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Recycling
of diapers is money down toilet By Carl DeMaio THE city of Santa Clarita may soon put its residents on the hook for hundreds of thousands -- if not millions -- of dollars for a program the city already knows doesn't work. For the past 10 months, Santa Clarita has engaged in a study to determine the feasibility and viability of diaper recycling. Ten months of data have confirmed what Toronto learned when it tried diaper recycling a decade ago: It costs a lot of money with little benefit. Two years ago, the California Legislature approved $250,000 to fund a diaper-recycling pilot program in Santa Clarita. The city matched the allocation with local taxpayer funds for a six-month project to determine if diaper recycling was technically or economically plausible. During most of the pilot program, the "recycling" machine was in a state of continuous disrepair. The ultimate goal of the program -- diverting disposable diapers from landfills -- was not achieved. After six months, only two tons of wet fiber was recycled, and most of that was just water. Assuming that the 229 families participating in the pilot program recycled all of their diapers over the study period, Santa Clarita and California taxpayers have been on the hook for up to $1.61 per diaper! In total, they're paying 20 times the cost of sending diapers to the landfill to see whether a disposable diaper recycling program is viable. Clearly, the answer is no, but that hasn't stopped the city from extending the program. At its Sept. 23 meeting, the city is considering expanding the program citywide! But the city's own staff estimates that expanding the program citywide would increase the diversion rate from 42.0 to 42.07 percent -- a statistically insignificant increase. I'm all for recycling -- as long as it is cost effective and benefits the environment. In Santa Clarita, neither result is being achieved. If the goal of the city's investment is to reduce the amount of waste sent to local landfills -- which in the end, is the ultimate goal of any recycling program -- there are better ways the money can be spent. Some products, such as clean paper, glass and plastics, have been proven to be recyclable, both efficiently and economically. Investing the money thrown away on diaper recycling in existing programs would actually help increase the city's diversion rate. If Santa Clarita's City Council recognized the failure that diaper recycling has become, it could get out of the business now. It could sell the equipment to another city or ask its manufacturer to return its $100,000 cost. City staffers have recommended that diaper recycling in Santa Clarita be terminated. After four months of delay, the time has come for the City Council to follow the staff recommendation and end this costly program. Carl DeMaio is president of the San Diego-based Performance Institute, a private think tank that specializes in government accountability reforms. |
