These changes could be coming soon for Bellingham’s curbside recycling

A trial program for “single-stream” recycling showed promise, the head of Whatcom County’s waste-hauling company told a Bellingham City Council committee.

That could mean changes to how Bellingham residents set out their garbage, food scraps and recycling — and possibly require them to take glass to a central collection point, rather than leaving it curbside.

But the City Council would have to change its contract with Sanitary Service Co., said Eric Johnston, director of the Public Works Department.

Ted Carlson, general manager of SSC, briefed the council’s Public Works and Natural Resources Committee on the results of a six-month trial effort to collect recyclable material using one large container instead of three smaller bins in a meeting Monday, Oct. 24.

“At this point, SSC is pretty convinced that we need to move away from the three-bin system,” Carlson told the committee.

SSC sees fewer injuries to its drivers by using a single container that a mechanical arm can lift and dump, he said.

Further, SSC can use a larger truck that reduces the number of trips to a collection center south of Ferndale — saving time and fuel and reducing exhaust pollution.

That balances out the increase in “spoilage” from broken glass that contaminates scrap paper in a single bin, Carlson said.

“It’s time to have a discussion about changing the collection method and automating and reducing the number of trucks on the road,” he said.

“The labor concerns are real. I mean, we have about three times the injury rates on the recycling division as we do garbage, and that’s due to getting out of the truck, you know, 600, 800 times a day and lifting the bin over their shoulders,” he said.

“We can be more efficient. We can reduce the number of trucks, the number of miles driven and keep the emissions down,” he said.

A six-month trial started May 6 in the Edgemoor neighborhood, where customers placed all their recycling into a single 96-gallon container instead of separate bins for newspaper, paper and glass-metal-plastic.

Here’s what they found, Carlson said:

▪ 65% reduction in truck and labor hours with automation.

▪ No change in the amount of recycling that customers left at the curb.

▪ About 25% contamination or “spoilage” in terms of broken glass and soiled paper.

▪ Customers liked the convenience of one cart.

▪ Less trash spilled on the streets on windy days.

▪ Drivers were getting out of their trucks 800 times a day, and that was reduced to a dozen or so times with a single bin.

“The goal of the pilot project was to see just what type of efficiencies could be found through the automated single-stream collection procedure using one 96-gallon cart and what could we see in terms of efficiencies using the automation from the truck along with compaction that would greatly limit the need to go back and forth to the recycling center at Slater Road,” Carlson said.

“It is a very inefficient collection process. It is very labor and truck intensive. It requires a lot of trucks driving a lot of miles on the road,” Carlson said.

Carlson told the committee that some Washington cities are solving the spoilage problem by having residents take glass to a central collection point such as a supermarket.

“If the paper gets really wet, they can’t recycle it, and if it gets tiny glass, that can become problematic too,” he said.

Councilwoman Lisa Anderson, a member of the committee, wanted to know more about a central collection point for glass, and what the cost for single-stream recycling would be for Bellingham residents.

“Recycling is incredibly important, but so is the health and safety of the employees,” Anderson said.

Carlson said that single-stream recycling will help SSC keep the cost of recycling down amid a volatile commodities market where the price of recycled material fluctuates.

Currently, it costs $242 a ton to recycle and $107 a ton to dump the same material in a landfill, he said.