By Pepper Fisher
PORT ANGELES – As the City of Port Angeles transitions into taking over the collection of recycling and yard waste from Waste Connections Inc., they say they’ve run into a couple of snags.
An announcement Tuesday says due to the large-scale transfer of operations, some temporary service disruptions and changes are expected:
Beginning March 1st, the Blue Mountain Transfer Station will be temporarily closed for approximately 6 weeks. Supply chain issues have delayed delivery of necessary equipment to operate the facility.
The announcement says commercial cardboard bins are also slightly delayed, but they don’t anticipate this to be an overly large service disruption.
Finally, during an investigation of the glass recycling market, the City discovered there is only one recycling facility in Washington state, and they are no longer accepting glass at this time. The City will continue to monitor potential recycling market changes over the coming months in hopes that another option becomes available, but until then, glass is to be disposed of through your regular solid waste.
A 2020 report by the Washington State Dept. of Commerce said, in Washington’s current market, it can be more expensive to transport, clean, and process recycled glass
than it would be to make new glass. It said transportation cost is one of the biggest barriers to economical recycling of glass.