Mayors exploring curbside recycling

Curbside recycling bins could be coming to the Coulee — if at least 300 people are willing to sign up. 

Residents of the four local towns can expect to receive instructions for a voluntary online survey in city utility bills, asking everything from what seems like a reasonable price, to whether it matters if they offered single-stream (all materials added into the same bin) versus separate sorted bins for plastics, cans, cardboard and so on.

Dion Gotti, owner of Sunrise Disposal, the Omak-based company providing curbside trash pickup to the four towns, told the Regional Board of Mayors July 3 that customers who opt in for recycling could expect to pay an additional $9 to $12.50 on their city utility bill each month if there are 300 to 400 recycling customers in the local area. If more than 400 sign up, the bill would increase to anywhere from $12.25 to $15.

That is because any more than 400 customers on this route means Sunrise would purchase an additional truck for their fleet, Gotti said.

An additional question is whether curbside recycling service would be opt-in, or mandatory for all 1,300 households and customers in the Coulee area. 

Gotti said the other towns Sunrise provides recycling for have all gone the mandatory route — though the vibe in the room suggested the board wasn’t leaning that way at this point.

Instead, they voted to put a survey out to customers and decide from there whether to request a more formal proposal from Sunrise Disposal and get a more exact estimate of what this service would cost.

“At those rates, I don’t see anybody there in town wanting it — or very, very, very few people,” said Mayor Bob Poch of Coulee Dam. “I kind of hate to say that, but at the same time, I’m facing reality.”

“And I’ve heard just the opposite,” Electric City Mayor Diane Kohout replied, suggesting the survey as a way to get a broader sense of what more people are thinking.

Kohout is the mayor who brought the recycling topic to the Regional Board of Mayors, and she had met with Gotti of Sunrise on the topic some months ago. She is the chair of the Grant County Solid Waste Advisory Committee, or “SWAC,” which makes recommendations to Grant County Commissioners on policy and strategy, such as whether to develop a new landfill in the county.

Even if curbside recycling moves forward, it would probably be a year before bins would roll out, Kohout said.

Gotti said the monthly bills could be less if the recyclable materials were sorted into different curbside bins by the customers, rather than a “single-stream,” commingled bin for all accepted materials. Buyers of recycled materials pay more for sorted products since it saves them that step — but most customers find the single-stream more convenient, he said.

He also said some customers save money by signing up for a smaller garbage can, since some items can be diverted into the recycling bin instead.