In 2012, Your Recycling Goes Local

“He’s young and energetic, and I was really impressed with his knowledge of the technology and the equipment in the business.” Rick Eilertson, the manager of Fitchburg’s recycling program, is talking about David Pellitteri.

David Pellitteri is vice president of Pellitteri Waste Systems. His grandfather, Tony, started a garbage hauling business in Madison in 1939. Beginning next year, Pellitteri will be handling the Madison’s recycling program.

But until New Year’s, Waste Management, a nationwide company based in Houston, will empty Madison’s recycling carts, haul the paper, the glass, the cardboard, the plastics to their transfer station at Badger Road just south of the University of Wisconsin Arboretum.

From there, it is shipped 90 miles up to Germantown where Waste Management’s material recovery facility, or MRF (pronounced “murf”), processes it into materials ready to be used all over again.

Waste Management has run Madison’s residential recycling program for 20 years, and people agree that they’re good at it. They’ve been in the recycling business since 1985 and have 36 MRFs around the U.S. Pellitteri has never run a single stream MRF like the one needed in Madison (single stream means that the consumer tosses all materials in the same cart, and then it gets sorted at the MRF).

Pellitteri is running smaller recycling programs, like the one in Fitchburg, but it is not processing the material, and it is not marketing it either. But Rick Eilertson is very pleased with the services the company is performing for Fitchburg.

“Pellitteri has been excellent, both in terms of the technology they use and in thinking ahead. They are a really proactive and committed bunch who seem to enjoy what they’re doing,” he said.

Pellitteri is, according to their website, a company “dedicated to Christ.” In an email, David Pellitteri explained that this translates into some core company values, such as to “be friendly and positive, [and] promote a spirit of excitement.”

It’s working in Fitchburg, a city of 25,000 people, but will it work with the 50 to 80 tons of recycling material that Madison accumulates every day?

“I have no major concerns because they will apply proven technology that is in use elsewhere,” Madison’s longtime recycling coordinator, George Dreckmann said.

At Pellitteri, they are learning as fast as they can.

“Our owners have been touring single stream recycling facilities across the nation for the past five plus years. We have been compiling all of the knowledge we have gained from other already operating facilities, pitfalls and best practices,” David Pellitteri said.

“The average citizen won’t notice much,” Dreckmann added. “Except that they can recycle more items.”

These new items include pots and pans, steel paint cans, plastic bags, and certain types of plastic containers, e.g. for cottage cheese, sour cream and ice cream (Waste Management would also have recycled these materials starting next year).

But Pellitteri’s lack of experience did cause some initial concern. To figure out which company should handle Madison’s recycling, the city commissioned a four-member committee to review proposals. Three proposals ticked in – from Waste Management, Pellitteri, and Veolia, a French multinational.

Veolia was quickly weeded out, the committee citing concerns with the design and operational record of their MRF in Waunakee. As for the other companies, Pellitteri’s proposal would save the city some $70,000 a year compared to Waste Management’s.

But in its final report issued on July 16, the committee noted that it was “concerned about Pellitteri’s lack of experience in MRF operations” – so much so that it recommended renewing the contract with Waste Management.

“Somehow, on August second, all that went out the window,” as Lynn Morgan, Waste Management’s PR manager for Wisconsin and the Upper Peninsula, put it at a Board of Estimates meeting in late August.

Mayor Paul Soglin decided to recommend the Common Council to award the $1.5 million, five-year contract to Pellitteri.

“In part it was about cost, but also the fact that it was a local company that would create local jobs,” said Katie Crawley, Soglin’s spokeswoman.

Some of Pellitteri’s new hires will be employed at the company’s facility on Kipp Street in the Tradesman Industrial Park on the Southeast Side. Here, the company is expanding to establish its first single stream MRF.

“Initially, we will be adding 14 to 16 new positions,” David Pellitteri said.

When completed, the expanded facility will add increased property tax revenue to the city to the tune of $50,000 annually. The city is also exploring the idea of trying to attract businesses to Madison that can use the recycled materials in their production on-site.

“We are bringing in resources from La Follette School of Public Affairs to help us assess what types of companies will match the volume of materials we will be producing,” George Dreckmann said.

“We will also make a survey in Wisconsin to see if companies would be interested in relocating or expanding in the Madison area.”

In the end, the prospects of local job creation swayed the Common Council to vote unanimously for awarding Pellitteri the contract.

Although disappointed with the decision, Waste Management will still handle waste in Madison, as well as recycling programs elsewhere in Wisconsin.

“I think anybody in any kind of process like this agrees that you should make the factors that will be important known beforehand so there will be no surprises afterward,” Lynn Morgan, the Waste Management PR manager said.

“We’ve handled recycling for Madison for 20 years and they have been very pleased with us. We are proud of our relationship and we’re very sad about the decision, but we’ve moved on,” she added.

Interestingly, Pellitteri may use Waste Management to market their materials once they have been processed on Kipp Street.

“We have used several brokerage services, including Waste Management, in the past and may be using them along with others in the future,” said David Pellitteri.

Pellitteri expects its MRF to come online by April 1, 2012. For the first quarter of the year, the company will haul Madison’s recycling to Whitewater where it will be processed at John’s Disposal Service.

“John’s Disposal have been handling recycling for 10-15 years and just because they’re a family-run business and not a national brand doesn’t mean they can’t provide the same level of service,” said Joe Van Rossum, a recycling specialist and the director of University of Wisconsin-Extension's Solid & Hazardous Waste Education Center in Madison. “I think it is a reasonable arrangement.”

At the Board of Estimates meeting in late August, a Waste Management representative told that it had taken a year’s time before its MRF in Germantown was performing without glitches. Van Rossum expects some bumps along the road for Pellitteri’s Madison MRF but he does not see it filtering through to citizens.

“If anything arises, Pellitteri will figure it out with the city. It’s all about contingency plans and in this respect Pellitteri is no different than Waste Management or any other. Not picking up recycling is not an option.”

Pellitteri say they will keep John’s Disposal as a backup until their own MRF performs as expected.

“It should be a seamless transition and I don’t think homeowners will feel much of a change,” Joe Van Rossum concluded.