The bankruptcy of Corcoran Environmental Services could add about $20,000 to the cost of single-stream recycling this year, town officials said. Exact figures are not available, officials said, because the value of recyclables can change. But at the current price of recyclables, hauling and processing the town’s recyclables will most likely cost $50,000 for the year. Of that, $30,000 will be covered by a surety bond from Corcoran, which filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection in April.

The town’s contract with Corcoran was set to run until the end of 2010, said Jim Stanford, director of the Department of Public Works. The company hauled the town’s recyclable waste and provided compactors and containers. The town was not paying Corcoran anything to haul the trash, Stanford said. Rather, Corcoran planned to make money off the value of recyclable material.

“Bottom line is that it was zero cost to the town,” Stanford said.

But the value of recyclables dropped considerably last fall with the economic downturn, Stanford said. “We had eight months, approximately eight months, where the value of recyclables was extremely low, but Corcoran still fulfilled all their obligations through that time,” he said.

Steve Crean, the town’s environmental coordinator, said recycled newspaper was worth $150 a ton last summer. Now it’s worth about $20.

The town has awarded a new contract to Cassella Waste Systems to haul the recyclables until December 2010. The town also joined the Concord Regional Solid Waste/Resource Recovery Cooperative, which plans to begin a recycling program.

The contract with Casella will require the town to pay for hauling -- something it did not have to do during the contract with Corcoran. The town will pay a monthly fee of $200 to cover the cost of two compactors and four 30-yard containers, and a fee per ton of recyclables, which will depend on the value of recyclables. The more valuable the recyclables are, the less Bedford will have to pay -- to the point that it could become a revenue stream, Crean said.

“The maximum we’d pay would be $25 a ton, and if the markets turn around and the revenue that they get for the material increases, then it would drop,” Crean said. “If it ever gets to the way it was last summer, (Cassella would) actually be paying us for the material.”

But, Crean said, with the markets down, there will be expenses rather than revenue in the beginning. Stanford agreed. “As of today, and again it’s a commodity, it changes, but as of today I don’t foresee any revenue in the short-term, in this year, just based on what the industry is doing,” Stanford said.

Instead, it looks like there will be a $20,000 swing in the budget, he said. Stanford said the money would first come from the municipal waste budget, and if there was not enough, that the Department of Public Works would need to go to the Town Council for the money.

Still, it is difficult to compare the contract with the Corcoran contract, and he said it is not really accurate to consider the $20,000 the town might have to pay for hauling a loss, because the two contracts have different pay structures.

“We’re paying more than the Corcoran deal, because now we’re paying for the hauling, but that may change in the future if the value of the recyclables come back,” he said. “You’re not really comparing apples to apples when you consider the Corcoran deal and the Casella deal.”

The amount of money available from the municipal waste budget to cover the $20,000 depends on other factors uncontrolled by the town, Stanford said. A big storm, causing downed trees and rubbish, for example, could increase the amount of municipal waste, and therefore the amount of money spent on removing it.

“The cost to remove the recyclables is still less than the cost for ordinary municipal solid waste,” Standford said. He said single-stream recycling has “taken off” in the town.

“The bottom line is the more that’s disposed in the recyclables, the less amount that goes into the municipal solid waste,” he said. “It will save us money in the long run.”