock quarry or local landfill. The good news is that it’s not. Instead, it’s actually being used to generate energy at the Plymouth Renewable Energy facility. The even better news is that because of single-stream recycling, the citizens of Conshohocken have a great opportunity to divert tax payer costs away from trash disposal.
Plymouth Renewable Energy Facility
The Plymouth Renewable Energy facility across from BJs, Home Depot, and IKEA takes in garbage from Conshohocken and 23 other municipalities. Municipal waste, up to 1,216 tons per day, is incinerated and turned into energy. This 32 MW facility produces enough energy to power 32,000 homes.
Turning garbage into power is a better use than keeping it in a landfill. For many reasons, starting with disposal costs to Conshohocken Borough, recycling is better.
Single Stream Recycling In King Of Prussia
Recycled trash gets trucked to a close by facility known as the King of Prussia Recyclery. At this facility, a series of machines including conveyor belts with magnets and about 50 human workers sort and sift recycled materials into paper, tin, and cardboard commodity piles. Disposal earns Conshohocken money because these materials are resold. One interesting tidbit is that about 12% of the materials are unusable and must be disposed back into places like the Plymouth Renewable Energy facility.
From figures taken in April and May 2010, Conshohocken can save 100% of trash disposal costs for every ton recycled rather than incinerated. Recent numbers show costs of $63/ton to incinerate garbage while recycling brings in revenue averaging $15.04/ton from April to May.
Realized Savings
There was an almost 5% jump in 2009 when single stream recycling was introduced. The biggest portion of that is attributed to the recycling of corrugated cardboard.
Other equipment savings were realized by simplification of the garbage pick up process. The same trucks used to pick up garbage could be used on different days to pick of recycled materials. This allowed for less human intervention. Previously, different truck setups were needed and recyclables needed to be kept separately. This required more set up time, attention to separation on recycle pick up days.
The environment scored some intangible savings as well. Almost 5 less waste was being burned. The kind of materials spared from the incinerator like plastics are also the kinds of materials we should avoid burning.
A Challenge
In my own household, I can imagine that I recycle much more than 27% of my garbage. That being said, I could if I really thought about it recycle 50% or more. Imagine what a difference that would make in taxes being used to benefit the community, reduced emissions from incinerated garbage, not to mention the trees.
Next time you are at a Conshohocken special event like the Funfest, St. Patrick’s Day Parade, or Car Show. Look out for the recycle cans and use them for your drink bottles.
You can also visit http://conshohockenpa.org/borough-services/public-works/trash-and-recycling/36-residential-recycling for some guidelines on recycling.
Let’s make a push in 2010 to raise awareness and the percent of waste recycled numbers. The Conshohocken Environmental Advisory Council (EAC) will work with Conshohocken Public Works to promote and track progress on this through the ConshohockenPa.Org website.
Other References and Further Reading
Thanks go out to Conshohocken Public Works supervisor, Harvey Buek, for contributing the background and statistics for this article. Thanks also go out to Chris Kaasman, Recycling Coordinator Montgomery County.
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