News of how recycling is handled on a county level brought concerned citizens out to a monthly Jefferson County Solid Waste Advisory Committee meeting June 28 at the Tri-Area Community Center in Chimacum. 

No decisions were made, as the meeting was meant to exchange information and gather input from all involved parties.

“This is a very big subject,” Jefferson County Solid Waste Manager Tom Boatman said, referring to the worldwide effects of the change that came when China closed its doors to most recycling. “We knew that it was coming as soon as September, and we watched it.”

He added the industry advised waiting to see what would happen. 

“Collection must change; reduce contamination now,” he said.

China, the country that the United States and the world had relied on for years as the final destination for their recycling materials, had closed its doors to nearly all products at the beginning of the year. Its national Sword Policy sets its contamination rate so low that it is a tough feat for any community to meet without reworking its entire system to ensure it is as clean as it can be before it reaches its shores. 

Moving on to the effects locally, Boatman said non-marketable products, which include certain mixed paper and plastic products, make up about 40 percent of the 4,000 tons processed at the county each year. 

Stockpiled products turn to trash over a certain amount of time, Boatman noted. 

“We're faced with close to 400 tons of non-marketable mixed plastics and mixed paper,” he said. 

With a large deficit, Boatman's immediate concern was, “How do we stop the bleeding?” 

To address the crisis, the meeting was called to gather input from the SWAC and the public.

One proposal at the county is to stop gathering unmarketable products by the end of July, but that idea would require a large outreach program, Boatman said, and over time, the program would have to be changed to meet contamination needs.

“Because of mounting financial losses, some rural counties are discontinuing altogether their recycling programs and landfilling non-marketable stockpiles of non-marketable materials,” Boatman said. 

He added, assuming markets do not recover in two years, Jefferson County will face budget shortfalls without immediate changes, translating to more than $100,000 per year.

Kris Kidd, general manager of Skookum, the company Jefferson County contracts to handle recycling operations, reported the operations were hit hard. He said the company reaches the global recycling market through a broker using facilities in the Tacoma and Seattle areas, and that broker has stopped accepting mixed residual paper and commingled tin, aluminum and plastic bales. 

“The unfortunate reality is that no market has opened up. There is no place for our recycled products for Jefferson County that we have access to,” Kidd said.

He said Skookum is committed to finding a solution with its partners.

Skookum's Alysa Russell said residential paper, which includes bulk junk mail, copy paper, newspaper and magazines can be collected. The problem arises when the materials are placed in brown paper bags. Cereal boxes also are problematic. 

She said Skookum has exceeded its storage space to provide a clean and dry environment. 

Currently, glass and corrugated fiberboard are moving.

SWAC citizen representative Carol Cummins said she looks at the situation as an opportunity to make recycling feasibly better in the long term. 

“There's a real need to inform citizens ... in terms of the whys and hows,” she said. 

Fellow citizen SWAC member Lisa Crosby urged the county to determine whether certain materials are recyclable domestically. She also wondered about the costs of recycling compared to landfill costs and asked whether any stockpiled materials could or should be recycled.

Replying to the concerns about what would be deemed “non-marketable” material, Boatman said there are recoverable materials, but the ways those materials were sorted in the past are no longer viable.

He clarified the 400 tons the county stockpiled would cost $25,000 to send to a landfill.

Chris Giraldes of Waste Connections, also a SWAC member, said in the short term he would like to reach out to Skookum to get material moving. 

Jefferson County Commissioner Kathleen Kler said a message should be sent out to the public that there is a cost to recycling. 

“It's up to us how we buy things, how we use things and how we clean things before we throw them away,” Kler said.

Given three minutes each, several community members sounded off about what they would like to see for recycling moving forward. Piggybacking on a suggestion from Andrew Eisenberg, many of the commentators threw their hat in the ring to separate a bale if it would help.

The next meeting will be July 26 at 3 p.m. at Jefferson County Public Health, 615 Sheridan St. in Port Townsend, with a prepared summary available beforehand for the public to review.