The head of Whatcom County’s waste haulage company told a Bellingham City Council committee that a pilot program for ‘single-stream’ recycling shows promise.
This could mean that Bellingham residents change the way they dispose of their trash, food scraps and recycling. You may also need to bring your glass to a central collection point instead of leaving it on the side of the road.
But the city council will have to change its contract with Sanitary Services, said Eric Johnston, director of public works.
SSC general manager Ted Carlson announced at a meeting on Monday, Oct. 24, the six-month pilot effort to collect recyclable materials using one large bin instead of three smaller bins. presented the results to the City Council’s Public Works and Natural Resources Committee.
“At this point, I am fairly certain that SSC needs to move away from the three-bin system,” Carlson told the commission.
SSC has reduced driver injuries by using a single container that can be lifted and dumped by a mechanical arm, he said.
Additionally, SSC can use heavy trucks to reduce trips to collection centers south of Ferndale. This saves time and fuel and reduces exhaust pollution.
According to Carlson, this offsets the increase in “rot,” the contamination of paper scraps by glass shards.
“It’s time to talk about changing collection methods and automating and reducing the number of trucks on the road,” he said.
“The labor problem is real. Injury rates in the recycling department are about three times higher than in the garbage disposal because they get off trucks and lift bins over their shoulders 600 to 800 times a day.” He said. .
“We can be more efficient. We can have fewer trucks, fewer miles, and lower emissions,” he said.
A six-month trial began on May 6 in the Edgemoor district. Instead of putting newspaper, paper, glass, metal and plastic in separate bins, the customer put all of their recyclables in one 96-gallon bin.
Here’s what they found, Carlson said:
▪ 65% reduction in trucks and labor hours through automation.
▪ There is no change in the amount of recycling customers leave on the curb.
▪ Approximately 25% contamination or “rot” from glass shards and paper stains.
▪ Customers love the convenience of a single cart.
▪ Less trash on the street on windy days.
▪ Drivers were getting out of their trucks 800 times a day, down to about 12 per bin.
“The goal of the pilot project was to determine what efficiencies could be achieved with an automated single-stream collection procedure using one 96-gallon cart and in terms of efficiencies using automation and compaction from trucks. It was to make sure we could see it, which greatly reduces the need to drive back and forth to the recycling center on Slater Road,” says Carlson.
“It’s a very inefficient collection process. It’s very labor and truck intensive. It requires many trucks driving miles of roads,” says Carlson.
Carlson told the commission that some Washington cities are solving the problem of corruption by having residents take their glass to central collection points, such as supermarkets.
“When paper gets very wet, it can’t be recycled. When it comes to small glass, that can be a problem too,” he said.
Alderman Lisa Anderson, a member of the committee, wanted to know more about central glass collection points and the cost of single-stream recycling for Bellingham residents.
“Recycling is very important, but so is the health and safety of our employees,” said Anderson.
Carlson said single-stream recycling will help SSC keep recycling costs down in a volatile commodity market with fluctuating prices for recycled materials.
He said it now costs $242 a ton to recycle and $107 a ton to dump the same material in a landfill.
