N. Idaho garbage may be in trouble

By MARC STEWART

Staff Writer

China doesn’t view our trash as treasure anymore.

The Chinese government is severely restricting the imports of recycled materials starting Jan. 1, and consequences could have a profound effect on how Kootenai County residents deal with their garbage.

The United States exports an estimated 1.5 million tons of recycled materials to China every year — and no one knows what’s going to happen with the new rules. The core problem for exporters is contamination. Plastic sacks, rotting food, old garden hoses, wiring, electronics, yard waste and car parts are mistakenly placed in recycling bins and eventually shipped to China along with recyclable materials.

“I don’t blame China,” said Mark Hinders, general manager of Coeur d’Alene Garbage. “I see a lot of the recycling that comes in and sadly a significant portion of the material is what I call ‘Wishful recycling.’ It’s what people think should be recycled but really is just garbage and it belongs in the landfill. We’ve seen tires, a car bumper, and an old engine block in our recycling bins. We’ve even had a deer carcass come through here. All of those things can damage a very expensive piece of equipment that compacts the recycled material into bales.”

The issue is serious enough that the city of Coeur d’Alene and Coeur d’Alene Garbage are working on new policies and procedures — including letting residents know they’re not recycling the right way with a tag on their blue bin through random checking.

“We would let the homeowner know what is acceptable and what isn’t,” said Hinders. “We also wouldn’t pick up the recycling that day.”

There could also be fines and or stops in service, but Hinders cautions it’s too early to announce specific penalties for noncompliance.

“We’re working closely with the city,” he said. “There is a public education piece to all of this.”

The bottom line is that wishful recycling needs to end.

“Yesterday, I saw a woman throwing a plastic sack of cans into a recycling bin,” he said. “The cans are great. The plastic sack is contamination. That sack causes problems because I have to pay people to sort it out and we don’t catch everything. If a ship arrives in China and the officials reject a container with recycled materials, it has to be shipped back to the United States at our cost.”

About six months ago, the Chinese government had allowed recycled imports to contain up to 12 percent contaminated materials. As of Jan. 1, the amount of allowable contamination is .5 percent.

“The root of this is the communist government wanted blue skies again,” said Steve Frank, president and owner of Pioneer Recycling Service, the Tacoma company that processes recycled materials from North Idaho. “The people of China are upset with pollution and they’re demanding the government clean up their domestic environment. My concern is that they’re going about it in a not-well-thought-out manner. It’s a shock-and-awe approach designed to get everybody serious about it.”

And it appears to be working. Frank and others are predicting major changes to the recycling world in 2018 as oil costs and changing plastic markets impact the demand for recycled materials, said Sharon Bosley, executive director of Kootenai Environmental Alliance.

“Right now it’s cheaper to manufacture virgin plastic than it is to recycle it,” Bosley said.

Recycling is relatively popular across North Idaho. People living in Coeur d’Alene, Post Falls, Hayden and Rathdrum can recycle paper, newspapers, plastic containers with necks (i.e., milk jugs, soda and bottles) and cardboard by placing those items in the blue recycling containers provided by Coeur d’Alene Garbage.

Bosley is afraid that many people will just toss things into the garbage, which ultimately goes into the landfill.

“Forty percent of the world sends its recyclable material to China,” she said. “I do think China’s policy will deter some from recycling. It’s going to be a tough issue for people to address, but perhaps we will be able to find domestic solutions.”

Kootenai County produces between 4,000 and 5,000 tons of recycled material a year. Between 5 percent and 10 percent is contaminated, said Hinders. Getting to that .5 percent is the goal.

“The tough part is where you have to go back and re-train people what is recycling and what isn’t recycling,” he said. “It’s very doable. It’s going to take a little more effort.”

That effort includes washing out all cans, plastic bottles — even yogurt containers. It also means making sure plastic bags are not in the recycling bin, along with food and other things that don’t belong. Major recycling centers like the one in Tacoma are gearing up for the change.

“The plastic bags are the most common thing,” said Frank. “With these strict rules, I’ve already hired more people to sort through the materials. The sacks can ruin equipment and China doesn’t want them.”

Cleaning up dirty recycling is part of the solution, said Bosley. She points to the city’s glass depots near the Ramsey softball fields and at the Cherry Hill park as prime examples of people not thinking about what happens to their old glass when they recycle.

“There is so much contamination in the glass that it can’t be reused for our local roads instead of gravel,” she said. “It’s a shame. I am a big advocate of reuse and recycle.”