The HCSWA recycling processing of Charleston County trash is now three months old and the results are not what were projected, at least yet.

Through the process to get Horry County Council approval of a contract between the Horry County Solid Waste Authority and Charleston County to allow the HCSWA to process Charleston County recyclables, a projected profit from the contract of $1 million per year for the HCSWA was often repeated.

According to numbers presented by HCSWA officials to the Horry County Infrastructure and Regulation Committee, through the first three months that the authority has processed Charleston County recyclables, the HCSWA material recovery facility (MRF) operations have lost approximately $133,000.

It’s been 50 years since I took Calculus I, but a $133,000 loss in the first quarter of operations did not then, and does not now, project out to a $1 million profit at the end of the year.

HCSWA executive director Danny Knight spoke of the necessity to replace three belts and 30 rollers in the recycling equipment. Knight said the maintenance replacement of this equipment was overdue and now became necessary because of the increased load of recyclables being processed at the MRF.

The HCSWA also obtained a new, larger front end loader for the MRF because of the increased material.

Those costs appear to be amortized over the life of the equipment so no large, upfront cost is included in the above numbers.

The excess cost problem appears to be in the amount of residuals being experienced.