By Brian Kelly
Herald Writer
ARLINGTON — Oh, those lucky landfills.
The city is preparing to take the next step to expand recycling efforts in town. Arlington already has a program in place to encourage recycling at multi-family housing units, but will now turn its attention to single-family homes, commercial and industrial business customers.
"Right now our emphasis is on multi-family complexes," city administrator Kristin Banfield said. "Now it’s the tough ones: It’s the commercial, industrial users and trying to get them to start recycling more and reducing waste."
The educational outreach effort will be extensive; there are about 750 businesses in town.
"We’re basically going to approach every single business in the city," Banfield said.
Recycling and solid-waste information will also be sent to about 2,800 homes in Arlington, as well.
Arlington has state and county standards for waste reduction that the city needs to meet, as well as goals of its own, Banfield said.
The city will pump up its recycling efforts at City Hall and other Arlington facilities, hoping to be a role model for others.
The entire effort will cost about $36,000 over the next two years, with a grant from the state Department of Ecology covering $11,569 of the costs. Existing funds in the city’s recycling program services budget will be used to finance the project.
The program will be set up by Blue Marble Environmental, a Seattle company that serves as a recycling consultant to Snohomish County.
Recycling has benefits, Banfield said, from reducing pressure on landfills to lowering garbage bills.
The recycling program is expected to begin next year.
You can call Herald Writer Brian Kelly at 425-339-3422 or send e-mail to kelly@heraldnet.com.
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