With the Athens-Hocking Joint Solid Waste District going through contract negotiations that might split it up, Ohio University and county officials are providing input on recycling around Athens County.

Sonia Marcus, OU's sustainability coordinator, said last week that the university has been recycling since 1991 and that for most of that time it has used the district to handle the task.

Marcus said that OU is currently having problems with how the district is operating. She cited data as one of the limitations. The district provides the university with estimates of how much recyclable material is collected, but not hard numbers, Marcus said.

"It's sort of like the equivalent of not having electricity meters," she said. "How can you actually institute programs and monitor their success if you have no idea what's happening beyond the bins?"

She said that much of the university's recycling data is impressionistic and not very reliable.

Another limitation, she said, is that regardless of how much recyclable material the university generates, it isn't receiving any compensation for the value of those materials with relation to the total amount.

With trash-hauling expenses measured by volume in the district, the university does see some savings by recycling, Marcus said, but it's not proportional to the amount of recyclable material generated.

"So there's no ongoing feedback or ongoing incentives that we are able to receive to be able to stimulate more waste diversion," she said.

The university does recycling pushes, such as the RecycleMania competition currently underway, but doesn't necessarily see the benefit, Marcus said.

RecycleMania is an annual challenge that pits OU against hundreds of other schools across the world. Currently in its seventh week this year, RecycleMania is slated to end on March 27.

As of March 3, OU was leading the state in four of the eight competition divisions, including first in gross tonnage regardless of campus population. By the end of week five, the Athens campus had amassed 182,541 pounds of cumulative recyclables, placing 24th among 343 schools nationally.

Marcus said that different campuses have pursued different routes when it comes to recycling, including having their own material recovery facility.

"We are not in that kind of situation right now," she said. "And there are upsides and downsides associated with that."

She said that with its own facility, the university would be more vulnerable to changes in commodity prices.

Another thing other campuses have done to increase recycling is to allow comingling of recyclable materials, Marcus said. This would cut down on custodial and sorting costs for the university. Sorting, however, would have to be taken up by the county's recycling facility, which doesn't have the resources for that at this time.

"One of the things they're limited by is that they don't have the money to be able to purchase the kind of collection vehicles that would allow them to comingle," Marcus said. "It would greatly improve their efficiency though."

Roger Bail, operations coordinator for the joint solid-waste district, said last week that the commodities market is starting to recover from really low compensation rates last year. He said that regardless of the price, though, the joint district is committed to recycling.

"During part of the year when prices were down, we were losing money," he acknowledged.

In 2007, the city of Athens generated 1,972 tons of recyclable materials and 6,062 in garbage, Bail said. His figures showed 2,058 tons of recyclable materials in 2008 and 5,790 in garbage. For OU, from July 2007 to June 2007, recyclable materials came in at 1,205 and garbage at 3,800, Bail said.

STATE LAW REQUIRES renegotiation of the solid-waste contract every five years, a process currently underway. During this window of negotiation, any county in the joint district has the option of pulling out of the agreement. After a plan is implemented, the only way to withdraw is with the permission of the other partner(s) in the district.

The Athens County Commissioners have expressed an interest in possibly withdrawing from the district, while Hocking County Commissioners have said that the district should not be broken up.

The cost of updating the plan comes in around $40,000. Athens Commissioner Larry Payne previously explained that the district is supposed to be self-funding, with monies raised from garbage fees, recycling charges and tipping fees (from the landfill). He noted that the tipping fees haven't been increased in 16 years, since the joint plan was implemented, and are now obsolete.

Another funding dilemma for the district is that the commodities market for recycling bottomed out last year. Some items no longer can be sold for recycling, Payne said, plus he questioned whether much money could be made in recycling. Until this recycling market turns around, the district has some serious financial issues, Payne said.

One reason for this is that the district has seen some large worker compensation claims in recent years, including a $300,000 worker compensation bill this past year. With Athens County acting as the fiscal agent of the district, this puts a financial strain on the county budget.