Because it’s easier, recycling rates rise

Bottles, cans, paper no longer must be separated

Friday, May 30, 2008

Single-stream recycling means people don’t have to sort plastic containers, paper, glass, aluminum and other materials anymore. ‘‘We’ve seen a 35 to 40 percent increase in volume” since the new system was started about 18 months ago at the county’s six trash convenience centers, said Richard Tarr, solid waste manager for the St. Mary’s County Department of Public Works and Transportation.

In 1992, St. Mary’s County only recycled 6 percent of its waste. By 2006, the recycling rate was up to 32 percent. State law mandates that St. Mary’s recycle at least 15 percent of its trash. Recycling figures for 2007 are not yet available.

Single-stream recycling began November 2006. Waste Management won the recycling bid then and owns the single-stream recycling facility in Elkridge, near Baltimore. That is where most of recyclables collected in St. Mary’s County go.

Single-stream recycling ‘‘encourages folks to recycle more because it’s easier,” Tarr said. As for those who don’t recycle, ‘‘maybe they’ll start.”

Recycling is not only friendly to the environment, but it makes good business sense for manufacturers, Tarr said.

‘‘Recycled products are a lot cheaper” to make. Without a viable market for recyclable items, recycling wouldn’t be possible, he said.

At the Waste Management sorting facility in Elkridge, 1,500 tons of material are sorted a day. Trucks dump the material on the tipping floor, and bulldozers push the material onto a main-feed conveyor where materials go through a series of conveyors.

Workers along the lines remove items that shouldn’t be in the stream. Plastic bags are also removed and thrown out.

As the material bounces through the conveyor, the smaller items fall out and the bulky items like cardboard go on to the last conveyor.

It is like an automated production line for would-be garbage.

‘‘It’s an interesting operation,” said Commissioner Thomas A. Mattingly Sr. (D), who has visited the facility. ‘‘It’s amazing how clean that process is.”

Aluminum is flipped out of the stream and magnets pull out steel and in the end each kind of material is compressed into square bails. Companies then come and pay to take the goods to recycle them. Waste Management covers its cost that way, along with money from county government.

St. Mary’s County government pays a flat fee each month per trash convenience center to have recyclables hauled away.

‘‘If we recycle more, the cost per ton goes down and eliminates the disposal cost,” Tarr said.

The county pays $36 a ton to dump its trash at the mega-landfill in King George County, Va.

The solid waste budget is $3.6 million, while the recycling budget is $476,234.

The busiest convenience center in St. Mary’s is by far the one at St. Andrew’s in California. There, an average of 1,500 vehicles come through on a Saturday or Sunday. After a holiday as many as 2,000 come through there.

Of recycling in general, Tarr said, ‘‘The citizens are making the choice to do it. They’re the ones making it a success,” Tarr said of the county’s recycling operation.

‘‘It’s clearly easier and less expensive for the county,” Mattingly said.

The county participated in an amnesty scrap tire day recently, where the Maryland Department of the Environment pays to take away up to 100 tons of tires from each county. St. Mary’s sent 81 tons away, the most in Southern Maryland, Tarr said.