WastAway?s contract with county subject of debate

WastAway?s contract with Warren County to process the county?s household garbage is coming up for renewal on May 31, and county officials are in the process of preparing a revised contract for approval by the County Commission at its May meeting.

The original contract was signed in October 2002, but the company didn?t begin processing the garbage until June 1, 2003, when the county?s contract with the previous waste disposal company officially ended.

Now that the contract has come up for renewal, some commissioners have expressed concerns in light of the fact WastAway?s parent company, Bouldin & Lawson, has gone through some significant changes, including the layoff of 30 employees late last year affecting Bouldin Corp. and its three subsidiaries, Bouldin & Lawson, WastAway, and Composite Products.

It?s also significant that WastAway has been unable to handle all of the county?s household garbage at times, farming part of it out to Southern Central, a local waste disposal company.

A recent meeting of the Health and Welfare Committee held at the WastAway building, which included a tour of the facility and a look at the process, addressed these concerns, resulting in a unanimous vote from the committee to recommend a new contract with WastAway if it meets the approval of counsel.

Bouldin Corp. board member Mark Brown explained, as far as the farming out of some the county?s waste to Southern Central, that certain types of household waste, such as discarded furniture, have always gone to Southern Central and, in fact, the original contract specified WastAway would not accept this type of material.

In addition, Brown said the move from the former Aquatech building on Red Road to the company?s new facility in the old Findlay building at Mt. View Industrial Park shut down the system for a significant period in 2006, resulting in the county?s waste being diverted to Southern Central during that time.

And Brown says there will continue to be occasions where the system will be shut down for one reason or another.

?WastAway is a research and development company,? Brown said, ?and there are times when the system will be shut down for testing purposes or to try out modifications to the process, and in order to do that we divert the county?s garbage to Southern Central.?

Brown says the cost per ton is slightly higher for diverted waste, but results in no extra cost to the county, since WastAway absorbs the difference.

?We?re actually being paid $40 a ton and have to pay them $45 a ton to take it,? Brown said. ?We lose $5 a ton every time we have to do that, but we absorb that cost.?

Concerning the financial health of the company, Brown says the layoffs were due to the same conditions in the global economy that other companies are dealing with currently, and that WastAway has actually finalized a deal with the island nation of Aruba to purchase a WastAway system, which the company will begin installing in the near future.

Pelham says it makes good financial sense for the county to renew the WastAway contract for a number of reasons.

?First of all is the recycling figures,? Pelham said. ?The fact we aren?t putting this household waste into landfills is good for the environment, which is an obvious benefit for anyone who is concerned with problems like global warming. And the second thing is the local jobs Bouldin Corp. provides. It?s important for us to support local industry.?