It’s spring cleaning with a twist for Sedona Recycles. Instead of dusting the shelves of its facility, the recycling center got rid of dust bunnies and cobwebs in a more abstract way, refining and tidying its strategic plan.
The first chore was determining what exactly its mission is and if its current services aligned with that plan.
On April 30, the Sedona Recycles Board met to hash that out, leading it to come to a decision that will impact communities throughout the Verde Valley. The recycling center board, with support from the center’s staff, voted unanimously to close recycling drop-off sites.
At this time, the first two recycling drop-off locations to be removed are:
- The Camp Verde Heritage Pool site.
- The Outpost Mall site in Camp Verde.
Drop-off sites that may be subject to closure in the future include those in Rimrock, Camp Verde, Cornville and the Verde Villages. The Camp Verde sites are the farthest from the recycling center in Sedona and require the most driving to reach. These sites will close on Friday and Saturday, June 1 and 2.
According to Sedona Recycles Executive Director Jill McCutcheon, Camp Verde Town Manger Russ Martin has been notified to these closures and signs are intended to be posted at the sites.
McCutcheon also noted that one of the main reasons the center is closing these sites is to bring its attention back to Sedona, so they do not spread themselves too thin.
“Our focus is going to come back to Sedona and the Village of Oak Creek. We started out in Sedona in 1989, and we were just for Sedona. Well, there wasn’t much volume in Sedona at that time because it was much smaller, so they reached out to the Verde Valley, and we grew and grew and grew,” McCutcheon said. “We are out there now six days a week making 10 hours a day, so that’s 60 hours of driving and picking up stuff and bringing it back. It’s pretty overwhelming and it doesn’t allow for us to focus here like we want to.
“What I found was that 60 percent of the materials we receive are in a 25 mile radius — Sedona, the Village of Oak Creek,” McCutcheon continued. “Only 41 percent is out in the Verde Valley. Twenty percent of the driving is here and 80 percent is out there, so it just didn’t make sense.”
She said this transition is intended to be a smooth one for both the center and the community. The process may take at least six months to complete.
“The first site will be closing in June and that is the test case to see how it affects the center and [we] will work from there,” McCutcheon said. “The plan is to just slowly withdraw. We’re not going to pull everything at once. We’re going to just start with one area and see how that goes.”
McCutcheon voiced concern regarding closing these drop-off sites, and that it may mean that recycling opportunities will be taken away from those making ecoconscious efforts to keep their communities clean. However, keeping the sites open specifically for that reason did not outweigh the cost-benefit of closing the site, which can allow for more flexibility in funds and time.
McCutcheon noted that some drop-off sites did not have contracts, and some that did were not paying or payment wasn’t enough, which the recycling center can’t sustain in terms of funds, staff or resources.
“Some of them didn’t pay for years and years and really put us in a bind because we stayed and did it for free, and so it just depletes your reserve,” she said. “They are paying now, but when material prices drop so drastically what they’re paying doesn’t cover it anymore. It’s not enough payment to cover the expense. Our truck has 420,000 miles on it, so we can’t be driving 250 miles a day anymore, six days a week.
“It’s really about … [bringing] our focus back to the community that really supports us, which is Sedona,” McCutcheon continued. “I mean, all of our membership is here, all of our donors are here … our grants are from here. I would say 96 percent of anything that happens is here, but 80 percent of what we’re having to travel to get materials is out there [in the Verde Valley], and it’s just not working.”
With resources and staff having more wiggle room, the center will be able to make more headway toward advancing its new goals for the Sedona area, including work on sustainable initiatives with businesses and the city of Sedona.
“We’re going to probably go door to door pretty much and just talk to all the businesses and work on the idea of a sustainability plan for resorts and for local businesses,” McCutcheon said. “We have met with the city and they want to increase the number of drop-off sites. They want to increase public recycling in parks, the Uptown area, so they have really pushed forward with their sustainability plan.”
Pros and cons set aside, embracing a less is more mentality is what McCutcheon said the recycling center needs
right now. And after a bit of spring cleaning the recycling center is ready to refocus and get back to business.
Makenna Lepowsky can be reached at 282-7795 ext. 126, or email mlepowsky@larsonnewspapers.com
