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FORT COLLINS - Gallegos Sanitation Inc., the largest singlestream recycling company in Fort Collins, says it stands to lose hundreds of thousands of dollars this year because of a new contract under which it is charged to drop off and process the recydables it collects. Formerly, Gallegos actually was paid for the recydables it delivered to the county processing facility.
The losses have Gallegos pleading with the city to change a decades-old ordinance that prohibits it from charging customers a separate fee for recycling, company officials said.
Waste Management operates the Larimer County Recycling Facility. The new contract lets Waste Management tie the price it charges to process and ship recydables to international commodities prices for recycled materials. That market has softened considerably in recent months due to low demand from China and the West Coast port strikes.
Waste Management, which was the sole bidder on the county contract, processes the recydables and hauls the bales in semi-trucks to the Denver metro area for shipment.
Waste Management said the new contract's pricing structure is critical to maintaining an economically viable processing operation.
"As markets have shifted downward in the last few years, WM has subsidized the cost of recycling in the area, due to our prior contract with Larimer County," said Waste Management spokeswoman Lara Rezzarday in an email.
"The recycling commodities market is down due to low demand and WM has to offset the cost of collecting and processing recyclables that are bringing in lower value," Rezzarday said. "Recycling is a global business and is impacted...