Sorting it out

continued

the WWRA switches to “single-stream” collection. Instead of sorting paper and containers into different bins, residents of Chelsea and four western townships—Dexter, Lima, Lyndon, and Manchester—will simply deposit everything in a single cart or drop-off bin.

The transition is expected to cost $3.2 million, and the single-stream system is planned to be operating by September 2012. It includes a 12,000-square-foot building expansion at the WWRA’s facility on Werkner Rd. and an estimated $1.7 million in new sorting and baling equipment there. The WWRA will put up $500,000 in cash, with the $2.7 million balance coming from bonds issued by WWRA and backed by Washtenaw County. Residents will repay the debt through annual assessments over a projected fifteen-year period—$56 a year in Chelsea, where residents will have curbside cart pickup, and $24 a year in the townships for access to single-stream drop-off bins. Households will also pay a separate operating and maintenance assessment of $44 in Chelsea and $26 in the townships. WWRA chairman Frank Hammer says both the bond repayment period and the operating assessments could be reduced, depending on how much recycling increases.

“Our goal is to make this self-­sustaining,” says Hammer. “Nationally, we’ve seen that a switch to this system can boost a community’s recycling by forty percent. We’re being conservative with our estimate that we’ll see an increase of twenty-five percent the first year.” An increase in sales of recycled materials translates into a decrease in assessments—and, Hammer says, “it’s almost a sellers’ market” for recyclables.