The first day of February saw City of Hailey Mayor Martha Burke and Clear Creek Disposal staff begin operations of a new cardboard compactor, located at the Hailey Park & Ride Lot at River and Bullion streets.
The changes have come to the cardboard and glass collection site in Hailey, after decisions were made last summer to clean up the overflow from the cardboard recycling program in Hailey. Formerly, the site housed a massive row of constantly overflowing cardboard dumpsters rather than a single cardboard compactor.
Plastics and styrofoam, which commonly come inside cardboard boxes, cannot be recycled. If packing material hidden inside a cardboard box is placed into the bins, the load of cardboard will be rejected as contaminated. That means the extra costs of hauling the cardboard separately from other trash is wasted and the environmental cost is not reduced, but increased.
So much cardboard contamination has been discovered that the city and Clear Creek have made a decision to monitor the site through video surveillance. It is only acceptable to leave cardboard and glass at the River/Bullion recycling site.
The city has placed a 6-inch slot in the compactor for people to use when the compactor door is locked. The slot will accept cardboard at all times, but the compactor door will be unlocked and operational only during a limited time period each day during which volunteers or staff can be present to oversee the proper use of the larger door.
The compactor saves money and carbon emissions. Residential rates include $2 per month for cardboard and glass hauling from Hailey to the Blaine County Recycling Center, a lower price than previous rates. The Hailey City Council also changed the rate structure to reward recycling in other ways. Now, when customers divert recyclable materials from their trash cart to their blue bins (paper, plastic, and tin) or reduce their trash by utilizing the cardboard compactor and glass dumpster, they may save enough space in their trash cart to be able to order a smaller cart.
These smaller carts are less expensive and the price per gallon is also less. But, don’t go too small. Clear Creek reports that their largest increase in billing is due to overflow charges on trash carts stuffed too full. If the trash cart lid is not fully closed, an overflow charge will be applied. Those add up, as does the debris pulled out by wildlife and dogs.
