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Show Market weak for recycling By MARK EDDINGTON Staff Writer LAYTON Recycling in the county may be good for the environment, envir-onment, but the lack of a local factory fac-tory to process the materials and a weak market make the endeavor less than profitable. Under a cost sharing arrangement with Waste Management of Utah, the Davis County Energy Recovery District expects to lose roughly $15,000 a year over the next two to five years from its recycling program, pro-gram, which began last year. District Director LeGrande Bitter said the supply of recyclable goods currently exceeds the market demand, de-mand, a situation he foresees changing chang-ing very little over the next few years. In a contract signed earlier this month, Waste Management of Utah will transport the recyclable materials mate-rials and fabricate the drop boxes at a cost of about $4,000 per box. The contract also calls for the district to share with the company the net loss of operating the program. "Essentially it costs us $30 every time a recyclable container is pulled,' pull-ed,' Bitter said. Further compounding the problem, prob-lem, is the fact that some materials are welcome at some companies but not at others. For example, Bitter explained, recyclers in Salt Lake won't accept glass. Companies in Ogden accept glass but pass on magazines. The means the cost of transporting the material is often more than the amount of money earned from selling recyclables. Additionally, there isn't one recycling factory in the entire state to process recyclable goods into raw materials. Companies in Salt Lake and Ogden are in reality recycling brokers. They buy the raw material, bundle it and ship it to the West Coast. The high cost of freighting the material out-of-state is another factor Bitter said limits profits for recycling. District officials are trying to en- SEE RECYCLE ON A-3 . other cities on an incremental basis in the near future. Aluminum, newspaper and tin are generally accepted by the district at most box locations. Glass, magazines and plastics are also accepted ac-cepted at a few locations. At present there are no means for the disposal of most toxic materials, though some auto part companies accept motor oil. Bitter said the district is meeting with the Utah Department of Environmental Health officials to formulate an instruction in-struction packet to help people learn how to handle toxic materials. Bitter said the district has looked at having household toxic waste disposal on an annual basis, but a similar event sponsored by Salt Lake County cost over a million dollars. "We don't have that kind of money to throw around," he said. Even if the demand for recyclable commodities does get better, there is little hope it will ever be a big moneymaker. "Recycling will not make us wealthy," Bitter said. "But the real question is is it the right thing to do for the environment? And the answer an-swer is yes. We can save resources and landfill space. ' ' Recycling is perceived by officials offi-cials to be a process rather than an event, and officials are willing to incur the relatively small short-term losses with the hope profitability will improve over the long haul. Recycle CONTINUED FROM A-l sure they have a steady flow of recyclable materials. By accomplishing ac-complishing this, they hope the steady supply will spur greater demand de-mand and increase the likelihood of a recycling factory opening along the Wasatch Front. There are currently eight drop boxes in the district and another three should be placed in operation next week. Eventually, the plan is to place at least one container in 14 cities in Davis and Weber counties and expand the number of boxes as the demand increases. Curbside col-! col-! lection is another service the officials offi-cials hope to offer districtwide. The voluntary service would be offered to subscribers for a $3 monthly service ser-vice charge. Bitter estimated the district would require 10,000 households to subscribe before the operation could become a viable option op-tion for the district. Public interest and participation in a trial program currently underway in Fruit Heights has been somewhat disappointing to district officials. Nevertheless, there are . plans to expand the service to |