Single-bin recycling poised to spread beyond Bellingham after Whatcom County Council vote
Whatcom County residents could be joining Bellingham in a move to single-bin recycling for curbside pickups with Sanitary Service Co., the county’s largest residential waste hauler.
County Council members voted unanimously to set a March 19 public hearing to allow the practice under its contract with SSC, similar to the steps that Bellingham took last year.
Because of increased spoilage when the materials are co-mingled, such “single-stream” recycling can reduce the amount of material that’s actually recycled. But the new system will make recycling easier for customers, save on fuel costs, reduce trash on the street and decrease injuries to drivers, officials said.
“It’s been going pretty good, and the feedback has been positive. I think a lot of people are appreciative of it, and there’s less litter on windy days,” SSC General Manger Ted Carlson told The Bellingham Herald in a phone call.
Currently, most Bellingham residents and all SSC customers outside the city must place recyclable items into separate crates for scrap paper; newspaper; and plastic, glass and metal. Cardboard is stacked alongside the crates.
Drivers must leave the truck and dump the crates manually.
With the new method, all recycling goes into a single 96-gallon “toter,” which is emptied into a truck using a mechanical arm. These trucks are larger the current recycling trucks, meaning that drivers make fewer trips to dump their loads at a center in Ferndale.
SSC is rolling out the program in Bellingham after a successful trial in 2022, and recycling pickup is changing from weekly to every other week.
Every other week recycling pickup has begun in the neighborhoods that have switched to single-stream recycling, Public Works Department spokeswoman Stefanie Cilinceon told The Herald in an email.
State Rep. Alex Ramel, D-Bellingham, told The Herald that he’s disappointed that the new system will result in less material being recycled because of spoilage, but that there other benefits.
“In the end, it’s not a bad idea, especially because of the labor issue” with fewer injuries to drivers, he said.
Ramel, whose full-time job is climate policy adviser for the environmental advocacy group Stand.Earth, told The Herald that other measures are needed to reduce the amount of trash going to landfills.
“The best solution to all of this is legislation that we considered this session but did not pass,” including a bottle and can deposit measure and the WRAP Act that would force producers to reduce waste in packaging.
“We would get much higher rates of recycling with that system,” Ramel said.
