Businesses have no way to recycle paper

Too much recycling is not something most people consider to be a problem.

But this fall, the company that collects paper from local businesses for recycling had to stop because there was nowhere to take it all.

Breau Disposal Ltd. office manager Sharon Deroche said they had no problem getting rid of the paper they collected up until around the first of September, when the company they sent it to told her they couldn't take any more.

"If we can't move the product we can't pick it up," she explained.

Local businesses that relied on Breau to pick up their waste paper now have to find alternatives, like throwing it out with the rest of the garbage instead of recycling.

Scotia Recycling is the company that takes Breau Disposal's paper, but stopped because they have too much already.

With paper selling at around $5 a ton, it's a far cry from the higher prices in the summer, or even the $80-90 a ton it sold for in September.

Deroche said she saw prices as high as $110 a ton during the summer. "It's pretty dramatic."

Breau Disposal also collects cardboard and they have been stockpiling it outside until they can get rid of it. At $40 a ton, the price for cardboard is better than paper and it's not that the company doesn't want to sell it, Deroche said. "I can't even deliver it to them."

Deroche said they had a similar situation with cardboard a few years ago and she hoped they will have the same outcome as they did then.

"It all turned out fine."

If the company can't sell the paper or cardboard it becomes a problem, and they can't build a mountain of it in their yard, she said. "If it's not resaleable, it's garbage."

Miramichi Valley High School student council president Jarrid Deveaux is part of the school's environmental science class that collected paper for recycling at the school.

When his teacher told the class Breau Disposal wouldn't be collecting paper any more, Deveaux said he didn't blame the company, but couldn't believe the school can't recycle because of money. "I was just confused."

Deveaux and his classmates wrote letters to Mayor Gerry Cormier, Miramichi Centre MLA John Foran and Environment Minister Roland Haché to voice their concerns about the recycling issue. Most of the kids in his class were outraged because it's their planet that's being affected, he said. "We inherit it, but there's not going to be anything left."

Deveaux said a lot of his classmates signed the letters "future voter" and added his age group does get ignored sometimes because they can't vote yet. "It's like a slap in the face." The environmental science class collected about 10 tons of paper per year at the school and Deveaux said when you see it all in one room you realize how much gets used. "There's so much paper."

Scott Daley teaches the environmental science class and said they have been recycling for about five or six years, with the school buying bins. "I saw somewhat of a need for it."

He was pleasantly surprised by how upset the students were when he told them they had no one to pick up the paper for recycling, he said.

"I really didn't have any answers for them."

Daley said the students were so involved because they see it as their responsibility to look out for the future. "They see the progress in it."

Although it's becoming a problem for businesses, the Northumberland Solid Waste Commission is still accepting paper in its blue bins for recycling.

The commission's waste reduction coordinator Amy Muzzerall said they have a contract with Fero, who collects the recyclables and takes them to the Westmorland-Albert Solid Waste Commission in Moncton. "Our materials are still being collected."

There is no other company besides Fero collecting locally right now, she said. "There's no location to stockpile them locally until the value comes up."

Muzzerall said the price of paper fluctuates in the same way commodities like oil do, and she expects the problem to last about six months to a year. "This happens, I guess, on a cyclical basis."

The solid waste commission has plans to build local recycling facilities that would cover both business and residential service by this time next year, but Deroche said she wasn't sure how the program would work. "It may vary quite a bit from what it is now."

As for the businesses that can't get their paper picked up, Deroche has referred some to shredding companies in the past, but said they can be more expensive than just getting it hauled away.

"I don't have recommendations," she said.