by Pete Moe
Beleaguered by a strained budget and a decrepit transfer station, the county will likely be moving San Juan Island to mandatory curb-side pick-up for garbage and recycling.
The transfer station at Sutton Road, just north of Friday Harbor, is badly out of compliance with the Department of Ecology. The quickest and cheapest way to fix it appears to be by making it work only for garbage trucks – not personal vehicles.
While economically and politically expedient, it’s the wrong direction for the county. And curb-side pick-up will never be the right solution for Orcas, Lopez or Shaw Islands.
“Reduce, Reuse, Recycle” is the principle officially adopted by the Solid Waste Advisory Committee (of which I am a member), San Juan County, The Department of Ecology and the State of Washington.
To me, “Reduce Reuse and Recycle” means sending progressively less waste to the mainland every year. It does not mean increasing the volume of trash we haul off island, and then hundreds of miles more, to monstrous landfills in eastern Oregon state.
To me, reduce, reuse and recycle means better sorting – on island – of recyclables, reusables, and compostables. It means designing and building comprehensive transfer stations that provide these services. It means reducing this stream of waste.
Every island should have a reuse facility like the ‘Exchange’ on Orcas. We should be sorting our recyclables. We should be saving useable construction waste. It is criminal to truck compostable green waste off island – which we do by the ton.
Unfortunately, an efficient comprehensive model runs up against the “tipping fee paradox.” Our solid waste program is funded by tipping fees, the money you pay when you dump your garbage. The less garbage we haul to Oregon, the less money the county has to manage solid waste. Thus, no incentive to reduce the waste stream.
Critics of a comprehensive system will point to the expense of building a facility that could efficiently handle recyclables, reusables, and compostables.
They are right. It would cost more to build a comprehensive transfer station. However, we would save vastly more money in the long term.
If we privatize the system with curb-side pick up, we will not reduce the waste stream. We will pay more in garbage fees every year as fuel prices escalate. We will risk losing control of our solid waste management.
On Orcas, we have the Exchange, a rag-tag but incredibly popular and successful reuse program at the transfer station. Lopez also has an amazing voluntary reuse and sorting system in place.
These home-grown, progressive and much-loved programs would likely be shut down under privatized, for-profit collection service.
After the Sutton Road site on San Juan Island is repaired, the next project on the list is upgrading the transfer station on Orcas. We must keep the option of building a new, comprehensive transfer station on the table.
By going to a curb-side garbage pick-up we will be taking a significant step backward on the road towards sustainability. We need to do better.
Pete Moe lives with his two children on Orcas Island. He is a member of the county Solid Waste Advisory Committee. He is also director of The Funhouse.
