ND City Goes to Single Stream Collection

The days of sorting recyclables into glass, plastic, metal and paper are now a thing of the past, at least in the Grand Forks region.

Waste Management Inc., which provides recycling services in the region, has started a so-called "one-sort" system. This means the only sorting residents need worry about involves separating the garbage from the recyclables.

Newspaper, plastic bottles, soda cans -- anything that may be recycled -- can be tossed in a single container, according to Mike Miller, who heads the local WM branch. Labels need not be peeled, nor do containers need to be squeaky clean.

The intent, Miller said, is to make recycling less of a fuss for residents so they would be more inclined to use the service.

This is necessary because the City of Grand Forks, which account for three-fourths of WM's recycling business, has given the company an ultimatum.

In March, the City Council told WM it has until the end of the year to increase participation in the curbside recycling program by 6.6 percent. If not, the city would switch to a much less convenient program using drop-off sites.

Recycling proponents say such a program is guaranteed to reduce recycling participation even more. But council members argue they can't justify spending tax dollars -- $347,449 in 2002 -- on a program that not many people use.

So far, the first quarter of 2003 has seen a decrease in usage, according to a city staff report. WM picked up 6.1 tons, or 2 percent, less in this period compared to the same period a year ago.

To meet the 6.6 percent goal, the company would have had to pickup 25.6 tons more. WM's contract didn't start until April 1, however.

One-sort recycling is a bit of a misnomer. In WM's case, the sorting is done at a 118,000-square-foot Minneapolis facility that opened more than a year ago. Rod Goeser, who heads the recycling service in the Grand Forks region, said the Minneapolis plant could sort as much recyclables in one day what it takes his crew to gather in a month -- about 800 tons.

The local WM branch used to have six workers sorting recyclables by hand. With one-sort, it's only job is to gather recyclables from the curbs and bring it back to the main facility on the northwestern edge of Grand Forks. From there, the recyclables are loaded onto semi-trucks bound for Minneapolis.

Miller said with all the trucking involved, one-sort is probably not as cheap as doing most of the separation locally. But, he said, it makes up for that with convenience for residents.

Besides, he said, the Minneapolis plant needs to be used to be cost-effective.

Which pretty much was the Grand Forks council's point.