Olympic Disposal customers in the City of Sequim and portions of Clallam County should have received a mailer about the launch of a trial recycling awareness program that looks to reduce contamination in bins.
Cameras from Saskatchewan-based Canadian cleantech startup Prairie Robotics will use global positioning systems and computers in three recycling trucks that check the contents of curbside recycling carts. If a contaminated item is located, then a mailer will be sent to the household.
The cameras went into use starting April 28 and will go through mid-June as a trial run, according to Olympic Disposal district manager Joey Deese.
“The purpose is to do outreach and share what’s recyclable and what’s not,” he said in an interview.
“The recycling market is so confusing, so this is more of an educational piece.”
Nothing punitive will happen if a household is notified, Deese said.
When a recycling bin with contaminated items is identified, the computer system will automatically generate a picture of the contaminates with recyclables blurred out for a flyer mailed to residents using GPS-location, he said.
“Everything still gets picked up and not by any means will we stop servicing customers or fine them,” Deese said.
Sequim and Clallam County join the City of Olympia and City of Renton for the trial program with funding through the Department of Ecology’s Recycle Right campaign started in 2019 because of markets closing due to the high level of contaminants in Washington’s recycling.
“We hope this technology proves effective and provides local recycling programs across the state with a valuable tool for reducing contamination,” said Dan Weston, the Department of Ecology’s statewide recycling coordinator, via a press release on the project.
Technical support for the program comes from the nonprofit The Recycling Partnership, and this trial program is a modified version of its “Feet on the Street” cart tagging recycling program using cameras.
Deese said Sequim and Clallam County weren’t chosen because there are significant issues with recycling but rather because the area is unique.
“There is a lot of recycling in the area and in the City of Sequim everybody gets recycling (bins) and in the county you have to sign up and pay a fee,” he said.
“It’s unique in that we have two kinds of recycling areas.”
He reiterated that the program is educational and an effort to “see if we can make (recycling) better.”
When the trial program ends in mid-June, he said they’ll check the recycling loads to see if the educational program helped reduce contamination.
Both city and county leaders are aware of the program and were excited for it to roll out, Deese said.
Recycle or not
According to Olympic Disposal’s mailer, some acceptable recyclables include paper, cardboard, tin cans and plastic jugs that are empty, clean and dry.
Non-recyclable items include plastic bags and wrap, bagged recyclables, batteries and electronics, hazardous waste, glass and Styrofoam.
Olympic Disposal staff said some common contaminants include plastic clamshell food containers and pizza boxes with grease.
They said clean cardboard is especially important because it is recycled locally at the Port Townsend Paper Mill.
Deese said recycle bins go to Olympic Disposal’s baling facility in Port Angeles and taken to Pioneer Recycling Services in Tacoma where recycling is sorted.
For more information about local recycling, visit wasteconnections.com/sequim. Contact the company by phone at 360-452-7278 or by email to cust2112@waste connections.com.
Sequim Gazette photo by Matthew Nash Residents of the City of Sequim and some Clallam County residents who pay for recycling through Olympic Disposal recently received a mailer about what can and cannot be recycled. New cameras will identify contaminated items and alert the residents with another mailer.
