Valley Curbside Recycling

If you haven’t heard, Christiansburg Town council has voted to increase water and sewer fees … and the tipping fee (the cost to dump trash in the landfill) will be increased by $3 per ton.

$3 … it’s just one dollar more than $2 (quick math right there!).  So what, right?  Not so fast, let’s run a trashy little experiment.  When you look at the cost per household of the increase in tipping fees, it’s not so much of a big deal.  However, when we apply it across the board to all Christiansburg residents, the numbers are much more powerful.

For the purpose of this trashy little study, let’s assume there are 15000 people in the Town of Christiansburg, and assume that each of those people produces conservatively 4 pounds of garbage a day.  Finally, let’s assume - again, conservatively - that 1/3 of that 4 pounds of trash a day could be recycled.

• 15000 people x 4 pounds of garbage a day = 60000 lbs of garbage produced every day
• 60000 pounds x 365 days = 21.9 MILLION pounds of garbage produced every year

21.9 million pounds of garbage produced every year in the Town of Christiansburg!  Tipping fees for the landfill have been $48 per ton for general trash, so with 21.9 million pounds - or 10950 tons - of trash that’s $525600 in tipping fees that residents have been paying every year.  With the new increase, that number is rising to a whopping $558450!

There’s good news on the way though.  See, Valley Curbside Recycling is in the business of recycling.  We don’t actually recycle the things we collect … instead, we sort everything at our truck (affectionally called Old Blue) and then deliver it to the Solid Waste Authority, where it’s sorted again and then distributed to various groups and businesses for further processing.  It’s a big job, and as you can see an expensive operation.  What would happen if each of us could recycle just 1 pound of that estimated 4 pounds of trash we each produce every day?  Let’s look at the numbers again …

• 15000 Christiansburg residents x 3 pounds of trash recycled = 45000 pounds of trash produced daily
• 45000 pounds x 365 days = 16.4 million pounds of trash produced yearly, or 5.4 million pounds of recyclable material
• 16.4 million pounds - or 8200 tons - will cost Christiansburg residents $418200 in tipping fees a year.

Hmmmm … $418200 is a lot of money, but it’s a lot less - $140250, to be exact - less than what you’d be paying if you just threw all of your trash in the landfill!  And if you spread that $140250 across the 15000 residents we started with, that’s a savings of $9.35 per person, per year.  That material you’ve saved from the landfill can now be used in other applications, saving energy, reducing waste, and keeping dangerous chemicals out of our soil and water systems.

So, in conclusion … pay an extra $3 to throw away your trash, or SAVE an extra $9 to recycle it and make your community a better place?

It’s easy to set up your account online, or print out this form to mail in your payment.  We’re glad to serve.