Economy in the Dumps: Arkansans toss less, keep more

LITTLE ROCK — What’s one way to know how the economy is doing in Arkansas? Check the state’s landfills.

“In a bad economy, people tend to consume less and keep things longer, leading to less waste that needs to be disposed of or recycled,” the Arkansas Department of Environmental Quality said in its 2010 State of Recycling Report released last week.

That means people hang on to their old electronics, cancel newspaper and magazine subscriptions, and reuse water bottles. More Arkansans seem to have focused on the first two words of the “Reduce. Reuse. Recycle.” mantra, based on the report.

In 2010, Arkansans recycled 32 percent of their waste, or 3.1 million tons. In 2009, 45 percent, or 3.7 million tons, of trash was recycled, the report shows. The department reports are based on fiscal years, which run from July 1 to June 30.

Nationally, 33.2 percent of waste was recycled in 2008, the most current year available, according to Roger Lawrence, the department’s solid waste division chief.

While there was a healthy increase in plastics recycling in the state, electronics recycling saw a dramatic drop. The state recycled 495,714 tons of electronics in 2009 compared with 8,245 tons in 2010, the report shows.

There was also a decrease in the recycling of the packaging that many electronic devices, appliances and other items are sold in.

In 2009, Arkansans recycled 295,996 tons of cardboard compared with 91,234 tons in 2010, the report shows.

“There’s less packaging because there’s less purchasing,” said Melinda Glasgow, Little Rock’s recycling coordinator. “And you probably don’t want to hear this, but more and more people are getting their news online, so there’s not as much newspaper to recycle as in the past.”

Glasgow noted that recycling of plastics is on an upswing. The report shows that 32,864 tons of plastics were recycled in 2010, compared with 29,374 tons in 2009.

Even if more people are recycling milk jugs and water bottles, the overall tonnage may not increase much because the items don’t weigh much.

“Plastic weighs nothing,” Glasgow said. “That’s another reason tonnage is down. Paper weighs a lot more.”

The report shows that in 2009, 50,663 tons of magazines/mixed paper and 59,381 tons of newsprint were recycled compared with 16,979 tons of magazines/mixed paper and 20,160 tons of newsprint in 2010.

While the lagging economy affected electronics sales, other factors may also have contributed to the dramatic drop in electronics recycling, said Walter Alcorn, vice president of environmental affairs for the Consumer Electronics Association, a trade group of 2,000 companies in the industry.

“One of the things that we see is that there’s not necessarily a direct relationship between sales of new electronics and the recycling of old electronics,” Alcorn said. The association is predicting that sales in 2011 will increase 3.5 percent to $186 billion after seeing an 8 percent slump in 2009 and a 10 percent slump in 2010.

“The reason there is no direct relationship is that when consumers are done using electronic equipment, they most often donate the equipment to friends or family for a second life,” he said. “We saw this a lot with the digital television transition. People gave their old TVs to their college students who can use them to watch movies on DVD players or VCRs or connect them to gaming stations. In slightly less amounts, people donate the old electronics to charities.”

There’s also another factor. As the size and weight of electronics decrease, they’ll continue to be a smaller portion of the overall tonnage.

“We are seeing a long-term trend toward lighter and less material in electronic products,” he said. “In the long run, this will mean there’s less equipment to recycle.”

However, a recent visit to Little Rock’s electronics waste drop-off site found that the majority of items in the back of the large trailer were bulky computer monitors followed closely by hefty televisions.

“When we get here on Thursdays, there’s so much piled up sometimes that we can’t even open the doors,” said Robert Davis, a refuse collector for the city.

Arkansans polled on a Thursday afternoon near a downtown coffee and sandwich shop said that while they were unaware of the state report, they weren’t surprised that a poor economy might lead to less trash to recycle.

“I think buying less that has to be thrown away would probably be a good thing for the environment,” said Judith McLeod, who lives in Searcy County but is in Little Rock often for work. “I tend to try to buy in bulk and really watch what comes into my household, so I would say that I recycle about the same amount that I always have.”

Tracey Simmons, who lives in North Little Rock but works at Community Bakery in Little Rock, said she has made some changes that have affected her amount of recycling, if only slightly.

“I cut back on the Diet Coke,” she said. “I couldn’t cut my newspaper subscriptions or my magazines. I gotta have my literature.”

Jon Froehlich, who is a temporary Little Rock resident while he performs at the Arkansas Repertory Theatre, said he has made small changes to save money, as well.

“The main thing for me is when I buy water bottles, I try to reuse them as much as possible before disposing of them,” he said while walking home from the theater.“I know it’s environmentally conscious, but I don’t want to spend another $1.25 when I already have a bottle I can refill.”

Lawrence said he expects Arkansas to get back to or exceed recycling 45 percent of waste as the economy picks up.

“As the economy recovers, we’re looking at getting back out there and reinvigorating recycling activities throughout Arkansas,” he said, noting that the department annually distributes about $4 million in grants aimed at improving recycling to the state’s 18 solid-waste management districts.

That will be welcome news for Jamie Kokinos.

The North Little Rock resident regularly collects recyclable material at her apartment complex and takes it to a drop-off center in Sherwood because apartment buildings in most cities don’t have curbside pickup like some single family residences do.

“It’s kind of a pain, but it’s worth it,” she said Thursday while having lunch at the coffee shop.

Kokinos said she fears that recycling may not be “hip” anymore, thus leading to the drops shown in the state report.

“I hope that it wouldn’t be because all the hype has died down,” she said. “Perhaps it is because of the economy, but we’re all still buying milk and ketchup - I would just hope people haven’t lost interest.”