Pictured are several Jamestown Board of Public Utilities recycling trucks. Submitted photo

Single commodity recycling by the Jamestown Board of Public Utilities will save the city-owned utility company money, which in turn will save its customers cash as well.

David Leathers, BPU general manager, announced last week that the BPU will be going to single commodity recycling starting Sept. 1. The change will officially be voted on by the board at its next meeting Monday, Aug. 26.

If approved, the change will mean that customers will no longer be able to combine paper and cardboard and plastic and metal into one recycling bin. The new calendar will now have five different colors to determine the item that will be recycled that week instead of just three colors.

Rebecca Robbins, BPU communications coordinator, said the BPU paid $102 a ton in June to have paper and cardboard recycled, with the expectation that cost will increase in July. The BPU averages 83 tons of paper and cardboard a month.

Now that paper and cardboard will be separated, the expected costs a ton for paper is $35 and $64 for cardboard, which would total $99.

Prior to China implementing a new policy that restricts the importation of foreign recyclables in 2018, the BPU would receive between $5 to $50 a ton for paper and cardboard. Robbins said the BPU takes its recyclables to the county, who then takes recyclables to vendors.

As far as plastic and metal, Robbins said the BPU doesn’t have to pay anything and gets paid nothing. She said after single commodity recycling starts Sept. 1, the BPU might start to receive a small rebate for these products.

“We collect an average of 25 tons per month for the mixed commodity,” Robbins said of plastic and metal. “We collect more plastic by volume, but not by weight.”

As for glass, Robbins said the county takes the glass at no fee to repurpose it.

“The county grinds up our glass and uses it between layers at the landfill, instead of gravel, as a cost-saver to the county,” she said. ” They neither pay us or charge us.”

During the past several years, at times BPU officials have discussed going to single-sort recycling, but the changes in the international recycling market has made that cost prohibitive. Robbins said BPU officials received a quote in 2018 for $130 a ton for single-sort recycling.

“A July 2019 quote was for more than $200 a ton and we anticipate that this cost will increase in the future,” she said.

Robbins said the BPU pays $28.50 a ton to dispose of garbage at the county land fill.

The last increase in solid waste for city residents was in 2015 when the charge increased 50 cents, if the customer received the recycling credit. There was an increase for non-city BPU solid waste customers in 2018 when the price increased from $10.50 to $17, if they received the recycling credit.