Kootenai County Solid Waste anticipates future growth

The business of garbage disposal is always evolving. Dealing with complex and daunting waste questions requires creative and diverse answers. In North Idaho this task falls to Roger Saterfiel and employees at Kootenai County’s Solid Waste Department. As director, Saterfiel has the double duty of managing the county’s solid waste and being a steward of the environment. “Garbage never ends, that’s one thing people don’t think about,” Saterfiel said. That means no matter the economic forecast or state of recycling, Saterfiel and his staff must plan for the future needs of a growing population. To help ease both the current and upcoming disposal requirements, the department has many environmentally-minded recycling programs in place. At the Ramsey Transfer Station in Coeur d’Alene, residents can drop off household items, from textiles and electronics to mixed waste paper and household batteries. The facility takes wood, restaurant grease, antifreeze and oil, which heats several of the site’s shops, in addition to bulk appliances and cardboard. “We by far and away offer the largest variety of services at our transfer stations,” Saterfiel says. This includes a Christmas tree recycling program launched a few years ago. Last year, residents brought more than 11 tons of trees to the station, a small portion of the overall 100,000 tons of material recycled annually. Electronic waste recycling, a newer initiative, startealongside water-based paint collection, opened to the public in January. Saterfiel says the program, which unofficially started last summer, eases the load of less-degradable garbage shipped to the county’s Fighting Creek Landfill, thus prolonging its lifespan until the current estimate of 2039. Currently being accepted are cell phones, computers, monitors, TVs, and similar larger items. Saterfiel says more than 50 tons of e-waste was recycled from when the department began keeping records in September 2008 and when the program officially opened to the public earlier this year. The salvaged material has an array of post-junk uses. For example glass from microwaves is shipped to Vietnam to make a unique style of plates and dishes. Last January residents were given a new disposal option with the opening of the Prairie Transfer Station, a $10.5 million, 39,000-square-foot facility northwest of Post Falls on Prairie Avenue. The 13-acre Ramsey station was built in 1992 to handle about 150 tons of garbage per day and about 300 users. Currently the station averages more than 500 tons per day, and as much as 1,000 tons in summer, with anywhere from 900 to 1,700 visits. The Prairie station, in the works for more than 10 years, was created to be a user-friendly experience with the same services as Coeur d’Alene, but without the lines. “We had to plan many years ago so that we could start accumulating money,” said Sam Ross, recycling coordinator. “We’re not going to borrow money, and we are going to pay for things before we build them.” Since the department doesn’t receive government funding, subsidies or outside aid, unlike similar departments in surrounding states, Saterfiel says solid waste must offset the costs of recycling programs through the taxes residents pay for garbage collection and disposal. Glass recycling was eliminated early last year, a victim of the increased cost of supporting solid waste programs and a rise in transportation costs. While Saterfiel says he’d like to bring it back someday, the department won’t start a program unless there’s a market for it. “We don’t want to put something out there and then turn around and take it away. If it’s a loser – like glass – we killed it. But just because it’s a loser now doesn’t mean we’re just throwing it out the door for good. We’re still looking,” he explains. “We have to have the integrity to say this is in our best interest and the community’s best interest, too.” Ross continues, “If a program works, then we continue it and expand it. And if it doesn’t, we put our energy into something else.” A waste program that’s had varying levels of success is curbside recycling, available to Coeur d’Alene and Post Falls residents for $91 a year. It collects nine commodities, including corrugated cardboard, plastic bottles, newspaper and aluminum and steel cans, which residents place in blue bins. Since 1993, the amount of collected material has ebbed and flowed, but has taken a sharper than usual downturn lately. “I think initially it was received very well,” Saterfiel says. “But I think we’ve progressed to the point where we need to change it and make it better.” The curbside program is in for a major overhaul — someday. Saterfiel and Ross are looking into the idea of a single-source residential recycling bin system tied into a similar operation in Spokane. This would feature two containers smaller than the current garbage bins outside most homes, with one dedicated to almost all recyclables, even food scraps, but not glass. Bigger objects could be added, and material would be sorted at an automated materials recovery facility. To encourage recycling, an “overflow fee” could be added to excess trash spilling from the standard trash container. “This gives people the incentive to recycle more …there’s a better way of doing it and it’s happening across the nation, and we’re just not there yet. The bottom line is it’s user-friendly,” Saterfiel said. “We’re working toward it, but the economy kind of put the skids on that one.” This system would need a lot of recyclables to offset operating costs, more than just what Kootenai County could produce. “We’re working with the City of Spokane’s recycling folks to see the feasibility of a single-source recycling program. We see an advantage in being partners since it’s more profitable for the private recyclers with more volume.” This project is still in planning, but regardless of what program emerges, Saterfiel said everyone has to cooperate. “The rules are: one; it’s got to be clean. The other rule that seems to always be violated is if the program doesn’t take it, they shouldn’t put it in.” Saterfiel said planning for the county’s future waste needs is a guessing game, where it’s better to be overprepared than overwhelmed. That’s one of the reasons county commissioners approved a 14-acre expansion to the landfill this spring. “We made the choice that, because the future’s unknown and because the economy is down now, let’s go ahead and build,” Saterfiel said. “Then it’s there when we need it.” Estimated to be completed by the end of summer, the extra room adds to the 35 acres already in use, and incorporates recyclables into the construction phase. Water-based paint would be sprayed across the landfill surface once a section is full, to promote decomposition. Years later, that area will sink, creating more room, and workers can remove less-degradable trash. “We’re recycling the paint, using it instead of burying it,” Saterfiel said. Garbage will always be unpredictable. Add to that an unstable economy, and the current trend of dropping prices. To make things work, it takes everyone’s efforts, which is why Ross visits schools and businesses to promote not only recycling, but disposal. “We want people to understand that recycling is part of an integrated solid waste system,” Ross says. “To be successful, it’s got to be integrated.”