Mesa’s current recycling program is down in the dumps – literally and figuratively.

And it’s going to stay there, at least partially, for years to come.

City staff told City Council that 70% or more of the recyclable material Mesa picks up from residents and businesses is thrown into the landfill along with nonrecyclable trash.

That comes out to about 22 tons of the roughly 32 tons of cardboard, cans, jugs and glass picked up in blue barrels each year.

The situation may improve next spring, when Republic Services is slated to reopen a Materials Recovery Facility at the Salt River landfill, which was destroyed by fire in 2019.

But when the Republic MRF opens, the city’s recycling will take one step backward along with the one forward because long-time vendor United Fibers in Chandler has informed the city it is getting out of the “commingled recycling” business.

United Fibers is the reason Mesa has been able to recycle the limited amount it has for the past three years, and the company has promised to continue serving Mesa until the Republic facility comes online.

The change will make Republic the city’s sole recycling processes vendor.

The Solid Waste Department estimated Republic would be able to accept 70% of Mesa’s recyclables under a five-year, $7 million contract with the company approved by Council on Dec. 8.

The remaining third of Mesa’s collected recyclables will continue to go to the landfill until the city finds another solution for its recycling woes.

Council member Julie Spilsbury expressed a degree of surprise at how much recycling ends in the dump.

“So am I understanding this correctly,” Spilsbury asked staff. “Currently, all of the recyclables that you collect, you’re only able – because of space – to do 30% … (and) you dump the other 70% into the regular landfill?”

Yes, staff said.

“And we would only be able to, even with our long-term solution, do 70% and then dump the other 30%?” Spilsbury continued.

Yes.

Spilsbury also confirmed with Solid Waste Director Sheri Collins that some of the 30% of recyclables Mesa does drop off may still end up in the landfill because Mesa cannot sort out contaminated recycling before dropping it off.

Staff explained that Mesa is in this mess partly because it relies on third-party vendors for recycling. The city lacks its own infrastructure to sort or store recyclable material after picking it up.

Private recycling companies have struggled to meet Mesa’s recycling needs, and in recent years they have canceled contracts, raised rates and altered the materials they accept as the recycling business faced hard times with COVID and changes to international recycling – namely changes in China’s policy on importing recyclables.

“You can see our vulnerabilities,” City Manager Chris Brady said. “We haven’t improved significantly. We will end up with one vendor going back to the same location that burned down.”

Collins said other cities that own their own sorting facilities, such as Phoenix, can contract with brokers to sell their processed materials directly to manufacturers.

Mesa wants to go down this path, and has set its sights on a regional recycling facility in collaboration with the Town of Gilbert, possibly at city-owned property at Pecos and Sossaman.

A feasibility study completed this year indicated a MRF would be too expensive for Mesa to go it alone.

A spokesman for Mesa’s Solid Waste Department said the project was “still in the early evaluation stages.”

“Part of our evaluation includes the development of intergovernmental agreements and initial design concept reports which will help determine whether the regional MRF will be a viable, long-term recycling solution,” he said.

He said a timeline may be available next year.

Brady told council the city would be looking at the idea over the next “three, five years.”