Albany is closely monitoring potential recycling changes, which could impact the city's finances

County Waste & Recycling, based in Clifton Park, was paying the city of Albany $ 10 a tonne for recyclables – until its biggest customer radically changed its policy. The tables have turned: Albany now pays the recycler.

According to Greenpeace, China, which once had an insatiable appetite for municipal recyclables, banned 24 types of waste in four categories on January 1: certain types of mining slag, "Kathy Sheehan, Mayor of Albany "The steep rise in recycling costs is driving a 30% increase in the cost of its current recycling program. We are looking more closely because at this point it costs more to dispose of recycling at the recycling center than to throw it into the landfill. "

The city 's landfill is expected to run out of space by the end of 2022.

Former Albany Common Advisor and Critic of. Sheehan administration frequents Judd Krasher says that the situation is not hopeless. "From what I understand of what China is doing with respect to its restrictions, it is that it limits the amount of contaminated recycling products." terms, many municipalities, companies, do a bad job.There is always a market in China, the problem is that we do not take things like cups and bags of groceries, takeaways that contaminate a lot of recyclable products that are actually useful 19659003] In 2016, the city has invested in a fleet of new trucks to pick up recyclable materials with the help of a specially designed cart.The content is sorted At the waste treatment facility, officials like Mayor Sheehan, a Democrat, were hoping the new system would encourage residents to recycle more, but now the recycler is charging fees … "We are actually challenging the enforcement of these en but by County Waste because we have a contract to be able to tip our recycling to zero dollar and they are now looking to charge us $ 120 a ton, and that's not something we've agreed to and we're going to pursue all our rights under the exhibition contract to avoid this sharp increase, but ultimately, this contract will expire and we will face this problem. "

A solution could involve efforts by residents and the recycler to control the flow of waste." Krasher says a recent outbreak of crime in the New York capital says that for people with everyday problems, Proper recycling and environmentally friendly are very low priorities. "So that we can go to a place or a city, a state, etc. which understands the importance of recycling with respect to the 39 environment, which is the key here, it must be ensured that the basic life qualities of people All these public policy issues are related and when people have trouble paying their bills, worry about knowing they're going to get shot when they walk in their neighborhood., these other problems seem very academic and completely out of their field, and rightly so, because they've pro much more fundamental problems to worry about. "

Contacted by WAMC, County Waste did not comment in time for the broadcast." A spokesman told The Times Union, by letter, that it cost more to County Waste to deal with. the recyclable materials that the materials could be sold