Spokane City to Promote A Single-stream Waste Disposal System

  To meet the increasing problems of waste disposal, the Spokane city officials have decided to set up a single–stream waste management plants. In fact, they have started disposing their wastes at the single–stream MRF plant on Geiger road. They have spent a large sum of $3.4 million to facilitate their residents with new recycling carts so that they can dump all their waste in these, without any segregation. 

The MRF single-stream waste management system

To promote a single–stream waste disposal system, Houston–based company, Waste Management, invested $18 million and built a waste management plant, MRF, on Geiger road. This plant is 50,000 square feet and is completely sponsored by the company. This plant started recycling wastes in the month of October and had recycled an impressive quantity of 4,000 tons by the month end itself.

The plant receives solid waste from many centers, such as Spokane Valley, Airway Heights, Spokane, Sandpoint, and Post Falls. Chaz Miller, Director at National Solid Waste Management Association, stated that a single–stream waste disposal system is beneficial for the residents as well as the companies. According to him, through this system, residents save up on their garbage disposal costs and companies like Waste Management can cut down on their expenses as well.

How does this system work and promote eco friendly promotional items?

At present, the MRF plant is dependent on 35 employees. These employees undertake tasks of waste segregation and work in the plant for a 10–hour shift. As the waste intake of the plant increases, the plant will introduce another 10–hour shift to ensure regular disposal of the waste.

Once the trucks dispose the waste at the plant, an automated system lifts it and places it on a 28–inches wide conveyor. As the waste moves along the conveyor, a team of four people segregates the waste into different categories. During this stage, all the plastic materials and other non–recyclable items, that may have been tossed into the recycling carts by mistake, need to be removed. Once the segregation is over, the waste is passed through an optical scanner and is lastly dumped into a huge container, where it is recycled.

According to Stern, an employee at Waste Management, the plant has the capacity to process more than 250 tons of recyclable waste everyday. So, if two 10–hour shifts are introduced at this plant, its recyclable capacity will go up to 500 tons. He feels that this system is an effective solution to waste management issues and makes people aware of the need for recycling and production of eco friendly promotional items as well.

Source: http://www.spokesman.com/stories/2012/nov/11/following-the-stream/