KENT COUNTY, MI -- China's fight against "foreign garbage" has squeezed more than $1 million from Kent County so far.

To recuperate the shortfall, county waste officials have proposed doubling the cost of recycling.

"I hate having to impose higher fees ... but we're hemorrhaging right now," Darwin Baas, director of the Kent County Department of Public Works, said Thursday, June 8.

Sale prices of recyclables have plummeted since January when China banned the import of mixed paper -- office paper, magazines, mail and more -- and introduced stricter intake standards.

Recyclables previously exported to China then flooded the domestic market, which lacked the infrastructure to process that great a quantity.

Last year Kent County was able to sell one ton of mixed paper for about $85 per ton. The sale price today is between $5 and zero per ton, Baas said.

Altogether, China's policy change has indirectly cost Kent County just over $1 million in sales.

The recycling rate hikes are rolled into the department's 2019 budget. If passed by the Kent County Board of Commissioners, the rates would take effect Jan. 1.

The rates, called "tipping fees," are the price per ton for recyclables dropped off at the county's sorting facility.

Under the proposed rates, recyclables originating from Kent County would increase from $35 per ton to $65. Material from outside the county would increase from $40 per ton to $70. Transfer trailer costs would increase from $45 per ton to $75.

Grand Rapids officials say the proposed rates would be a $330,000 hit to the city's refuse millage fund.

James Hurt, the city's public services director, said he's understanding of the move but implored the county to spread the cost out or simply phase in the new rates over time.

The city's budget, which goes before the council next week, doesn't account for the increase.

Residents in other municipalities who subscribe to recycling could see an increase of 60 to 80 percent in their monthly charges, Baas estimated.

Jim Huisenga, an operator at Arrowaste, said the "significant" increase could double recycling fees, from $7 to $14, for their 10,000 recycling residents in West Michigan.

Baas called the rate hikes a disappointing but necessary step in keeping the recycling center open.

"If we don't balance out our revenues with increased tip fees, we won't survive," he said. "We share the frustration that the city expressed. We find ourselves in a very difficult position to increase the service rate.

"The impacts of the decisions made in China and internationally are coming home to affect us here in Kent County, and it's totally out of our control."

"Foreign garbage"

In January, China banned the import of mixed paper and about two dozen other recyclables as part of a continued campaign against "yang laji," or "foreign garbage," the New York Times reports. The country also implemented stricter standards on imports of non-banned recyclables.

The ramifications have been widespread. Some recycling sorting centers have closed, and others are even just landfilling product, Baas said.

Sixty percent of Kent County's recycling sales are comprised of fibrous materials -- corrugated cardboard, newspaper and mixed paper.

Since last year, cardboard prices dropped from $155 per ton to $65, newspaper went from $95 to $40 and mixed paper from $85 to $5 or zero, Baas said.

The county estimates to take in and sort 40,000 tons of recyclables in 2019.

The county has always sold its recyclables to domestic processors, those in neighboring states or Canada. With the China ban, the glut of others now seeking those same processors dropped prices.

When asked if the price hike would hamper the goal to divert 90 percent of the county's trash from landfills by the year 2030, Baas said it could.

"I think people are willing to pay a little more to do the right thing," he said.

Baas said the price hike should spark a long-coming conversation about townships and cities offering a blended waste model, where if you subscribe to trash you get recycling as well.

The "China situation," as officials refer to it, couldn't have come at a worse time, Baas said.

Coming into 2018, waste officials thought this would be the year they'd finally break even on recycling facility operations after four years in the red.

In 2017, they installed about $1.5 million worth of upgrades to increase sorting efficiencies and reduce about 10 employees, Baas said. That, coupled with tipping fees of $35 a ton, was expected to be enough.

Then "China happened."

"Our goal is to operate at break even," Baas said. "We see the recycling center as a community asset. We're not trying to generate profit off of it. We're just trying to pay the bills."