Sisters recycling is on the rise

Sisters area residents who recycle regularly - and judging by the volume of traffic at the new recycling station in the industrial area, there are quite a few - have probably noticed that now, the "commingled" category includes everything except corrugated cardboard and glass.

Department of Environmental Quality (DEQ) studies show that when consumers need to do less sorting of recyclables at home, participation in recycling goes up. DEQ estimates that expanding the commingle category has resulted in as much as a 21 percent increase in participation.

That's evidenced by the perpetually plugged bins at the Sisters recycling center.

Only about one percent of materials put in recycling containers is considered "trash" and ends up in the landfill.

Having fewer categories also means that the collection trucks are less expensive and easier to maintain, with fewer separate sections for each type of material.

In 2006 (the last year for which there are statistics), Deschutes County generated almost 258,000 tons of solid waste, of which 27 percent (about 70,000 tons) was recovered (recycled and put back into the production stream). Statewide, almost six million tons of solid waste was generated, and 2.5 million tons were recovered, for a recovery rate of almost 44 percent.

The increase in recycling is a good thing for the environment, but what happens to it after it's dropped at the station?

In Deschutes County, recyclables from the various depots are transported to the Knott Transfer Station by Deschutes Transfer Company, where they are compressed, baled, loaded on a truck and shipped to a privately owned-and-operated "Material Recovery Facility" (MRF, or "merf") in Clackamas. There, the bales are loaded into a sorter, where much - but not all - of the sorting process is automated.

Technology is keeping up fairly well with the increase in recycling: Automated plastics sorters can determine what type of plastic a container is made of and what color it is with a sophisticated optical device; metals are relatively easy - it's either ferrous (containing iron, like steel or tin cans) or nonferrous (aluminum, copper, etc.); machines can sort glass by color, even if it's in pieces.

Paper is the last material in the stream, and it's mechanically sorted into heavy cardboard, card stock (six-pack cartons, cereal boxes) and print paper.

There's quite a bit of handwork involved as well - contamination of paper.

The MRF, of which there are several in the Portland/Vancouver area - but none yet in Central Oregon - then markets the materials to whoever wants to buy them. Ferrous and nonferrous metals are separated, compacted and sold to smelters for reprocessing into raw materials; paper is baled and sent to various paper mills around the region; and most plastics, according to Brad Bailey of Deschutes Transfer Co., are shipped overseas.

Bailey said the most difficult aspect of the process is keeping pieces of glass out of the paper. That's critical because one piece of glass in the works can bring an entire paper mill to a standstill.

So, through greater consumer participation and continually improving technology, more and more of Sisters residents' "trash" is being reused somewhere in a "greener" world.