Serving Whitman County since 1877
Serving Whitman County since 1877
Single stream recycling may arrive in Whitman County this summer.
Separate bins may soon be phased out.The City of Pullman passed a resolution last April to go to the new practice this year, and the county will follow, say private and public recycling officials.
“I would say it’s probably going to happen early summer, by June,” said Mark Storey, Whitman County Public Works Director.
Single-stream recycling requires no separation of items, meaning that aluminum cans and milk jugs are tossed in the same bin as cardboard and pop bottles.
“It’s just more convenient for residents and cost-effective for the hauler,” said David Nails, Solid Waste Operations Manager for Whitman County.
Nails said the Puget Sound area has been doing single-stream for some time, suggesting that WSU students coming from over there may be a factor in this.
“I think the (city of Pullman) is getting a lot of heat from the westside WSU students,” said Nails.
Storey indicated that Pullman officials aim to make the changeover in the summer, timed to when the majority of students have left town. Since less total recycling materials will be coming in with less population, it’s an ideal time for a transition.
When the change is made, the Whitman County Transfer Site south of Colfax will convert to the new system.
“If Pullman goes to single stream, the whole county needs to,” said Nails. “We can’t do both systems. All we’re asking as a county processor is to have one system.”
Today the county’s Transfer Site bales and sells recyclable items, packed together in-kind, such as bales of aluminum, bales of plastic and bales of mixed paper.
They are then shipped by semi-truck to material separating facilities in Seattle, Portland or Spokane.
Once at the facility, the recyclable items are separated by machinery that was originally developed in the 1970s. Processes used for this include magnetic separation for certain metals such as steel, Eddy current separation for metals like aluminum and infrared separation for plastics, which can be separated by type, color and resin.
Empire Disposal trucks collect recycling from around Whitman County – including curbside service in Colfax – and deliver it to the county Transfer Site.
Once the changeover to single stream occurs, the 50-60 bales on trucks coming out of Colfax will all be of assorted recyclables.
“We’re just a processor,” said Nails. “Kind of a middle man. We just bale it and sell it.”
Storey said that once in place, single-stream has two main benefits.
“It will probably result in a higher level of recycling across the county and reduce the waste stream,” he said. “It’s been demonstrated across the country that this can lead to a 20 to 30 percent increase in recycling.”
The waste stream is less because more of what used to go into a garbage can goes into a recycling bin.
Empire Disposal hauls for the county while Pullman Disposal covers Pullman.
Doug DeYoung, Acting Site Manager for Empire in Colfax, says that the transition to single-stream would be fairly minor.
“Instead of having a bunch of different bins to drop your recycling, you just drop it in one box,” said DeYoung.
There are formats like this in the area, such as Fairfield and Latah.
The former has a 40-cubic-yard drop box while the latter has a 25 cubic-yard box.
As far as those paying for curbside service in Colfax, DeYoung said the change will also be small.
“The resident wouldn’t see much of a change at all,” he said, indicating that they already just put all recycling in one tub.
As it is today, the items collected curbside are separated by Empire Disposal.
“(Single-stream) would take out a lot of labor on our end,” said DeYoung, although indicating that the staff level would be unaffected.
“There’s always something else to be done around here,” he said.
All together, things may soon be different for county residents when it comes time to take out the recyclables.
“Look for some changes to come around early summer,” said Storey.
Garth Meyer is a former Whitman County Gazette reporter.
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