“There isn’t a week goes by that someone doesn’t say to me, ‘Thank you for going to single-stream,’” says Reggie Roy, Supervisor of the Andover Transfer Station.

The tonnage numbers back up Reggie’s assessment of how popular full single-stream recycling (SSR) is with Andover residents. Under the previous system, in which we separated glass from other recyclables and threw everything but the glass in the big open orange containers, recycling amounted to about 1.5 tons per week. Under the new system, in which all recyclables (including glass) go into the huge new compactor beside the Recycling Building, that number is now about 6.5 tons per week.

Of course part of the difference is the weight of the glass that goes into the new compactor but didn’t go into the orange containers. But there are other clues — beside patrons’ enthusiasm for the system — that it’s keeping more recyclables than ever out of the trash hopper. Under the previous system, the trash hopper had to be hauled to Penacook and emptied twice a week. With the new SSR compactor so popular now, the trash only has to go to Penacook once a week.

I asked Reggie if we’re saving money under the new system, and that’s where the story suddenly got very complex. While it’s definitely cheaper to dispose of a ton of compacted single-stream recyclables ($25 per ton) than it is to dispose of a ton of trash ($68 per ton), the calculations beyond that point get very tricky.

We could be segregating and selling (some of) those recyclables (when prices are good), but what about the associated costs to segregate the salable recyclables from the other recyclables … and bundle them up … and haul them away — would those costs wipe out any profit? What would it cost to dispose of the non-salable recyclables that were left?

Would we ask Andover residents to go back to separating recyclables? Would they shift back to throwing recyclables into the trash hopper if we did? What happens when the market for separated recyclables gets bad? Would we switch systems at the Transfer Station every time the recyclables market shifts?

At this point, it’s clear to Reggie that SSR is living up to its promise of making it more convenient for people to help protect the environment. “I can tell you, people love this thing,” he reminds me. As for the finances, the picture’s less clear, and that concerns Reggie. “I pay taxes in town, too,” he says.