Seattle Reports Increase in Recycling Rate

According to the city of Seattle’s annual recycling report, the amount of solid waste the city diverted from the landfill and into recycling and composting increased by 2.6 percent in 2010, the largest year-to-year increase since 2006.

Seattle’s goal is to divert 60 percent of its municipal solid waste to recycling and composting by 2012 and 70 percent by 2025. According to forecasts by the Seattle Public Utilities (SPU) residents and businesses in Seattle will need to recycle and compost about 45,000 more tons per year in order to reach the 2012 goal.

SPU cites changes to the city’s curbside recycling and composting services, in 2009, as the primary factor for most of last year’s recycling rate gains. In April 2009, Seattle allowed more items to be recycled and composted, provided weekly collection of organics as well as allowed commingling of all recyclables into one cart. Three of Seattle’s four municipal solid waste sectors achieved record recycling rates:

• The commercial sector’s recycling rate increased the most, going from 54.9 percent in 2009 to 58.9 percent in 2010. Strong markets for recycled paper account for most of the increase, followed by increased food waste diversion, according to the report.
• The single-family sector increased by 1.6 percent to 70.3 percent. Increased food waste collection accounts for most of this gain, the report indicates.
• The multi-family sector’s rate rose by 2.6 percent to 29.6 percent. This followed this sector’s recycling rate decrease in 2009. Increased food waste collection drove most of this gain, the report says.

This year, Seattle has launched several waste reduction initiatives to further increase its recycling and diversion rates. The initiatives include mandatory food waste collection service for apartments and condominiums, as well as a new phone book opt-out system, www.seattle.gov/stopphonebooks, which allows businesses and residents to choose which yellow pages phone books they want to receive and which ones the don’t want.

Overall, Seattle disposed 335,570 tons of waste into an Arlington, Ore., landfill in 2010 — 16,000 fewer tons than 2009, and more than 140,000 tons less than what the city landfilled in 2000. The report says it costs Seattle nearly twice as much to send material to the landfill, nearly 300 miles away, than to recycle it. About half of the city’s garbage is still made up of recyclable or compostable material, primarily food waste, paper and construction materials, according to the report.