&EPA
United States
Environmental Protection
Agency
Solid Waste and
Emergency Response
(5306W)
EPA-530-F-99-022g
October 1999
www.epa.gov/osw
Seattle, Washington
23% Waste Reduction Rate in Multi-family Dwellings
Seattle, Washington, is a large urban, metropolitan center with a long
history of recycling programs. The city contracts with private firms to
provide multi-family trash and recycling services. Apartment complexes
must request recycling services, and as of 1997, complexes representing
more than half of multi-family households had done so. Residents
must deliver recyclables to centrally located areas. In 1996 residents
participating in Seattle's multi-family recycling program diverted
approximately 23% of their household waste from disposal.
Program Description
Seattle started its single family recycling
program in 1988, and initiated the multi-
family recycling program a year later. Recycling
in Seattle is completely voluntary — each
household or multi-family complex must
request service. To encourage
recycling, Seattle offers a variable
fee trash service (with fees based on
the size of the container for trash) to
both single- and multi-family
customers, and provides recycling
service at no additional charge.
The city contracts with four private
companies to provide multi-family
recycling services; two companies
serve residences in the north of the city,
two others serve residences in the
south. Each collection company uses a
different sorting and container system
but the companies largely collect the
same materials (all of the contractors
collect newspaper, other mixed paper,
glass containers, and cans but only two of
the four companies accept #1 and #2
plastic bottles). The city is trying to
standardize the system; all buildings
joining the program now require
residents to sort materials into four
streams: separate toters for clear,
green, and brown glass, and a
dumpster for all other materials.
Contractors provide the dumpsters
and/or 95-gallon carts used in the program.
Collection frequency also varies by
material, complex, and hauler. For example, a
hauler may collect paper from a complex every
week but only collect glass bi-weekly or even
monthly.
Haulers deliver collected recyclables to
material recovery facilities (MRFs) or directly to
market. Contractors report the tonnages
recycled each month by commodity. The
contractors are paid a fixed amount for their
collection and processing services. Seattle
assumes the risk for market variation in
commodity prices by reimbursing the
contractors if prices fall below a set level and
reducing payment by the amount prices rise
above the same level.
Although the city relies on the private
sector to deliver the recycling services, the city
staff enforce the contracts and enroll the
individual complexes in the recycling program.
City staff also collect and compile program
data.
Materials Collected
Newspaper
Mixed paper (including catalogs,
magazines, mail, paperboard, phone
books, paperback books, office paper,
and paper bags)
Glass containers
Cans
#1 and #2 plastic containers*
* Plastics collected by only two of the four haulers serving
multi-family residences.
This profile is part of the fact sheet Complex Recycling Issues: Strategies for Record-Setting Waste Reduction in Multi-
family Dwellings (EPA-530-F-99-022).
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Outreach Activities
Seattle tries to use incentives rather
than enforcement to encourage
recycling. The city also maintains an on-
going education program about the
apartment recycling program. One
component of this education program
is the "Friend of Recycling" volunteer
program. Program volunteers attend a
city training session, then serve as
recycling advocates in their buildings.
Volunteers also monitor recycling
containers for contamination. Seattle
issues an annual $100 rebate on trash
bills to the management of buildings
with Friend of Recycling volunteers.
Seattle uses multiple messages to
encourage recycling. The city
encourages MFD management to get
involved in order to protect the
environment and save money. The city
also reports that building managers
have found implementing recycling
helps keep trash areas clean.
In cases of consistently
contaminated recyclables at an
apartment building, the city has
terminated recycling service as a last
resort. Service has been terminated at
between 50 and 100 buildings.
Costs/Benefits
In 1996 recycling from MFDs in Seattle
cost an average $19 per household.
During the same period, trash
management costs averaged $64 per
household. These costs include fees paid
to the contractors for collection of trash
and recyclables, estimated tip fees paid
for trash disposal, and city
administration.
If recycling were eliminated and all
discards were collected as trash, total
costs per multi-family household would
be at most 6% lower. In 1996, the total
cost of the trash collection and disposal
and recycling programs was $83 for
multi-family households; the costs for
trash collection and disposal of all waste
generated at MFDs would have been at
least $79. Seattle has designed and
implemented a system where MFD
recycling programs are delivered at little
additional cost to the community, and
where significant diversions prolong the
life of disposal facilities, support local
economic development, and slow
resource depletion.
Tips for Replication
• Use in-building volunteers to
communicate with other residents
about program difficulties and
successes.
• Require that residents recycle
through their lease agreements.
• Provide waste reduction education
and information to residents when they
first move into units.
• Produce educational materials in
multiple languages if some of the local
population does not speak English.
• Have a mechanism to deny service
if complexes consistently set out
contaminated materials.
Contact:
Liz Kain
Recycling Coordinator
Seattle Public Utilities
Department
Dexter Morton Building
710 Second Avenue, 5th floor
Seattle, Washington 98104
(206) 684-4166 fax (206) 684-8529
lizkain@ci.seattle.wa.us
AND
Ecodata, Inc.
97 N. Campo Road
Westport, CT 06880
(203) 454-1700 fax (203) 227-5289
Program Summary, 1996
Start Date
Type of Multi-Family Buildings
Households Served
Average Persons per HH Served
Total Waste Generated (Tons)
Disposed*
Recycled
Total Diverted (%)
Average Generation (Ibs./HH/day)
Disposed
Diverted
SWM Costs per HH per Year"
Trash Collection
Trash Disposal
Diversion
Estimated Costs per HH per Year
without Waste Reduction***
1989
All residences in buildings with 5 or more
units are eligible to participate but they must
sign up for service
56,025 out of 101,150 total units in the city
1.69
35,856
27,729
8,127
22.7%
3.5
2.7
0.8
$83.43
$25.75
$38.54
$19.14
$78.88
HH = household SWM = solid waste management
Notes: Data represent only those households participating in the MFD recycling program. Numbers may not add
to total due to rounding.
'Contractors collect trash from single- and multi-family customers in the same vehicles on blended routes.
Ecodata estimated trash generation for single- versus multi-family residences.
**Trash and recycling collection costs reflect fees paid to collection contractors and city administration
costs. Trash disposal costs reflect a tip fee of $78, the prevailing rate charged at private transfer stations in
the Seattle area in 1996. In 1996, the city charged a per ton tip fee of $94 at its transfer stations, therefore;
trash costs may be underestimated.
***ln order to estimate what per household costs might have been if Seattle had no recycling program, Ecodata
assumed that all waste generated would be handled as trash and the marginal collection cost per ton of material
that was recycled would be equal to 50% of the per ton trash collection cost in the present system.
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