LoudounNow LOUDOUN COUNTY’S COMMUNITY-OWNED NEWS SOURCE
[ Vol. 4, No. 4 ]
[ loudounnow.com ]
[ December 13, 2018 ]
34 Warm, wooly gift-giving
Board Advances Programs to Protect Rural Land
Patrick Szabo/Loudoun Now
An excavator sorts scrap metal in the Loudoun County landfill’s recycling center south of Leesburg. A dip in foreign demand for recycled materials means localities are bearing more of the cost to process recyclables like newspapers, mail and cereal boxes.
Rethinking Recycling Changing Global Markets Bring Local Challenges BY KARA C. RODRIGUEZ Recycling is long ingrained in the daily lives of Loudouners, where it has been a locally mandated activity for three decades. But decisions from the Far East could have significant impacts to the recycling industry locally, and industry professionals are warning that changes should be made about what goes in your collection bin. The upheaval began in earnest last year, when China announced it would limit the types of recyclables it would purchase from other countries. It expanded the ban this summer to include even more recyclable materials. The action has significant implications internationally and the change is starting to have a trickle-down effect to local markets. The Institute of Scrap Recycling Industries pegs the amount of U.S. scrap
commodity exports to China in 2017 at 31 percent. In Loudoun, it’s something government leaders are closely watching. Tony Hayes, recycling specialist with Loudoun County government, said he is already hearing from the county’s recycling contractor that they are facing higher costs because of the limitations on what can be exported to China, as well as new limits on the types of material that is accepted for processing. “A lot of the material from the U.S. was going to China. Now all these different companies that process and market [recyclables] have to scramble to find other markets outside of China. In doing that, the price of recyclable commodities dipped quite a bit over the years,” he said. “We’re paying like $25,000 more this year than last year to accommodate our contractor’s woes with all those issues.”
While $25,000 in the county’s $1 billion-plus budget is a relative drop in the bucket, smaller localities are bracing for a bigger budget impact. Renee LaFollette, director of Leesburg’s Public Works and Capital Projects Management, said she is already anticipating that, less than a year into the town’s new trash and recycling contract, the per-ton cost of recycling could double by this time next year, if not sooner. Republic Services is the contractor responsible for collecting recyclables from the eight different recycling centers in the county. Its crews haul the material, sort it, and market it for recycling. According to Hayes, most of the recyclable material collected in Loudoun stays in the U.S. and goes to domestic recycling markets. RECYCLING >> 40
BY RENSS GREENE Loudoun supervisors have adopted a new program to help landowners protect green spaces from development—and are considering another. The county board last week approved a program to spend public funds to help defray the private cost of permanently protecting land from development. They also asked for a report on the possibility of establishing a program that would allow landowners to transfer development rights in the county. Both programs could be added to Loudoun’s toolbox as the county writes its new comprehensive plan—and grapples with how to protect its rural spaces as development pressures increase in the Transition Policy Area, and the urban growth boundary separating rural west from suburban east. Supervisor Tony R. Buffington (R-Blue Ridge) proposed the conservation easement assistance program, which sets up a $150,000 fund to help landowners pay part of the cost of putting land into conservation easements. Those easements permanently protect land from certain uses, including if it is sold, and involves periodic site visits from a government or land trust inspector to make sure terms of that agreement are followed. Buffington said if the county wants to protect the tourism and agricultural success of its rural areas, “then we have to find a way to permanently preserve a sufficient mass of open space and agricultural land, or this area that’s currently revenue-positive will eventually become revenue-negative, and we’ll have that problem to deal with.” While those easements come with tax benefits, they also mean giving up the potential of selling land for development, and involve up-front costs that can run into the tens of CONSERVATION >> 45
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