COAL TOWNSHIP - A down recycling market has pushed the township's recycling center into the red in 2012.
The center is at a loss of $2,706.77 through October. A quick turnaround could occur within days, however, if the state cuts a check owed to the township.
The Department of Environmental Protection awards grant funding annually to municipalities based on tonnage recycled. Last year, Coal Township received $37,000, said Charles Shuey, recycling coordinator.
He's expecting at least approximately $20,000 this year, which DEP had said in late September that it would pay the township within 60 days.
"There's no question that once we get that check we'll be at a profit for the year," Shuey said.
The disparity between the 2011 payment and the estimated minimum for 2012 isn't based on performance; rather, there was a bonus involved in the formula when DEP calculated last year's grant funding. If the bonus is around this year, which Shuey wasn't sure of, he figured the township would receive a larger grant.
It's been an up and down year for the center. Usage by locals is as strong as ever, with the center having reached its million-pound milestone in June, the earliest it had done so since its opening in 2005. And over six nonconsecutive months in 2012, it earned a combined $10,968.86.
But the bad months have outweighed the good this year. In four other months, the center saw a combined loss of $13,675.63.
Cardboard has been the most profitable material, Shuey said. It had fetched $140 a ton earlier this year. By September, it dropped to $90 a ton.
"Cardboard went down, and when cardboard goes down, that hurts the most," said Craig Fetterman, township commissioner chairman, following Thursday's monthly board meeting.
Newspaper dropped, too, to as low as $65 a ton.
Both materials have begun to rebound. Shuey recently was quoted $105 a ton for cardboard and $85 a ton for newspaper.
He said plastic is up, too. A new broker is paying 12 cents a pound, and had paid as much as 15 cents a pound for old bottles and such. That's a large increase over what a previous broker had paid: between 6 cents and 7 cents.
A check for $4,560 for a load of plastic was received Thursday, Shuey said, calling it a "big check for any product."
"The market is cyclical like that," he said of the up-and-down nature of the recycling business.
Even with a tough year, the township recycling center has come a long way since it opened in 2005.
According to The News-Item archives, it had suffered from annual losses of approximately $40,000 through 2007. This angered DEP to the point that it threatened to have Coal Township pay back some $600,000 in grant funding awarded for the facility's creation.
Shuey was hired in 2007, at a time he said some material was fetching as little as $15 a ton.
The center eclipsed 1 million pounds for the first time in 2009. The following year it turned its first annual profit of $12,671.
Last year the center earned more than $41,000.
The center accepts recycling on contract from the City of Shamokin, Kulpmont and Marion Heights boroughs and Zerbe Township. Several regional businesses also take advantage of the facility.
To date, an estimated 1.5 million tons of material has been collected at the center, and another 200,000-plus tones expected over the next two months.
"It's not like the material isn't coming in, it's just not generating the money that it has," Shuey said.
If usage continues to increase and the market rebounds, with analysts suggesting an early 2013 turnaround, the center could see a strong start to its first quarter next year.
"I really have no reason to think that it won't come back," Shuey said.