Carlsbad blames difficult market conditions for stoppage of recycling services

CLOVIS (Scrap Monster): The City of Carlsbad has announced its decision to stop recycling services at Rainbow Recycling. The decision to put the services to an end was taken jointly by City administration and CARC Inc., which is the parent organization that owns Rainbow Recycling. The company had handled city’s recycling services for more than a decade. While stating that difficult market conditions have forced them towards shuttering of the facility, authorities remained optimistic that an alternative solution would be announced soon.

According to Mark Schinnerer, CEO of CARC Inc. , the company had been looking at all possible ways to keep the plant open. Several such efforts were made during the past one year. However, the revenue generated from the sale of recycled material has failed to keep up with the rising cost of operation. Apart from this, the the facility on 5008 National Parks Highway has been suffering from huge maintenance cost on account of a major equipment breakdown recently. A combination of all these factors has forced the city and CARC Inc. to arrive at a mutual decision to suspend the recycling services offered by Rainbow Recycling to city residents.

The news release by CARC Inc. noted that recycling pickup services will continue to operate, but items will be transported to the Sandpoint Landfill. The city will continue offering other recycling services. For instance, glass could still be dropped at the 302 E. Plaza St. drop-off facility. Residents are also allowed to drop documents for shredding at the facility located at 103 E. Greene St.

Carlsbad Mayor Dale Janway termed the closure decision as unfortunate. He appreciated the services done by CARC Inc. and Rainbow Recycling to the community all through the past several years. Janway reminded that stoppage or reduction of recycling services is a reality in communities across the state and the country, mainly due to the huge gap in revenue generated from recycled materials and the escalating cost of operations. The rising operation costs and falling scrap commodity prices have made it extremely difficult for recyclers to survive. The city noted that the recycling program had been operating at huge financial loss for the past several years, primarily on account of weak regional and international scrap market conditions and escalating cost of equipment repairs and maintenance.

Meantime, Jerry Stanley, Chairman, Board of Solid Waste Commissioners expressed disappointment over suspension of city recycling services. The re-establishment of recycling services in Carlsbad is subject to significant improvement in scrap market conditions, Stanley added.

The recycling partnership with CARC and Carlsbad had commenced way back in 1993 with a small-scale facility. Due to tremendous increase in processing volume, the operation was expanded to a larger facility. Also, Rainbow Recycling had installed new baler and sorting equipment to handle more volume of materials.

CARC, INC. provides services for children and adults with intellectual and developmental disabilities.