County eyes waste disposal costs

BENTONVILLE -- Benton County officials said they want to continue spring and fall cleanup campaigns, but will need to keep an eye on the events' increasing costs.

"We're always looking for ways to do things better and keep our costs down," said John Sudduth, general services administrator.

Sudduth oversees the Environmental Division that manages the cleanups. Sudduth recently told the Quorum Court the fall cleanup cost nearly $40,000 even though rain forced the event to end after about 2½ hours instead of keeping the three collection centers -- at Road Department locations in Bentonville, Decatur and Garfield -- open for the normal four hours.

The 2014 spring cleanup cost the county about $33,452, Sudduth said. The 2014 events were more expensive than past years. The spring cleanup cost about $24,324 in 2013, while the fall event cost about $17,110. In 2012, the spring cleanup cost about $22,370 and the fall event about $29,055.

The increasing cost is a reflection of the size of the events and increasing complexity of some of the material people bring in, Sudduth said. The cost of handling household hazardous waste material, which includes paints, cleaning material, aerosols, fertilizers, pesticides and herbicides, bulbs, batteries, oil and oil filters, is the single largest cost. For the 2014 fall cleanup, the cost of handling and disposing the material was $28,314, according to information from Teresa Sidwell, environmental manager.

State and federal regulations have played a role in increasing the costs for household hazardous waste materials, Sudduth said.

"In the past they used to have county staff spend a week or two after the cleanup sorting though that," he said. "They're just not trained for that. We can't transport it anymore. We can't go to Decatur or to Garfield and pick it up and bring it here to Bentonville."

The county may be able to ease the cost if more county residents used the collection and disposal program offered by the Benton County Solid Waste District. The district opened a collection facility on Brookside Road near Centerton earlier this year and wants to expand the operation. The site is open from 8 a.m. to noon Monday and Thursday and on the second Saturday of each month. Victor Sandoval, the hazardous waste manager, said the district plans to have the facility open Monday through Friday, in addition to the Saturday schedule, in 2015.

Sudduth said few people are aware of the services offered by the district.

"You can ask people in Centerton and they don't know where it is," Sudduth told the justices of the peace.

Jackie Crabtree, chairman of the district's board, agreed that's a problem. He also said increasing awareness of the district's program, including the household hazardous waste collection facility, could help the county control costs of the cleanup events.

"That's pretty high," Crabtree said of the county's household hazardous waste costs for the 2014 fall event. "People need to understand we've got the HHW facility and they can make use of it throughout the year."

Crabtree said the district has done some public outreach and education work in the past, but hasn't seen the results he would like.

"We've been trying to do some educational things, trying to get the word out," he said. "I don't know what the answer is."

Sudduth and Sidwell said greater public awareness can help reduce the county's costs in a number of ways. They said the county routinely gets latex paint brought to the cleanup events when homeowners can safely dispose of that themselves. Handling latex paint cost the county about $5,000 at the fall cleanup, Sidwell said.

"Latex paint, once it's dried out, can be disposed in your household trash," Sidwell said. "You can put some sawdust or cat litter in it to help dry it out, then you can put that in your trash and it's perfectly safe. That would help us cut the cost of the HHW."

Sidwell said she will meet with district officials to work on ways they can cooperate and coordinate their efforts. In the meantime, the county will watch the cost of the cleanup, Sudduth said.

"These are very popular and very useful to the county," he said. "With the HHW it's critical to gather and dispose of it properly."

Kurt Moore, justice of the peace for District 13, said the county and the district should work together to make the cleanups and the district programs better known and more accessible. Both are needed, he said.

"Unless the district wants to function as the HHW collector at the cleanup we still have to do something there," he said. "People will still bring the stuff and if we just tell them 'You have to take that down the road' to another location they probably won't do it. But if they're willing to set up shop at the cleanup that would be wonderful. That would potentially be a huge cost savings."