If you came across stories about cities that had to stop recycling after China decreased its importing of materials from other countries, rest assured that is not the case with Sedona. The nonprofit that operates in town, Sedona Recycles, is still accepting almost everything they did before, as well as some unexpected materials.

“Everything is exactly the same, [except] we have stopped going as far out to pick up material in the Verde Valley,” Sedona Recycles Executive Director Jill McCutcheon said. “We’re trying to focus really our attention in the Sedona area, because that’s where our support is and that’s where people are really on board with what we do.”

However, that doesn’t mean things in the recycling business are doing well.

“Everything has plummeted in price. For instance, two years ago, for a ton of paper or a ton of cardboard, we might [have gotten] $180 to $200. We now get between $20 and $40,” McCutcheon explained. “We do exactly the same amount of work and we receive about 25 percent of what we used to get; 75 percent has disappeared because, once China cut ties with everyone, everybody joined the domestic market where we’ve been dealing.”

McCutcheon said that, once the demand grew, buyers started paying less for the materials because they didn’t really need every customer anymore. For some cities and companies, the easier — and cheaper — solution became to start sending what used to be recycled to landfills. The problem is even bigger on the West Coast, where it was standard practice to put materials on ships and send them abroad.

“Everybody got caught completely flat-footed when China cut [them] off, they weren’t expecting it and all of sudden they were like ‘Uh oh, we got to change it and there’s no infrastructure to support this,’” McCutcheon said. “Especially on the West Coast in the U.S., there’s no manufacturing, it was all going to the dock, all going overseas. Back at least on the East Coast, they’ve got a lot of mills and things, so that’s positive; they’re doing better than this part of the country is, we’re having a terrible time.”

Another important change was in what the recycling facilities accept. The domestic companies are selective, especially when compared to what other countries accepted: They want everything to be as clean as possible and mixing materials is unacceptable — even things consumers might not know are different.

For example, there are seven types of plastic, not all of which Sedona Recycles can send to a recycling facility. The good news for consumers is the nonprofit will still take it out of their hands and its employees will separate every grade of plastic by hand — but time has come for everyone to start doing a little bit more.

McCutcheon noted that Sedona is lucky and “definitely way ahead” of other Arizona cities with its progressive views toward recycling and sustainability that the state, generally speaking, lacks. Sedona Recycles sits in city property and built a lot of its ¼-acre facility through grants that were given out until 2008. Unfortunately, she said, these grants don’t exist anymore.

“In a way, we’re lucky but the pricing is still terrible,” McCutcheon explained. “So, we’re doing fundraising. The city is very supportive, we have an agreement with the city and they fund a lot of our operation here, so that’s helpful. And they’re on board as far as sustainability, so that’s good, but it’s tough, it’s definitely tough.”

Sedona Recycles is seen as a model in Arizona because of the materials it takes and its recovery rate of 98 percent — meaning only 2 percent of what it receives becomes waste, which includes some odd things that come in, such as dead animals [which should have already been discarded as waste].

The executive director pointed out that the success is related to their nonprofit status.

“When you are a nonprofit, you are not driven by the same motivation as a for profit business. It’s easy for them to just kind of say, ‘Oh, let’s just get rid of this, it’s not making us any money.’ We’re more about saving resources and having a sustainable community,” McCutcheon said. “Sedona is way ahead, always has been …. Very few communities would donate their land to a recycling facility but Sedona saw ahead that they wanted to do that. A lot of communities come out here to look at this as a model of what they want to do in their community, but right now things are so difficult that nobody can do anything.”

Difficult does not mean impossible, however, and the support also comes from residents and tourists being aware of what they consume and what they discard.

“Probably 65 percent of what a person has, that they buy, is recyclable,” she said. “But the first thing I want people to realize is they can refuse things. If you go into a restaurant, tell them you don’t want a straw and you brought your own takeout container. Or ask for aluminum foil because we can recycle those.”

“Just looking at what you’re buying. Do you need that much stuff? And do you need like four bags to go on a bag of bags with bags in it?” she asked.

Single-use plastics — such as water bottles, plastic bags, plastic salad containers — are the biggest issue right now, she said. First, because they are used one and discarded and, second, because they are hard to recycle. While some are not recycled by any facilities in the country, others end up not even getting to recycling facilities. Plastic bags, for example, might float away and end up in trees or cacti. Moreover, they get stuck in the machinery, which means operations have to stop, delaying the process.

“What I would like to see is every resort that’s here have their own branded bag, bottle, coffee mug, that they give to a guest and its factored into the price of the room to support the community and the sustainability effort and say this is our belief to you,” McCutcheon said.

While businesses should do their part, she noted that consumers are also very important in driving what is sold or offered because no one in a top level is stepping in and trying to solve the problem.

“That’s where people come in and they have to do the work the government won’t do it,” she said. “It’s up to everybody to do their part — that’s for sure.”

Natasha Heinz can be reached at 282-7795 ext. 117, or email at nheinz@larsonnewspapers.com