Experts discuss recycling, composting in Chelan County

WENATCHEE – Local nonprofit Sustainable NCW hosted a panel of local experts to address common recycling and composting questions from the community at Pybus Public Market on Oct. 29. 

Leaders from Waste Management now known as WM, Washington State Department of Ecology, Zero Waste, Tekniplex, Waste Loop, and Winton Mfg. Compost Works helped guide the community through the complications of recycling plastics and glass, as well as composting organics in North Central Washington.

Sustainable NCW provides a “Waste Wizard” guide for where to recycle different materials locally at sustainablencw.org/wastewizard.

Organics

Winton Mfg. Compost Works will accept organic food waste and yard waste from residential and commercial customers. Currently, the composting facility has centralized drop-off locations for residential customers to bring their compost buckets, but it is working on adding curbside pickup. WM accepts yard waste, which is composted at Stemilt.

Additionally, the Organics Management Laws passed in 2022 and 2024 aim to help Washington achieve its 2030 goal to reduce organic material in the landfill by 75 percent. The laws require applicable jurisdictions to make year round organics collection services available to all residential customers except multifamily residences and nonresidential customers that generate more than 0.25 cubic yards of organic waste per week by April 2027.

Under these laws, commercial businesses currently generating at least eight cubic yards of organic material waste per week must arrange for organic materials service if they are in an area that has year round access to a composting facility that meets the capacity requirements, otherwise known as a Business Organics Management Area (BOMA). By 2026, businesses in a BOMA generating at least 96 gallons per week must arrange for the service. Chelan County is a BOMA.

Plastics

Plastics are often labeled one through seven as a way to identify what type of plastic they are. Numbers one and two are most easily recycled and more often accepted by recycling centers. Bottles and jugs are the only plastics listed on WM’s recyclable list, which are often made of number one or two plastics.

“Bottles and jugs with twistable caps, those are recyclable, and they're recyclable in your single stream recycling. A good rule of thumb is, if it has a twistable lid it is recyclable,” said Tyler Mackay, Public Sector Manager of WM in Central WA.

Mackay said hard to clean jars such as peanut butter just need to be well scraped by a spoon before going in the bin.

Plastics such as to-go food clamshells, red solo cups and CDs are products made of polystyrene, or number six plastic. Up until recently, Tekniplex was recycling polystyrene through a manufacturer in Oregon. However, the facility recently ceased polystyrene recovery. Process Technician Jennifer Gutierrez Manjares said that Tekniplex was working on obtaining a densifier in order to process polystyrene in house.

“The densifier would be first for polystyrene, and in the future, we'd hope to get a granulator for polypropylene, which is plastic number five,” said Gutierrez Manjares.

Plastic bags were said to be one of the most common contaminants in WM’s recycling, as well as Winton’s composting.

Glass

Glass is currently not recyclable in Chelan County because of supply chain challenges and lack of recovery facilities. In early October, Waste Loop, which collects glass at the Leavenworth Recycling Center, had to stop hauling glass to its glass recycling partner, Strategic Materials. The processor lost its key end market customer for glass cullet, Ardagh Group, which ceased glass bottle manufacturing at its Seattle location due to the increasing pressure of low-cost imports. Because of this, Strategic Materials has slowed glass collection at its facility.

Jones said the organization was looking into ways to increase collection and haul more efficiently in order to sustainably bring glass to processing sites in Portland, OR and Kalama, WA.

“The further that you have to transport, the more carbon impact it has, the more transportation costs, et cetera,” said Jones.

Additionally, the Rotary Club of Chelan County’s glass crusher suffered severe damage during a fire at the City of Chelan Recycling Center this summer, halting all glass collection and crushing. However, the Rotary announced during the discussion that it is planning to resume operations within the next year.

Taylor Caldwell: 509-433-7276 or taylor@ward.media