PLEASE HELP KEEP CHS PAYWALL-FREE!
Subscribe to CHS to help us pay writers and photographers to cover the neighborhood. CHS is a pay what you can community news site with no required sign-in or paywall. Become a subscriber to help us cover the neighborhood for as little as $5 a month.
(Image: King County)
A pilot program will create a new option for putting tough to recycle plastic wrap and bags to use and keeping them from gumming up Seattle’s waste systems.
The just launched effort will add a new drop-off location to the MLK Grocery Outlet along with grocery stores around the county to collect the wraps, films, and bags to be turned into into recycled plastic pellets by British Columbia-based recycler Merlin Plastics. The pellets can be used to create new film packaging and are being tested for other uses.
The pilot from King County’s Solid Waste Division and Seattle Public Utilities is supported by the American Chemistry Council and planned to run three months.
People often hope for the best and toss plastic bags and films into recycling bins figuring it can’t hurt. CHS reported here on the major problems caused by “aspirational recycling” as the waste can gum up machinery and contaminates recycling processes.
With the challenges faced by public services, the private sector has responded to the opportunity. Seattle-based Ridwell offers collection — for a fee — of many items not allowed in the recycling bin.
The new plastic pellet pilot joins other programs that place collection points at grocery stores. The Safeway at 22nd and Madison remains the only location in the Capitol Hill and Central District that continues to provide a drop-off bin according to bagandfilmrecycling.org.
For the next three months, the Grocery Outlet at 1126 Martin Luther King Jr Way will join that mix.
You can learn more about plastic film and bag recycling and the new pilot at kingcounty.gov.
PLEASE HELP KEEP CHS PAYWALL-FREE!
Subscribe to CHS to help us pay writers and photographers to cover the neighborhood. CHS is a pay what you can community news site with no required sign-in or paywall. Become a subscriber to help us cover the neighborhood for as little as $5 a month.
I recently noticed one of these drop-off bins near the customer service counter at the 15th & E John Safeway as well.
Dropped two bags of assorted plastic film at the 15th & E John store yesterday.
CHS: what happens after the three months? This program is really important- the amount of soft plastic waste is tremendous in the age of amazon and trader joe’s.
After three months they will assess if it is possible to collect good quality recyclable plastic film in this manner without too much contamination. Unless there is additional funding, the future of the pilot will depend on the retail stores and the American Chemical Council’s willingness to continue. Alternatively, WA could get Extended Producer Responsibility legislation passed: https://www.seattletimes.com/seattle-news/environment/bill-to-ramp-up-recycling-a-top-priority-for-green-coalition-in-2022-washington-state-legislative-session/
What’s to pilot??? The Safeway at 22nd and Madison has been doing this ever since the City’s recycle program changed. I go there often just to dump plastic bags and film and clearly their program is well patronized.