NSWMA opposes Dallas recycling facility, charging flow control

The National Solid Wastes Management Association (NSWMA) is opposing a proposal by Organic Energy Corp. to build a recycling facility at a Dallas landfill because it claims it involves flow control.

Organic Energy is asking permission from the city of Dallas to invest nearly $100 million in a recycling facility at the city’s McCommas Bluff landfill. The company claimed the facility would capture 95 percent of the recyclables from the city’s trash and generate $5 million to $20 million in revenue for Dallas. Organic Energy said the city would commit to providing the waste.

But the NSWMA says that the trash would be directed to the one city landfill that is costly and more remote than the current situation where the flow is spread to about a dozen landfills geographically dispersed, said David Margulies of the Margulies Communications Group.

Characterizing it as a flow control tax, Tom Brown, Texas chapter chairman of the NSWMA, said in a press release the move “will cost Dallas businesses $19 million a year and make the city less competitive in the marketplace for job growth and business expansion.” Brown also works for Progressive Waste Solutions Ltd.

“The NSWMA is asking the city council to defer a decision on the flow control tax and allow members to present other proposals that would generate the income the city needs in the short term and millions of dollars in additional costs savings over the next decades,” Brown said.

Organic Energy says NSWMA’s concerns are based on financial self-interest. “They’re upset because it would take revenue away from the private haulers they represent,” says Barney Gorey, vice president of public affairs for the company. The proposed facility would put more in the commodities market, “making businesses more viable in south Dallas and putting those revenues to work in south Dallas.”

The Dallas city council is scheduled to vote on the proposal Sept. 28.