Centre County Recycling and Refuse Authority customers can expect to see rate increases in 2021.
In a letter this week, Executive Director Ted Onufrak wrote that ‘there never is a good time to raise rates,’ but explained that with increased costs and decreased tonnage largely resulting from the COVID-19 pandemic the increases ‘are justified and beyond our control and the control of those who collect your refuse as well.’
Households will see an increase of between 15 and 32 cents per month for curbside recycling, while commercial recycling collection will increase from $2 to $7 per month, depending on the type of service received.
The municipal waste tipping fee will increase from $70 to $76 per ton. The average household generates approximately one ton of refuse per year, so homeowner rates likely will increase by at least 50 cents per month, Onufrak wrote.
It marks the first time since 1992 that the tipping fee has exceeded $72 per ton.
‘We have experienced increase costs for personal protective equipment, alterations to our facilities to accommodate the COVID issue and lost employee time due to quarantine issues,’ Onufrak wrote. ‘Our haulers have experienced the same costs and most likely will also be passing those costs on to our residents and businesses.’
CCRRA’s rates are dependent on the amount of waste disposal and recycling tonnage processed. In 2020, municipal waste is down nearly 15,000 tons and recycling is down about 2,000 tons — both 15% decreases from last year.
Costs for handling the tonnage are mostly fixed, with typical annual increases of 3 to 4% for employee health insurance increases and cost of living increases for wages.
‘Tonnage decreases of this magnitude leave us little choice but to increase rates,’ Onufrak wrote.
The authority has eliminated three full-time and four part-time positions but still faces a deficit in 2021 of nearly $500,000, which will come out of reserve funds.
A decrease in recycling tonnage has resulted in not only lost tipping fees, but also less revenue from the sales of recyclable materials and less state grant money. CCRRA receives $25 in state grant funds for every ton of recycling collected and processed.
Though relatively stable over the past two decades, recycling rates have increased in recent years because of poor market conditions. The authority’s revenue from the sale of recyclable materials is projected to be $900,000 in 2021, down from $1.7 million in 2018.
‘Those revenues have been used to offset our recycling collection costs and that’s a significant loss of revenue,’ Onufrak wrote.
CCRRA has not eliminated any items from its collection routes, as has been the case in other areas, and all of the same materials it has collected for years continue to be processed and shipped to markets. No recyclable materials collected by the authority are stockpiled or landfilled, according to Onufrak.
‘When conditions improve – and we believe they will – we will certainly lower our rates whenever possible,’ he wrote.
