King County Strives for Recycling Crown

With 1.7 million people, King County, Wash., is the largest county in the state and has one of the most developed recycling programs in the nation. Going beyond traditional curbside recycling, King County has addressed not only municipal recycling, but a wide array of other recycling, reuse and conservation issues in both the municipal sector and business arena.

Focusing on residences, businesses, schools and organics, the King County Solid Waste Division has spent the last 10 years building the infrastructure to house an extensive network of programs tackling everything from traditional recyclables, such as aluminum cans and newspapers, to the slightly more obscure food and organics waste trail.

With a basic structure in place for capturing materials, King County supplements this "basic package" with business assistance programs, construction and demolition materials collection and a host of other programs all aimed at reducing the waste stream and instilling the concepts of product stewardship and sustainability into residents. And this formula appears to be working, with the county achieving an overall 40% recycling rate and other programs achieving above average collection rates.

Where it All Began

The current program offerings of King County began in the late 1980s when the county was working with Seattle on long-term disposal options, says Jeff Gaisford, waste reduction and recycling manager for the King County Solid Waste Division, Seattle.

Although Seattle is located geographically within the county, the city operates its recycling services independently, although the city and county do work jointly on some other programs. The King County Solid Waste Division provides recycling services to 37 cities and works with both individuals and businesses. "We provide the basic services," Gaisford says, "and then work with the regional programs."

At that time, long-term disposal options were being considered, including incineration. But after consulting public opinion, Gaisford says, "People didn't want that. They overwhelmingly said no to incineration. They said give us the opportunity to reuse and recycle before you invest millions of dollars in these facilities."

With that response, King County began an aggressive approach to recycling and programs to achieve the current residential curbside recycling rate of about 48%. Gaisford says the county has achieved that success rate because "our public is with us and the political leaders are with us. We have had support for recycling both for the environment and for financial reasons."

And by launching this aggressive attack on waste reduction, King County has added five to six years of life to its landfills, Gaisford says.

Striving to Build a Sustainable Structure

The priority of the Solid Waste Division is distributed among four areas-residences, businesses, schools and organic materials. Programs within each division address each segment of the waste stream. One goal of these programs is to instill product stewardship into the minds of those living in King County, Gaisford says. Perhaps the prime example of this would be the Computer Recovery Project.

"It really is the showcase program," he says. The Computer Recovery Project is a partnership between the county and private businesses to collect and recycle or reuse computers and is in conjunction with Seattle.

The pilot program that ran from July to October was open to residents and small businesses, says Lisa Sepanski, project coordinator. "The reason we did that was because small businesses don't have good options for recycling. Most of the asset recovery groups want large volumes, while they only have one or two computers."

The pilot program originated due to the volume of phone calls about electronics recycling made to an information line. After some research, Sepanski says, it was found there wasn't a good option for the recycling of broken computer monitors. "We started doing research nationally and found that other communities were having trouble and some were considering them a hazardous waste. We sent out surveys to companies that dealt with electronics in one way, shape or form."

The surveys found about 20 businesses interested in talking about electronics recycling, but initially found no one who really knew how to handle broken or obsolete monitors. The group decided to provide an electronics recycling service through the already existing infrastructure of private business and nonprofits. About 40 businesses and non-profits served as collection sites for both working and non-working computers and monitors.

Monitors were accepted for a $10 fee and then sent to Total Reclaim, Seattle, where they could be disassembled and then the CRT glass sent to a Pennsylvania recycler. The $10 fee was off-set by a coupon, called a "Recycle Buck." Other computer parts were accepted for free or for a nominal fee left up to the collection sites discretion.

In addition to the "Recycle Bucks," other marketing efforts included publicity for the project's mascot, Cathode Ray, radio spots and a Web site listing collection sites and where to get "Recycle Bucks." Newspaper and other press coverage provided a fair amount of publicity about the project, Sepanski says.

Overall, Sepanski says the response to the program has been positive. "The e-mails and phone calls have been incredibly positive," she says. "I have only had a few complaints that it was too expensive. But people will definitely think twice about putting computers in the garbage."

Other publicity efforts include displaying Computer Recovery Project brochures at about 60 retail outlets where new computers are sold. The logic in this strategy is people purchasing new computers probably have old ones to dispose of, and the point of purchase is the most logical place to educate about the recycling option for their old machine.

The Municipal Side of Things

Curbside recycling services are offered throughout the county, with collection of a uniform group of materials in most areas. Both multi and single-family collection services are offered, with materials collected including steel cans, glass, aluminum cans, #1 and #2 plastic bottles, newspapers, cardboard, mixed paper and yard waste. A ban on disposing of yard waste at the curb implemented about seven years ago increased diversion rates significantly, Gaisford says. "Almost half of what we recycle is yard waste. There is a lot because of the rain year round."

Unifying the curbside recycling program throughout all communities in the county (Gaisford uses the term mainstreaming) was one of the goals when the initial effort was made to avoid incineration of waste. Gaisford says there is now "well over 80% participation in household and single family recycling." He says there is still room for improvement in multi-family collection.

"I would say our goal for the next 10 years is to mainstream product stewardship and resource conservation. We're not going to forget our roots, but that is the core we are working on."

In 1999, recycling tonnage collected through curbside programs rose 7% and subscriptions to curbside garbage and recycling services rose 2%. Yard waste collection also increased by 2%, to a level of 103,000 tons.

Under the umbrella of residential recycling, programs include latex paint collection, used motor oil collection, "Grasscycling" and the "Wastemobile." The county has organized collection points for latex paint that is later recycled. Three local paint companies collect and store the paint. About 16,000 gallons was collected and recycled in 1999.

The used motor oil collection program is similar to the latex paint collection, with about 145 private and public collection sites throughout the county. A 24% recycling rate is estimated for the oil recycling program, with about 365,000 gallons of used motor oil collected, a rate that has held steady since 1998.

The Grasscycling program offers a series of one-day events allowing residents to purchase discounted electric mulching mowers and to trade in old gas powered models. The program went over projected sales goals by 16% and exceeded trade-in goals by 24%, which translates into about 3,400 mulching mowers being sold and 3,100 gas powered mowers that were recycled.

The Wastemobile provides hazardous waste collection services and recycles about 44% of materials collected while reusing 52% as fuels. The Wastemobile visits 26 locations and has collected more than 7,500 tons of materials since it began making its rounds in 1989. Some materials accepted by the Wastemobile include paints, stains, solvents, adhesives, pesticides, motor oil and antifreeze. The Wastemobile had a 23% increase in collection between July 1, 1999 and June 30, 2000.

The Business of Recycling

Business assistance is also available for companies to start recycling programs and to make greener purchases. Businesses can learn how to recycle or reuse building materials and other waste reduction techniques they can put in place in the workplace. Several directories are also available. The Green Business Directory lists more than 800 companies. About 35,000 of the directories were requested last year, a 17% increase.

Online directories are also posted, covering such topics as recycling services, a construction recycling/sustainable building directory, and a waste prevention directory providing information on waste prevention and other topics.

One of the more popular business assistance programs is the Construction Works Recognition program. The Construction Works program recognizes builders and contractors who reduce waste and recycle on the job site. Sixteen builders have been certified as members of Construction Works since the program began in 1997. These members have recycled more than 52,000 tons of building materials.

The King County Green Works Recognition Program publicizes businesses for meeting certain criteria, including a 40% waste reduction rate, practicing at least three waste reduction strategies and using at least three recycled products. The qualifying companies are rewarded with free publicity in newsletters and other venues offered by King County. A Distinguished Green Works membership is also available, with requirements expanded to a recycling rate of 60% and the use of six strategies and six products.

A Look Ahead

Gaisford says the areas of product stewardship and sustainability will be two of the county's future goals. With a fair amount of construction in the area, capturing materials both at demolition sites and construction sites could lead to capturing significant overall amounts of material. Planning ahead to reduce on-site waste will be one method promoted, along with creating more sustainable homes and work places, he says.

"We want to let people know that everything connects and that recycling is more than saving landfill space," Gaisford says. "Because we are part of the department of natural resources, we are integrating our message with other environmental messages."

King County continues to implement programs that don't just encourage recycling, but resource conservation as well, such as the Waste Free Holidays program. The program encourages people to give experiences rather than things for the holiday season. The county partners with different events and organizations to offer discount tickets to events.

One "final frontier" Gaisford says the county addressing is organic waste and waste generated in the more rural areas of the county, such as on farms. With 20,000 horses in the county, one can only imagine what kind of waste problem can be created.(Read more about King County's implementation of recycling programs for construction and demolition materials next month in the December Recycling Today.)

The author is the associate editor of Recycling Today and can be reached at mgoodrich@recyclingtoday.com.