After a one-week test drive of a new system, the city of Washington is considering possible next steps for its recycling operations. Street Superintendent Tony Bonastia told the city council Monday night at its administration/operations committee meeting about the recent weeklong switch to single-stream recycling. Bonastia said the new system had a few hiccups, but for the most part was a success. The question now is if the city wants to make the switch to single stream full time.
The single stream setup was introduced to help out both residents and city workers. Instead of having pickup crews sort the recycling to separate the glass from the plastic, crews are instead picked up all the recycling in bulk.
Once enough recyclables are collected, the materials will be taken to a facility in Earth City to be sorted. Bonastia said the Earth City facility allows more recyclable items. In the future, if the city made the switch to single stream, residents could recycle items like cardboard.
To try out the single stream setup for one week at the end of April, city workers emptied and cleaned out one of the city trash trucks. Crews then went around and filled up the truck with recyclable material.
The original plan was to take the full truck to Earth City a few days a week, but Bonastia said during the test run crews only finally filled up the truck at the end of the week. He said crews collected about 4 tons of material during the week and added more on Friday from the city’s recycling center.
Bonastia said the single stream setup was a help for city workers. He said with the current setup, crews are out all day picking up and sorting the recycling. For the test week, he said the truck crew was done early each day by several hours.
“It’s a lot easier on our guys,” he said.
Despite the good news, Bonastia said switching to single stream full time has a catch. The city only has four trash trucks and with one masquerading as a recycling truck, which has the potential to leave crews shorthanded.
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