ATHENS, Ohio — After a tumultuous year for the Athens-Hocking Recycling Center, the regional nonprofit’s employees and assets were officially absorbed by a regional council of governments.
For the most part, the transition of assets and employees to the Southeast Ohio Recycling Terminal Council of Governments has not affected the recycling center’s day-to-day operations, said executive director Crissa Cummings.
The change officially happened on Saturday, Sept. 21.
“On Monday, when we all saw each other, I kept saying, ‘What does it feel like to be a public employee? Any different?’” Cummings said. “I got some eye rolls.”
The Southeast Ohio Recycling Terminal formed specifically to absorb AHRC and is intended to preserve local control over recycling, compost and refuse services in Athens and Hocking counties.
Current SORT members include the Athens-Hocking Solid Waste District, Amesville, and the cities of Athens, Logan, Nelsonville, Cummings said. Both Athens and Logan have yet to select representatives for the council of governments, she added.
“A lot of the governments in the region really did come together as quickly as they possibly could to do what they can to preserve the recycling center and the jobs,” Cummings said.
Cummings said the efforts of local governments to preserve the recycling center has important ramifications for maintaining local jobs and promoting environmental sustainability. She cited the recycling center’s compost services and commitment to working with trusted smaller recycling brokers rather than shipping recycling waste overseas.
“That’s a benefit of a smaller local organization,” Cummings said. “We care. We care about getting the most we can for the recycling that we’re shipping out from the region. But we also care about how it’s utilized, and want to be responsible partners in the world.”
Athens County Commissioner Lenny Eliason chairs the council of governments, representing the Athens-Hocking Solid Waste District. He did not return the Independent’s request for comment for this story.
AHRC, which had been a local, unionized waste hauler and recycling center committed to sustainability, was thrown into uncertainty late last year. At that time, the city of Athens scrapped its long-standing relationship with AHRC to contract with Rumpke Waste & Recycling for waste hauling instead. The city’s contract with AHRC had represented 40% of the recycling center’s annual revenue.
Cummings and other advocates for AHRC initially pitched the council of governments as a way for the city of Athens to reconsider contracting with the recycling center for hauling, so the recycling center could avoid phasing out operations. Cummings previously told the Independent that the recycling center couldn’t function long-term without the Athens contract.
While Athens did decide to join the council of governments, it has not contracted with the Southeast Ohio Recycling Terminal for hauling services, Cumming said. WOUB reported that the city does not intend to do so anytime soon, as that would require Athens to break its contract with Rumpke.
However, Cummings said she now sees a stable future for the organization without the Athens contract, albeit at a reduced size.
“Between shrinking the staff and returning trucks, we are closer to a break-even point, but we are not there yet, so we are still spending down our savings. But, they’re lasting a lot longer just because of operational changes we’ve made,” Cummings said. “I’m pleasantly surprised that we are where we are.”
The Independent previously reported that AHRC had 49 employees in November 2023, 31 of whom were full time. Now, Cummings said, SORT employs 33 people total, 21 of whom are full time. The recycling center also parted with three of its hauling trucks, and now has 10 left, she said.
To close its remaining funding gap, Cummings said, the organization is applying for grant funding.
“I still feel some anxiety around the funding and the stability, but I’m much more optimistic than I was,” Cummings said.
The reduction hasn’t been without some operational challenges, Cummings said.
“We’re struggling a bit at that employee level with just dealing with the huge pile of recycling that we need to get through. But we don’t necessarily feel like we can add employees either,” she said.
She encouraged people interested in supporting SORT to volunteer to help sort recycling.
Becoming a public entity has brought some changes for staff, Cummings said. Employees are transitioning from private 401(k)s to public retirement benefits. Additionally, SORT needed to jump through some logistical hurdles to maintain union status for employees.
As of Oct. 2, Cummings told the Independent that the State Employee Relations Board had yet to officially approve a union for SORT’s employees. The SORT board approved voluntary recognition for the employee union at its August meeting, Cummings said, as outlined in the transfer agreement between AHRC and SORT.
SORT is also subject to Ohio’s public records laws — a change from how things operated at AHRC.
For waste services though, the change into SORT doesn’t mean much.
“The contracts that AHRC had with various entities, including the solid waste district, were transferred over to the council of governments,” said Jane Forrest Redfern, director of the Athens-Hocking Solid Waste District. “They continue to serve us the same way that it did before.”
All customers need to change is who they make their checks out to, Cummings said. While September’s invoices were due to AHRC, October’s are due to SORT, she said.
AHRC continues to exist as a separate entity from SORT, for now. The reason, Cummings said, is because nonprofits can’t take on debt, and AHRC has a mortgage out on its facilities at 5991 Industrial Drive in Athens.
The Athens-Hocking Solid Waste District previously proposed purchasing the facilities, but a parcel fee the district proposed to fund the purchase failed. Instead, SORT entered a 12-year lease-to-purchase agreement with AHRC, to eventually take over the properties.
The SORT board meets at 10 a.m. on the third Monday of every month at 35 Public Square in Nelsonville.
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