King County Executive proposes passing on the savings from new efficiencies at county transfer stations

Fees would be slashed by one-third for haulers of yard waste and organics under legislation sent to County Council

Citing new efficiencies being made at King County’s newest recycling and transfer station, King County Executive Dow Constantine has proposed to slash the price by nearly one-third for haulers to deliver separated yard waste and organics to King County transfer facilities.

“By opening the new and larger Shoreline facility we’ve been able to create new efficiencies and reduce our costs, and we are passing those savings on to our customers,” said Executive Constantine. “We are making it more cost-effective for residents doing a big yard clean-up to bring in their branches and shrub clippings, as well as for the commercial haulers.

The Executive submitted an ordinance to the King County Council Feb. 25 to lower the fee for source-separated yard waste and organics delivered to county transfer facilities from $82.50 per ton to $57.50 per ton.

King County’s redeveloped Shoreline Recycling and Transfer station, which opened in 2008, is currently the only station with the capacity to transfer commercial-sized loads of organics, which include food scraps, landscaping materials and other organic materials. However, all new transfer stations scheduled for construction will have similar capacity, including the Bow Lake facility, where construction is currently under way.

“Haulers can drive the shorter distance to us and get back to their customers more quickly, rather than driving to a distant compost facility,” said Kevin Kiernan, director of the King County Solid Waste Division. “This proposal also provides a financial incentive for self-haulers to separate these materials for recycling.”

Kiernan said the new lower fee coupled with increased options for organics disposal would increase efficiency for haulers while decreasing truck traffic, wear on roads, fuel use and greenhouse gases, thereby promoting sustainability.

He said increasing volumes of organics would translate to handling efficiencies and a decrease in the cost to process each ton. Additionally, the organics delivered to the Shoreline station are transported to a composting facility by division trucks in the same size trailers as those used to transport garbage, so no new equipment would be necessary.

Until recently, the only facilities accepting source-separated yard waste were Enumclaw and Cedar Falls, where the material is hauled by contractors in smaller drop boxes at a greater cost to the division.  At all new stations, yard waste and organics will be transported by division trucks in the larger transfer trailers.

The fee reduction must be approved by the King County Council.

More information about the King County Solid Waste Division is available at http://your.kingcounty.gov/solidwaste/index.asp.