SULLIVAN — Thousands of residents across the county regularly rely on their local sanitation company to pick up their trash and recyclables. The cost of those services may soon go up as global pressures start to affect local business.

Small communities across the country are facing increased recycling costs since China started enforcing its “National Sword” policy last January, which bans 24 types of solid waste and sets a much higher standard for acceptable contamination levels in recyclables.

The county recently raised its fee for recycling for commercial haulers to $50 per ton.

“Sullivan County had to enact this fee in response to changes in the recycling market globally, which caused our expenses to rise,” said District 7 Legislator Joe Perrello, chair of the Public Works Committee. “Thus we've had to pass the costs on to haulers who use our system. However, the total impact amounts to less than $2.50 per person per year. And we aren't making a dime on this fee.”

While residents who bring their recyclables personally to a country transfer station can still dipose of them for free, commercial haulers are looking at different ways to absorb new expenses.

“We're struggling with this,” said Thompson Sanitation Owner Paul Walsh. “There's a lot of changes coming with how we recycle. We've been in business for a long, long time. We pride ourselves on trying to take care of the community and keep it clean. We're home grown. We didn't buy anybody out. We started from scratch.”

Walsh said they're presently trying to figure out what works best for them and their customers.

“The fees will definitely have to come up to cover our costs. When the cost of doing business increases, the money to keep funding it has to come from someplace,” Walsh said. “The government doesn't give us anything, so it falls back on the consumer.”

According to Walsh, he received news of the county's fee increase by email about two weeks before it was to go into effect. “It was not done in a very professional way,” he said. “We have contracts with municipalities, villages and towns and we're locked into [prices] that take time to renegotiate.”

On the western side of the county, Jeff Sanitation had recently announced that, effective February 1, they would no longer accept residential recycling after the county raised the fee for commercial haulers.

According to Jeff Sanitation Owner Jim Hughson, they've since rescinded that decision after much feedback from their customers. The alternative likely means raising costs for services.

“We're going to have to do something. I'm not sure what to do yet,” Hughson said. “We're just waiting to see what happens.”

Both Walsh and Hughson felt it was unfair that businesses like theirs are shouldering increased costs while anyone who takes their own recycling to the transfer station drops it off for free.

They also explained how it's hard for them to enforce higher recycling standards on their customers when the county uses single stream recycling, which mixes everything together from glass bottles and aluminum cans to mixed paper and corrugated cardboard.

Ulster County, which currently charges $115 per ton of single stream recycling, has plans to completely revert back to dual stream recycling at no cost per ton by end of February. Dual stream separates fibers like paper and cardboard from glass, plastic containers and cans at the source, ensuring higher quality and more valuable recovered materials that cost less to process.

On an individual level, there's a lot local residents can do to cut down on their use of materials and increase the quality of what they recycle. According to Walsh, bringing reusable bags to the grocery store, or opting for paper instead of plastic, would be a good start.

“Initially it may cost a little bit more, but in the long run it will make a huge difference,” said Walsh. “I oversee a group of people who do community service and there is not a day that goes by that we aren't out picking up plastic bags.”