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Grand Jury: Blue bag recycling increases waste |
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Written by Don Chaddock
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Placer, Lincoln officials believe program works, disagree with findings
The recycling programs implemented by two cities – Lincoln and Auburn – may be doing more harm than good, according to a report recently released by the Placer County Grand Jury.
The Western Placer Waste Management Authority’s Material Recovery Facility is so efficient at extracting recyclables and processing “green” waste for compost that cities with a blue bag recycling program are actually adding more waste from the bag alone, according to the report.
The Grand Jury looked into the operations of the facility because many
residents living in towns without the blue bag program “questioned the
effectiveness of their recycling system since no separation of
recyclable material at home is required,” the report states.
The facility was built in 1995, but went through major upgrades in 2003. The report describes the recovery process in detail.
“All
non-green garbage is dumped onto the floor of a warehouse. Large
front-loaded trucks then scoop material and dump it on conveyor belts
where the recovery process begins. Through a series of machines and
personnel, all bags are shredded and recyclable material is sorted out.
Hazardous materials such as batteries and paint cans are also sorted
and disposed of properly. At the end of the sorting process,
(recyclables) are packaged for resale. The green waste is then dumped
in another area and is composted for sale to the public at the
facility,” the report states.
The blue bag program was
originally intended to make it easier for the plant to separate
recyclables from the regular garbage, but that isn’t what the Grand
Jury found.
“Jurors observed that most blue bags were not
separated, but handled as regular trash. The blue bag program didn’t
appear to improve the waste management program,” the report stated. “In
fact, the blue bag program increased waste.”
Jim Durfee,
executive director of the county’s Department of Facility Services,
said that while his office has yet to prepare an official response to
the report, they disagreed with many of the report’s findings.
“We don’t completely agree with the findings of the Grand Jury,” he said.
Durfee’s department also provides staff to the Western Placer Waste Management Authority.
“Blue bags help protect the recyclables from wet garbage, so they are clean when they arrive,” Durfee said. “The point I don’t agree with is that (the bags) make more trash.”
Durfee also pointed out that blue bags make up a small amount of the materials processed at the Material Recovery Facility (MRF).
“We are very proud of our facility,” Durfee said.
The grand jury also states that Placer County’s recycling and recovery system exceeds state standards and is more effective than the curbside system used in Davis.
Lincoln Public Works Director John Pedri said the blue bags are recyclable, but the MRF chooses not to recycle them. He also took issue with the findings in the report, specifically that the bags weren’t being pulled.
“From all audits we’ve done, they are pulling the blue bags,” Pedri said.
Durfee agreed with Lincoln’s audit results.
“All of our inspections (have found) the blue bags being pulled,” Durfee said. “We are satisfied that the blue bag program works.”
Lincoln is standing by its recycling program.
“The benefits (of the blue bag program) far outweigh the negatives. ... I believe what we’re doing is the right thing,” he said.
Pedri also pointed out that the majority of the blue bags coming into the MRF are from Lincoln.
“(In the future), the city has plans to replace the blue bag program with the curbside recycling program,” Pedri said.
He said it’s also good for residents to “learn effective management of their own waste” by separating recyclables at home.
“We want to source separate at the home,” he said, which will be essential to a future curbside recycling program.
“(The curbside recycling) will provide the city with revenues earned from the recycling of collected materials along with increasing the number of materials recycled,” Pedri wrote in a June 11 statement regarding the blue bag program.
Auburn City Manager Bob Richardson said that if the blue bag program isn’t operating as it was intended, then they would work with their contractors and come up with a solution.
“Recycling is extremely important to the City of Auburn,” he said.
The city also provides recycling dumpsters behind city hall for cardboard, office paper and newspaper.
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