Dive Brief:

• Santa Fe, NM hired a consultant to decipher ways to improve waste and recycling operations in both the city and county.
• The company advised Santa Fe to increase collection rates by 33.5% over four years to pay for the changes. Under the current fee structure, a deficit is impending.
• The consultant recommended an investment into the recycling program totaling $2.5 million. Santa Fe is considering new trucks, containers and equipment. Single-stream curbside collection was recommended, as was a drop-off center for glass.

Dive Insight:

Santa Fe's recycling rate is not stellar. Its rate dropped from 9% in 2011 to 8.4% in 2013. These figures are below state and national rates. The city has made efforts in the past and considers itself a green city. Public transportation runs on compressed natural gas and a plastic bag ban is in effect. A challenge cited is finding a stable market that accepts glass. The report states that glass is "cost prohibitive to recycle."

Glass recycling is an issue for many communities across the U.S. Recyclers are often unable to sustain operations due to the difficulty of glass recycling. In 2013, Momentum Recycling opened a new glass processing facility in Wasatch, UT in order to increase the state's low glass recycling rate, which topped out at 4%.