Curbside recycling proposed to extend life of landfill

BONNERS FERRY — A curbside recycling program is proposed for the residents of Bonners Ferry to help reduce the amount of waste going into the landfill.

A special City Council meeting was held Monday to discuss options, hear public input and give a landfill status report.

“This is the way of things in the future,” said Dave Anderson, Mayor of Bonners Ferry. “We are not implementing mandatory curbside pickup,” said Anderson. “We are looking to do our part.”

Ron Frederickson, owner of Frederickson’s Bonners Ferry Garbage and Recycling Systems, presented two proposals for city curbside recycling. One proposal is for voluntary participation and cost allocation to all households in the city. The second proposal is for voluntary participation and cost allocation to participating households.

“It is a voluntary, temporary thing to get the ball rolling,” said Frederickson. “A trial period.”

“We hope that if you pay for it, you’ll use it,” said Frederickson, in regards to the proposal to allocate the costs to all households. In regards to cost allocation to participating households, Frederickson said it is “hard to get costs down on a voluntary basis.”

If all households paid for the curbside recycling, Frederickson proposed a $3.25 per month cost to each household. With only participating households paying, the cost would increase if fewer households participated, since there are fixed costs with a recycling program. For example if 1,000 households participated the cost would be $3.25/month, 450 households would be $7.22/month, 250 households would by $13.00/month.

The trial will last four months and is based on recycling programs used in other towns. Each participating household would receive a recycling bin and weekly pickup service.

Recyclables would be sorted into four categories: plastics, mixed paper waste, aluminum and tin cans, and cardboard.

Frederickson estimated that 21.1 tons of garbage could be removed from the water stream each month if 1,000 households participated.

“It isn’t going to cure everything, but it is a step in the right direction and it will reduce tonnage,” said Frederickson. 

“We are trying to avoid the cost of going to a transfer station,” said Stephen Boorman, City Administrator.

Once the landfill is full, it will become a transfer station and the county will have to pay to have the garbage hauled away. All county residents pay for the operation of the landfill.

“If we don’t recycle, your landfill fees will quadruple or more,” said Ron Smith, County Commissioner, in regards to the landfill closing and turning into a transfer station.

The Boundary County landfill is currently operating under a small community exemption, which means the landfill cannot deposit more than 20 tons of garbage into the hole per day.

“We have been bumping up against 20 tons for several years,” said Dan Dinning, County Commissioner. “If we exceed the limit, we are looking at a big expense.”

If the landfill had to close due to exceeding the limit or for other reasons, the cost would be $1.5-$1.6 million. Boundary County has been saving money in a landfill closure fund and has approximately $600,000 right now.

A recently completed waste stream study indicated about 15 tons of garbage is currently be dumped every day. The average last year was 15.5-16 tons per day and for the previous year the average was close to 20 tons per day. 

At the current tonnage, the landfill has 20 to 30 years left.

“The less that goes in, the longer it can stay open,” said Dinning. “It will become a transfer site after closure.”

“Our goal is to keep recyclables out of the hole,” said Smith.

Recycling rates have increased according to Dinning. In comparison between September 31, 2008 to September 31, 2009 and October 1, 2009 to May 1, 2010, the amount of recyclables (aluminum, plastic, cardboard, etc.) has increased from 184 tons to 232 tons. Metal recycling has increased from 162 tons to 288 tons and the wood pile has increased from 630 tons to 948 tons. The current figures are higher for last six months than the entire previous year.

Currently glass doesn’t count in the tonnage going into the hole. Since glass is inert and no market has been secured for recycling it, the glass is being crushed in a separate area.

“We cannot get it all done at once, we are going step by step as fast as we can,” said Dinning in regards to recycling glass. “Rubber is recyclable but there is enough that they don’t pay for them,” said Dinning in reference to the tires. “We sell the tires, but lose money.”

“Don’t assume you will make money from recyclables,” said Boorman. “It is a lower cost way of disposing it.”

The landfill is making money on recycling plastic, newspaper, cardboard, aluminum and metal.  On the other hand, it costs the landfill to recycle electronics, tires, and wood.

“We have talked about yard waste,” said Dinning. Yard waste is the second most voluminous waste being dumped. “Yard waste goes into the wood pile.”

Currently, the landfill recycles cardboard, mixed paper (newspaper, office paper, books, magazines), 1-7 plastics (includes plastic grocery bags), tin cans and aluminum cans. The landfill also has separate collection points for glass, wood, metal, tires, appliances, electronics (anything with a power cord except televisions), lead batteries, concrete, and used oil and antifreeze.