By Susan Johnson, Sedona Red Rock News
August 29, 2008
Sedona Recycles took possession of a new 2007 Mack compactor truck and 81 new recycling bins this week.
The new equipment allows the nonprofit to significantly expand its free recycling services to residents of the VerdeValley.
As a result, three new community drop-off sites will be established, at Yavapai College in Clarkdale, the Outpost Mall in Camp Verde and at the Wal-Mart Supercenter in Cottonwood. They are expected to be fully operational by mid-September.
These locations take glass, plastic, paper, cans and cardboard, augmenting 10 existing sites at the following locations:
Camp Verde High School
Clarkdale-Jerome School
Cornville Market
Cottonwood Middle School
Jerome (across the street from the Spirit Room)
Lake Montezuma/Rimrock at the Beaver Creek Gas Mart
Sedona Recycles on Shelby Drive, Sedona
Verde Village across from Mingus Union High School
Verde Village Clubhouse
Weber’s IGA in the Village of Oak Creek
In addition to making it more convenient for residents to drop off materials, the increased efficiency of the new system will save enough to repay the cost of the vehicle and bins in less than four years.
The new truck cost $182,000 and the bins totaled $80,000.
Offsetting those dollars are an estimated $45,000 in savings per year on fuel, maintenance and labor.
Those economies are before factoring in what is expected to be approximately $85,000 in income from the sale of the former system, consisting of two trucks and 28 roll-off bins.
SRI is currently in discussions with several municipalities that are interested in purchasing the used equipment.
The old trucks have no compacting systems, making it necessary for drivers to go out, pick up a bin, drive back to SRI to unload and then return the bin to its original site.
That meant at least six deliveries to the recycling center per day, causing congestion in the yard, and at least 90 minutes when the drop-off site had no receptacles in service, causing materials to occasionally wind up on the ground.
In the past, one complete cardboard route took at least 12 hours; now it will take less than four hours, a luxury for Pam Brown, one of SRI’s drivers, who works plenty of overtime to get her routes done.
The big diesel-powered Mack also comes with a built-in scale, allowing SRI to provide exact weights for schools and businesses that want to know down to the pound what they recycled during the year.
“Our main goal in purchasing this vehicle and the new bins is to get our recycled materials recovery rate to go up,” said Jill McCutcheon, executive director of SRI. “The keys to that are convenience, affordability and accessibility.”
In addition to adding free community drop-off sites, several businesses and private organizations will be getting new bins as well, expanding their own on-site recycling capabilities.