PF starts new recycling campaign

Stagnant recycling rates in Post Falls are prompting city and waste disposal officials to launch a new campaign to encourage people to sort more newspaper, aluminum and plastic out of their garbage.

Since Post Falls residents were first offered curbside recycling about 10 years ago, recycling rates have held steady, with about 33 percent of households participating in the recycling program. In 2007 that amounted to 334 tons of newspaper, aluminum cans, tin cans, plastic jugs and cardboard.

But officials say the city could do better.

“As the city has grown, the rate has remained the same,” said Phil Damiano of Post Falls Sanitation.

That’s not too problematic now, with room available at Kootenai County’s landfill. But preserving space in that landfill is important because shipping garbage to another landfill could prove to be much more costly than disposal is today.

“Anything you can divert from the waste stream is going to save landfill space,” Damiano said.

Recycling more could save Post Falls citizens money in the long-term.

To encourage that, Post Falls Sanitation and the city of Post Falls have each pledged to spend $5,000 a year for the next 10 years on educating the public about recycling.

Kootenai County averages eight pounds of garbage per resident per day, said Roger Saterfiel, the county’s solid waste director. That’s double the national average.

Still, Saterfiel thinks much of that total may be impacted by tourists visiting the area, not necessarily garbage generated in individual households.

Saterfiel said that the county’s landfill has enough capacity to remain open until 2037. Keeping that landfill open as long as possible is essential to keeping garbage rates down, he said.

“If we didn’t have our own landfill you could add $6 million per year to my budget,” he said.

In addition to saving room in the landfill, Post Falls’ recycling program pays for itself, said Post Falls Finance Director Shelly Enderud.

Last year, sales of recyclables generated $17,000 in revenue for the city, up from $14,000 in 2006.

Encouraging more recycling could boost that revenue stream.

Saterfiel said recycling education efforts will focus on children. “The next generation, we will have higher participation rates,” he said.