Churches, schools earn extra cash through recycling

Your church or school can make good money taking recyclables to "Mr. Murph" out in the parking lot.

American Waste Control, aka Tulsa Recycling and Transfer, operates the Trash to Cash project -- home of "Mr. Murph," its Materials Recovery Facility (MRF).

Mr. Murph takes paper of all types, cardboard, metals (including aluminum) and plastics, CEO Tom Hill says. The firm places recycling bins at many types of facilities where paper and beverage trash is generated and has 46 bins at area businesses, schools, hospitals, restaurants, credit unions and even group meeting places.

It takes recyclables and helps its participants "earn extra cash in the process."

"These containers provide an easy and convenient way for you to drop off your cardboard, aluminum, paper and plastic for delivery to Mr. Murph," Hill said. "Find the one nearest you and help us feed Mr. Murph."

Businesses don't have to use the firm's trash removal to be part of Mr. Murph recycling, as the fee businesses pay to participate in the recycling service is often offset by the decreased cost of trash removal, Hill said. Nonprofits recycling with Mr. Murph do not pay fees for the bins on their properties, but rather are paid $5 for each recycling bin AWC hauls away.

In the full waste removal/recycling service, recyclables are separated from trash (about 60 percent of its content) and the trash is hauled to its American Environmental Landfill -- "rated as the No. 1 operated landfill in Oklahoma by the Oklahoma Department of Environmental Quality." It is the "first waste hauling company to own a recyclingaEUR"transfer facility in Tulsa," according to its website.

The service is a dependable commercial and industrial service, Hill said, and is "Tulsa's most progressive locally owned and operated waste hauling company serving the greater Tulsa area for more than a quarter century," according to its website.

This is where Mr. Murph comes in.

The system recovers recyclables -- plastic bottles, aluminum cans and cardboard -- and bundles them to be sold back to manufacturers as feed stock for new products.

"When we built the MRF and opened it in March 2011, we had 140 permanent and 40 temporary employees," Hill said. "We are not hiring at this point and have filled all available positions but possibly will be hiring in mid-summer, as we put in a $6 million Murph expansion that will create more jobs."

He said another approach to recycling innovation is cardboard. Newsprint, he noted, has dropped to $60 or $80 per ton.

"If you want to impact the waste stream, you take the thing that's most prevalent in that stream and that's the biggest bang for your buck," Hill said. "Cardboard is what we pull out more than anything. It's $125 per ton. Aluminum is 70 cents per pound. PET (polyethylene terephthalate), No. 1 plastic bottles, are 19 cents per pound."

When unveiling "Feed Mr. Murph," the recycling initiative, the company invited businesses and nonprofits to allow its recycling bins to be placed on their properties and for the recycler's trucks -- which are made in Tulsa -- to return and pick them up once full. It offers same-day service on roll-off hauling when called in by noon.

Hill said the company's goal "is to share our passion about recycling and to get as many local businesses and families participating as possible to reduce the waste in Tulsa and make it a cleaner, greener place to live."