CHENEY – Public Works officials have reopened the city’s Recycling Center, sidelined in late March due to restrictions enacted to slow the spread of the coronavirus.
The city announced on May 1 that it was reopening the center from 8 – 11 a.m. Tuesdays – Saturdays to allow residents to get rid of the products previously filling up the city’s yard waste bins and regular garbage collection. There is a caveat in that residents will not be able to leave their vehicles, but must wait in line at the center’s entrance until one of several 4-6 yard Dumpsters is open, at which point staff will direct them to that bin.
Residents then drive up to the bin and get rid of their recyclables, being reminded to maintain six-feet of social distancing between workers and other residents. The wearing of masks and additional personal protective equipment such as gloves is encouraged.
“We will then basically put it (recyclables) into a commercial truck and haul it to the smart center,” Public Works Director Todd Ableman told City Council on April 28.
The Recycling Center has been closed due to the nature of handling recyclables and that studies of the virus indicated it had the ability to live longer than other viruses on surfaces, up to 12 hours on cardboard and 2-4 days on metal. The city of Spokane’s Waste to Energy Plant stopped taking residents’ recyclables, yard and hazardous waste on March 26 due to an inability to safely practice social distancing requirements. That left the only other options to residents to get rid of those products to either take them to the county transfer stations — which accept recyclables and yard waste — or put them into yard waste bins or regular garbage.
Ableman said the city was receiving an “enormous amount” of recyclables and hazardous waste in the yard waste pins, forcing staff to remove the items to attempt to cut down on contamination. Regular garbage collection was also being affected, with the trucks making two trips to the Spokane plant with 7,000 – 8,000 tons of trash per trip rather than just one trip with 10,000 tons and thus costing the city more money in transportation and plant tipping fees — which are $65.99 per ton.
The reason, Ableman said, is that more cardboard boxes are showing up in the regular garbage stream. The boxes are harder to compact and thus make it more difficult to compress loaded trash to fit into the truck.
“I think there are a lot of people ordering from Amazon and it is a very hard product to try to compact in the compactor,” Ableman said. “So, we’re seeing more residential tonnage in that respect.”
Adding to the city’s problem is that on April 28, the county’s Regional Solid System announced hours at the transfer stations — one in Spokane Valley and the other north of Spokane near Day Mt. Spokane Road — were being reduced due to staffing shortages. The transfer stations are now closed on Sundays.
“We will return to seven-day per week operations as soon as adequate staffing is available,” county regional solid waste system coordinator Deb Geiger said in a prepared statement.
While additional costs have been accrued with extra trips to the Waste to Energy Plant, some of that is offset by the fact that waste tonnage from Eastern Washington University has dropped way down due to the university virtually closing its campus by putting all spring quarter classes online in response to the coronavirus. Typically, the city picks up about 60-70 tons per month from the university, Ableman said, but after a normal March collection, he is estimating April’s collection at around 20 tons.
“Eastern has pretty much dropped off the map on their tonnage,” he added.
With Cheney’s annual Clean Sweep each April being postponed due to coronavirus, Ableman said the city has received a number of calls from residents asking about annual large item pickup, which usually takes place the week before Clean Sweep. With no new date for Clean Sweep being set, due to uncertainties surrounding the virus, Ableman said they are looking at ways of programming in a large item pickup to help residents.
“We may run that maybe towards June, and then we can also run it again in the fall, if necessary,” he told the council.
John McCallum can be reached at [email protected].
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