Sorting recycling a chore no more

Renovated Capitol Heights plant lets residents put all items in single bin

‘‘The easier you can make it, the more participation you get,” said Charlie Wilson, director of the county’s Department of Environmental Resources.

Brett Frazier, senior vice president of Waste Management Inc., a national trash service provider, accompanied County Executive Jack B. Johnson (D), Wilson, DER officials and Waste Management Inc. executives on a tour of the facility.

Wearing neon yellow hardhats, vests and safety glasses, recycling facility workers manned specific sorting stations for items such as cardboard and newsprint. A cloud of dust swept through as items fell to black conveyor belts for sorting. Next to a stairwell were huge, rectangular bales of compacted aluminum soda cans, plastic bottles and cardboard.

Mike Taylor, Waste Management Inc.’s area vice president, said it cost his company more than $7 million to convert the facility from dual stream recycling — where residents were required to separate items — to single-stream recycling. Waste Management Inc., originally designed and constructed the Materials Recycling Facility building in 1993.

About 25 to 30 tons of cans, mixed paper, cardboard, glass and plastic items will be recycled every day, and the facility will process up to 10,000 tons of recycled items per month.

Over the next three years, the 168,000 county residents participating in the county’s curbside recycling program will receive free 65-gallon bins from the county.

The county will begin delivering bins to households in mid-December. Hyattsville, Riverdale, Bladensburg, Cherry Hill Road, Paint Branch Parkway and Powder Mill Road will be the first areas to receive the new bins.

Residents living in municipalities that have their own recycling programs, such as College Park and Greenbelt, will not participate.

Wilson said those who do not receive bins immediately can mark any container such as a regular trash can, cardboard box or laundry basket with a big ‘‘X,” and the county will recognize those items as recyclable ones. Wilson said the upgraded plant would process 45 percent of items that would normally go straight to the county landfill.

Waste Management Inc. manages another single-stream recycling facility in Elkridge in Howard County, which opened June 2006. Taylor said 25 percent more county residents participated in recycling within the first three months of the Elkridge facility’s opening.

Jim Harkins, director of the Maryland Environmental Service, an agency helping public and private sector clients work on environmental issues, said he still gets confused about what days he can put plastic or paper items on the curb for pickup outside his home in Harford County. Harford County does not have single-stream recycling. He added there is typically a 25- to 35-percent increase in recycling participation after switching to single stream.

‘‘It’s very progressive,” Harkins said. ‘‘The county executive and [County] Council deserve a lot of credit for considering single stream. All the hype today about going green, this is how you make green happen.”

Brian L. Edwards, public works director for the city of District Heights, said he likes the concept of single-stream recycling. The city’s code enforcement inspector, John Lamarre, said this would make it easier for disabled residents to recycle. However, both Edwards and Lamarre said getting residents to recycle is not difficult.

‘‘It’s 100 percent participation in District Heights,” Edwards said. ‘‘Now that they hopefully don’ t have to separate, it would be even better.”

E-mail Natalie McGill at nmcgill@gazette.net.