Expanded recycling plan for Seattle proposed

Seattle residents would be able to toss meat and dairy scraps into yard-waste containers and quit separating recyclable materials next year under a plan announced Wednesday by city officials.

The proposal to turn food scraps into compost grew out of City Council President Richard Conlin's "Zero Waste" initiative and would go into effect in April 2009 if the council approves new solid-waste contracts.

"What's great about this is that this is actually taking the stuff that has been in our Zero Waste Strategy and putting it into a contract," said Conlin, who spearheaded the strategy to divert more garbage into composting and recycling.

Seattleites would see garbage bills go up substantially, however, to pay for it.

As announced by Mayor Greg Nickels' office, new solid-waste collection contracts with Waste Management Inc. and Seattle-based newcomer CleanScapes, if approved by the City Council, would bring these changes in garbage and recyclables services:

All single-family homes will be offered weekly instead of the current biweekly food and yard-waste collection that will include for the first time meat and dairy scraps. The food waste will be turned into compost for local parks and gardens. That is expected to halve the 45,000 tons of food waste ending up in landfills.

Residents who don't pay for yard-waste pickup could dump food scraps into a sealable container.

Recyclable glass no longer will have to be separated from recyclable paper and plastics, and more kinds of plastics -- including plastic cups and deli containers, but not foam -- will become recyclable.

The new collection contracts will expand the city's Dumpster-Free Alley plan, which is designed to cut illegal activity around trash bins and reduce waste in alleys and business areas.

"Instead of paying for a Dumpster, people will pile bags and set the bags out, but the bags won't pile up during the week because those bags will be picked up several times a day," said Tim Croll, the city's solid-waste director.

The council's Environment, Emergency Management and Utilities Committee will consider the plan next month.

Croll said the new services will be accompanied by a garbage-rate increase significantly higher than the 6.7 percent increase adopted by the city last fall. "Definitely over 10 percent," he said.

For a typical single-family home using a 32-gallon container plus yard-waste pickup, the current cost is $17.65 a month plus $5.30 for yard waste for a total of $22.95 a month.