THOMASVILLE — Recycling is alive and busy in Thomasville, despite the backup of some collected materials, city officials said.

City of Thomasville Solid Waste Director Nate Tyler said numbers have steadily grown since the city began keeping records in 2001 and revenues have doubled.

“We sort everything, package it up and sell it,” he said. “Sometimes, we have to store recyclable items until the prices go up enough for us to recover program costs. The market is down right now, but it is slowly rebounding and we are still collecting materials.”

An example of the trend in pricing is cardboard, Tyler said.

“At its best, it is $130 a ton, but it dropped to its worst at $20 a ton. It has worked its way up to about $70 a ton and we’ve had 20-30 loads stored, waiting for the price to rebound. We should start selling a few loads.”

Currently, the prices of plastic, aluminum and tin are also down, he said, but the city is selling some tonnage due to space constraints.

The program’s budget for 2008 was approximately $55,000, but it brought in approximately $95,000 from sales of recyclable materials, Tyler said. The excess went back into funding the program.

“The city council and city manager have dictated that the program hold the line on expenses and have an end user for all recyclable materials. Right now, because materials are not selling at the same value, we may get less money this year, but we are hoping to hold the line on expenses.”

Bob Dyksterhouse, member of the Clean & Green Committee, said the program has “greatly improved” in the past year.

“The city has made it easier for individuals, businesses and homeowners to recycle,” he said. “There are three drop-off sites and the city has expanded to accept plastic classes one through seven, which opens up a whole lot of stuff that would otherwise go to the landfill.”

The city’s recycling program began in the 1990s.

In April 1998, it consisted of two drop-off centers — one at Ga. 122 and the other at Crawford Street and Remington Avenue — where citizens could bring their newspaper, cardboard and metal cans.

This process involved an out of town vender, Tyler said, who pulled the containers to a site where the presorted items were resorted, removing any garbage.

“Each step of the process involved a fee being charged for service,” he said. “On paper, the vendor purchased the materials; however, due to the fees for service, we ended up owing the vendor for the privilege of recycling.”

In 1999, the city continued the drop-off center concept, but hired an inmate detail from Thomas County. Two vertical balers were purchased and installed at the old landfill.