Horry County officials press for full accounting of Charleston recycling contract

Horry County officials want a clear picture of the impact the Charleston County recycling contract is having on the local Solid Waste Authority.

SWA leaders have acknowledged the agreement — which allows the SWA to process the Lowcountry community’s recyclables — will not bring in the more than $1 million the deal was projected to generate. Just breaking even, they’ve said, would be acceptable.

But the recycling program is currently running a deficit of nearly $50,000 and county council members want to know how much of that shortfall can be attributed to the Charleston County deal.

“Part of this whole oversight thing is looking at what effect this Charleston deal is having on us,” councilman Johnny Vaught told SWA leaders during the council’s infrastructure and Regulation Committee meeting this week. “I want us to make sure we’re seeing a true picture of this.”

The SWA manages the county’s waste and recycling programs. Last summer, agency leaders signed a contract to process Charleston County’s bottles, cans, cardboard and other recyclables at the authority’s facility on S.C. 90. The recycling center separates and bales the items and sells them to places that convert the recyclables into useable material, such as carpet made from old soda bottles.

Initially, authority leaders touted the financial benefits of the deal, saying the local facility could receive 72,000 tons of Charleston County recyclables throughout the next two years, netting more than $1 million.

That money would be important, SWA leaders said, because they had anticipated a $600,000 revenue decrease in recyclable sales revenue. They also said a 2014 council decision to allow some construction waste to be hauled to landfills outside Horry lightened the SWA’s coffers.

But lower than expected commodity prices, flood damaged materials and other factors have hampered the SWA’s efforts.

This week, SWA leaders said the Charleston County deal appears to be breaking even. Where the county is losing money, they said, is with processing Horry’s recyclables.

Jan Bitting, the SWA’s finance director, said the agency saw fewer than expected local recyclables in February, meaning the agency had less product to sell. To manage costs, she said the processing facility shut down at slow times.

“We feel like, overall, this deficit that we’re seeing is definitely based on our material, not Charleston’s material,” she said. “We feel like processing Charleston’s material, we’re seeing kind of a break even with them. ... If we were processing our material at the same rate, we would be running at a deficit. So we do still feel like we’re moving definitely in a positive direction. It’s just a slow-moving direction.”

But Vaught questioned how that could be. He pointed out that during February last year the SWA processed 1,265 tons of material at a cost of $134,393. This year, processing 1,353 tons cost $217,371.

“I don’t understand that,” he said, referring to the slight increase in tonnage and the significant hike in expenses. “Why should our costs be that much more?”

Bitting said she wasn’t sure why those numbers looked that way, but be she suspected some of the increased cost could be attributed to additional maintenance needs last month.

Vaught said the jump would make sense if the Charleston deal was having a strong impact on expenses.

Bitting said she would check the numbers and report back to him. She added that a full accounting of the contract was important.

“I agree with you,” she said. “We should truly be able to tell.”

Councilman Bill Howard said Vaught’s inquiries are needed.

“You’ve kind of put a lot of good questions into this,” he said. “They’re seeing things that they didn’t [expect to] see either.”

Vaught said the SWA leaders’ reports are getting more detailed. He just wants a crystal understanding of the contract’s impact.

“That’s what this is all about,” he said. “It’s a learning experience for us all.”

This story was originally published March 24, 2016 at 6:00 AM with the headline "Horry County officials press for full accounting of Charleston recycling contract."