Baltimore County expects to launch single-stream recycling early next year, and officials hope that allowing residents to mix their paper, bottles and cans in the same containers will encourage greater participation in the curbside collection program.
The county, which already has the highest recycling rate in the state, hopes to start the new system Feb. 1. It already is in place in Baltimore City and Howard and Anne Arundel counties.
While ease of collection is the main incentive, Baltimore County officials think the cost savings also will prove appealing to the county's 240,000 households. The county's bureau of solid waste management has adopted, "Recycle. Don't throw tax dollars away," as its single-stream slogan.
"We want to emphasize the cost savings as much as the impact to the environment," said Charles M. Reighart, the county's recycling and waste prevention manager. "Sometimes, people don't realize the connection between their behaviors as far as trash is concerned and what ends up costing taxpayers' money to dispose of it."
Overall solid waste operations cost the county about $50 million a year. The county recycles about 40,000 tons annually, about 10 percent of 400,000 tons of trash typically collected a year. In 2008, revenue from sales of recycled items reached about $5 million. The single-stream plan has to be approved by the County Council, but members reacted favorably to the proposal when it was included in a 10-year master plan for solid waste that they recently adopted. The council is expected to approve Thursday an increase in the recycling budget for 2010 from $2.3 million to $3.4 million. Much of the increase will pay for processing and transportation costs, and includes more than $350,000 for public education and to promote single-stream collection through the media and with a postcard campaign.
"I am confident that there will be an improvement in terms of getting items out of the waste stream," Reighart said. "We have strong evidence that this effort will make a difference."
Baltimore City officials found that their recycling tonnage increased about 30 percent with the switch to single-stream a year ago. Howard and Anne Arundel counties also collect all recyclables at once. Howard County Executive Ken Ulman authorized $3
million last fall to buy and distribute recycling bins to every county homeowner. Landfill trash deposits dropped about 10 percent countywide since the bins were distributed.
