Mike Wolanin | The Republic Jacob Conrad uses a forklift to push cardboard on to a conveyor belt at the Columbus Recycling Center in Columbus, Ind., Tuesday, Nov. 13, 2018.
The Bartholomew County Solid Waste Management District has announced that it will end what it has described as its second-largest waste diversion program next month, eliminating a decades-old program that has kept over 26 million pounds of cardboard and office paper out of the local landfill since 2015.
The district announced on Friday that it will end its commercial cardboard and office paper recycling program on Sept. 8, citing financial pressures. The Bartholomew County Solid Waste Management Board of Directors voted to end the program during its July 24 meeting.
The program, which started in 1994 and was provided customers for free, and currently serves around 230 local businesses, according to the district.
Additionally, commercial deliveries to the Columbus/Bartholomew Recycling Center, 720 South Mapleton St., will end later this fall once a new commercial recycling facility operated by Rumpke Waste & Recycling opens at the Bartholomew County Landfill.
“It is a financial loss for the district,” Bartholomew County Solid Waste Management District Director Heather Siesel told The Republic. “Even when you’re selling the cardboard, it doesn’t make up for our equipment, our staff, the processing of materials. So, yes, it is primarily a financial decision. …We’re a special district. We’re really not supposed to be competing with private industry, and there are many different private companies that offer commercial recycling. So, for those two reasons, yes, we’ll be stepping back from commercial recycling.”
An analysis of the program that was discussed during the July 24 meeting shows that the program had not been profitable since the district took over sole responsibility in 2014, incurring a median annual loss of just over $107,000 per year.
Overall, the program incurred a total loss of around $1.74 million over the course of the decade, according to the analysis.
“I don’t know that there’s any one thing that added to that, but the price for recycling is a commodity just like any other, just like corn or gold, and that price fluctuates,” Seisel said. “So, it’s not that (the price) necessarily slid down one year. It’s just a fluctuating market.”
The district’s annual reports say that the program collected around 13,247 tons of cardboard and paper from 2015 to 2024, which is around 26.7 million pounds. By comparison, the Eiffel Tower in Paris weighs 10,100 tons.
The district’s annual reports show that the program was seeing declining volume despite an increase in participating businesses over the past five years.
In 2024, the program’s volume was around 1,155 tons (around 2.31 million pounds), down from 1,513 tons (around 3.02 million pounds) in 2020, according to the annual reports. The number of businesses participating in the program grew from 207 to 227 over the same period.
While the district is “stepping back” from commercial recycling, Rumpke is coming in.
Rumpke is planning to build a new commercial recycling facility at the Bartholomew County Landfill that is expected to accept source-separated cardboard, as well as items such as paper, plastic, glass and metal.
The company expects to break ground on the facility this month, with an expected opening date this fall.
On Monday, Rumpke and the district sent letters to businesses participating in the program to “discuss service continuation options” once the district’s commercial cardboard and office paper program ends next month.
On July 24, Rumpke Waste & Recycling Region Vice President Eric Curtis told the district’s board that there will be a “fee” for businesses to continue in the program and that “our sales force is prepared behind the scenes to go out to each customer and try to get them to continue with the cardboard program.”
“Earlier this year, we met with the city of Columbus and the Bartholomew County Solid Waste Management District to discuss opportunities to better manage the acceptance and transfer of recyclable materials generated locally,” Curtis said in a statement on Friday. “We’re excited to construct a new commercial recycling facility to provide an efficient, cost-effective and centrally located recycling solution for the community. This facility will help better manage the transfer of material and hopefully increase the volume of recyclable material captured, diverting more material from the landfill.”
Cardboard will be loaded into tractor trailers and transported to Rumpke’s recycling facility in Medora, where it will be baled and sent to Indiana manufacturers to produce new products. Mixed recyclables will be transferred to Rumpke’s recycling facility in Cincinnati for sorting and processing.
In the meantime, the district’s decision marks an end to a program that was free for local businesses for the past three decades.
The commercial cardboard and office paper program launched on Jan. 2, 1994, as a joint effort between the city of Columbus and the Bartholomew County Solid Waste Management District, with 200 participating businesses, according to the district’s most recent annual report.
The program initially focused on cardboard, computer paper and white copy paper. By 1997, it had expanded to include mixed office paper, junk mail and shredded material.
In 2006, the district bought an industrial-sized baler to keep up with rising volumes of cardboard being processed at the recycling center.
In 2014, the district assumed the sole responsibility of collection, aiming to expand the program. The district bought a new commercial cardboard truck in 2023.
