2015 has come and gone, and for Sedona Recycles it was a classic best and worst of times scenario. We faced some major challenges but we also ended the year with a very successful fundraiser.
So let’s begin with the worst of times. Recycling is always a challenge and is even more so in a rural area. Material collection requires travelling far and wide to serve the communities of the Verde Valley. This has often been done without funding from the communities that we serve and, for the first time since we began providing drop-off recycling services in 1999, we closed drop-off sites this year – seven to be exact. This is not what we wanted, but the closing of our Saddlerock Circle and Loop Road locations in Sedona were due to new construction and, as they say, you can’t stop progress. At least we were able to relocate the Loop Road site to the Cultural Park parking lot so that worked out for the residents in that area.
The other five sites that closed were in Cottonwood, where we stopped receiving any financial assistance several years ago. In a perfect world we would love to be able to provide our services for free, but material prices just won’t support this idealistic approach. So with a heavy heart we left a community that we had served for 16 years. To their credit the avid recyclers of that community found our county funded sites and kept recycling.
The worst of times has been primarily caused by drastically dropping material prices that, in years past, provided just enough income to cover processing, but that is no longer the case. We saw prices across the board drop 50%, but all our expenses remained the same or increased. For some strange reason there is still this prevailing misconception that recyclers are making tons of money from the products they collect when, in fact, nothing could be further from the truth. Most operations in the current market are struggling and would not remain in business without municipal support.
Now we move on to the best of times. At the end of the year, two enterprising employees took a chance and put together a fundraiser called 90 Gifts in 90 Days. Fundraising has never been Sedona Recycles’ strong suit and no one expected that it would be a big success, but against all odds it was! We received 133 gifts in 90 days. This show of support from the community lifted our spirits when things were the most difficult. We hope to build on this success in the coming year, as fundraising is the lifeblood of all nonprofits. Because of our unique operational aspect fundraising has previously been something that has been difficult for us to tackle.
Despite the most challenging of circumstances, we accomplished so much in 2015 with your support and participation. We believe in what we do and give it everything we have. Thank you all for the part you play!
In 2015, Sedona Recycles collected and recycled the following materials and tonnage:
- 19 tons of aluminum cans
- 3 tons of pet food cans
- 1,071 tons of paper
- 1,319 tons of cardboard
- 87 tons of plastic water and soda bottles
- 25 tons of milk jugs
- 20 tons of detergent-type bottles
- 58 tons of bulky plastics (e.g. crates and buckets)
- 36 tons of mixed plastics
- 289 tons of clear glass
- 551 ton of brown and green glass
- 86 tons of steel
- 7 tons of expanded polystyrene
- 2.5 tons of batteries
- 18 tons of textiles
- 39 tons of electronics
In total, Sedona Recycles collected, processed, and shipped for remanufacturing 3,592 tons in 2015. We had quite a bit of material left in the yard at the end of the year but because it had not shipped in 2015 I did not include it in the year-end total.
Keep on recycling in 2016; it really is important to the health and sustainability of our community. Come by the recycling center and meet the people who work hard every day to do the right thing and take a tour and see what happens behind the scenes. Visit our website, www.sedonarecycles.org, or call us at (928) 204-1185 to find out what we take and get any of your recycling and waste disposal questions answered. With your help and dedication, we look forward to another successful year!
by Jill McCutcheon, Sedona Recycles
Sedona Red Rock News
January 20, 2016