Consider the assumptions we made when recycling.

We assume that all plastic should enter the recycling bin. We believe that every glass bottle will become a new one. Not sure if some items are recyclable, we may throw them in and try them.

But the gap between what we have traditionally been told and what happened is widening.

The recycling industry has been undergoing earth-shaking changes since before the pandemic, and there is no end in sight. In the past, most of our recycling sites were in China, but we stopped using this material in 2018, throwing the industry into chaos.

The leaders of Hampton Roads are looking for ways to deal with challenges that are now compounded by recruitment and supply chain issues. The following is the latest news from the region:

Throughout the summer, Chesapeake City Manager Chris Price informed the City Council: Although managing residents’ trash is one of the city’s most important functions, it has become increasingly difficult to maintain.

The core problem is that this is a business with no source of income. Chesapeake is the only place on Hampton Road that does not charge for garbage and recycling services.

More than ten years ago, the city charged a small fee when implementing roadside recycling, but new city council members cancelled the fee within a year.

At the same time, costs have risen sharply, especially considering China's decision. Public works director Earl Sorey told the committee that Chesapeake's current contract with TFC Recycling includes a factor related to the rapidly rising consumer price index.

City government staff re-discussed this topic last month and asked the city council to consider collecting garbage fees. Price said that without it, the city might have to abandon its curbside recycling program in order to fund other priorities—including a public safety pay program.

More than a dozen people spoke on this issue. Several police officers supported the collection of fees as a way to continue recycling while funding public safety programs.

The council voted against the fee and asked the city manager to bring back other options to fund the payment plan.

The list is now on Tuesday’s agenda. If the city council adopts it, curbside recycling will be cancelled and other actions will be taken, including raising the existing permit fee and re-imposing a penny of real estate tax.

Most of the recycling activities in the area ended up at the TFC recycling center in South Norfolk.

The company’s owner, Mike Benedetto, said that with the reversal of China’s policy, the company is already in trouble. However, the pandemic created major recruitment challenges, which pushed up wages, while profit margins remained low, making the situation worse.

Benedetto urged Chesapeake to reconsider canceling the plan, which means terminating the contract that expires in 2024.

"Currently, the city-wide roadside recycling service is the most effective recycling method and one of the most commonly used city services," Benedetto wrote to Price earlier this month. "We believe there are other ways to reduce costs and increase efficiency and effectiveness."

Mayor Rick West said last week that he was disappointed that the garbage fee did not pass. "I think this is a wrong vote."

He said that this fee "can indeed solve many problems." "If you want to get services, you have to pay for them."

On the peninsula, there is good news about a well-known intractable substance: glass.

On its own, glass is fairly easy to recycle, endlessly looping. But when it is mixed into a single stream, there are many issues that complicate the process, which means that everything is in the same blue container.

Glass is easily broken, and the fragments will not only contaminate other materials, but also trucks and equipment in recycling plants.

James City County Sustainability Coordinator Cassie Cordova said that about 20% of the glass taken from a typical facility is contaminated. Pollution makes manufacturers less willing to buy to transform into new products.

It is also heavy, making shipping costs more expensive-especially for Virginia, which has no in-state glass processors. Processing glass is a key intermediate step in transforming it into a new product.

Benedetto said that sometimes manufacturers actually charge TFC instead of paying for the recycled glass, which causes his company to incur a net loss.

Because of this, most glass in Virginia is not recycled in the traditional sense. It enters the landfill and is used as a substitute for daily coverage-covering the materials needed in the landfill to protect it from scavengers, control odors, etc.

Cordova said that the local area has been discussing this issue for many years. James City and County considered doing things differently after looking for a plan in Northern Virginia, where people could throw glass in designated bins instead of single stream.

A large glass manufacturer in James City and County, OI Glass in Toano, told county officials that it was importing glass from northern states.

The county decided to find a way to send the glass directly to OI's Toano factory, and the new Purple Box project was born. It was launched in late September.

At the two convenience centers on Jolly Pond and Tewning Road, residents can put down stained glass, excluding ceramics, porcelain, and heat-resistant glass. They have different chemical compositions and burn at different temperatures.

County officials say that when the trash cans are full, donations will be sent to OI, where they can be turned into new glass within a month. Several tons of glass have been shipped to the factory.

Cordoba said that so far, the biggest reaction from residents has been confusion.

"People think their glass is already recyclable, and it is technically true," she said. "I think the problem with recycling is that people don't know how it works. They magically think that it will become a new thing. It's not their fault, but certain materials really can't become the same quality."

Cordova gave a speech on the new glass plan at a recent environmental meeting of the Hampton Road Planning District Committee.

Representatives from other places immediately showed interest. Can such a program work further away from the Toano factory? How do we apply something similar to the rest of Hampton Road?

Greg Groodendorst, chief economist at HRPDC, said that for glass and other areas, the government of southeastern Virginia is working hard to develop regional solutions.

Earlier this year, leaders of 17 localities within the committee formed a subcommittee to study this topic.

"This is of course a strange time for recycling," Grootendorst said. The purpose of the new team is to "recognize that many of our places are struggling to adapt to major changes in the recycling world, and at the same time recognize that these changes will continue to occur."

This may include changing the way recycling is used, or working more directly with manufacturers to purchase recycled materials.

Grootendorst said that this topic has been discussed among local officials. But industry changes are approaching the tipping point, and our idea is to do so more actively than to react.

"We are really looking for a different way to do business as usual," he said. "Maybe you think what you know is no longer true."

Katherine Hafner, 757-222-5208, katherine.hafner@pilotonline.com