Recycling a mixed, reusable bag

MOSES LAKE — If you are looking for places to recycle paper, cardboard, cans, and in some cases plastic, you can find various locations throughout Grant and Adams County. If you are looking to recycle glass, not so much.

Grant County Solid Waste Programs Coordinator Joan Sieverkropp said glass recycling is inaccessible to most of the Columbia Basin, and explained why.

“In many communities, that's not really a thing, because there's not really a close outlet to take it,” she said. “(The question is), is it feasible; how far would we have to take it away for the amount of glass that would be recycled?”

Sieverkropp said Grant County used to reuse glass.

“Grant County had a glass pulverizer and we were basically using it … for bedding, pipe bedding, landscaping, but (The Department of Ecology) did not see that as recycling, so we can’t use grant funds for that,” Sieverkropp said. “Running a glass pulverizer was very expensive for the amount of glass that we got. It took a lot of manpower to run it because people put contaminants in it.”

Sieverkropp said one concern with reduced recycling is the negative environmental impact of methane from landfills.

“The state's really going to be pushing organics recycling, (because of) the issue with the landfills and methane gas, and then also the state legislature, they are looking at legislation that would increase recycling,” Sieverkropp said. 

The method of recycling can also impact the environment.

“A lot of drop-off recycling programs aren't necessarily very environmentally friendly, because everybody dropping off items at a drop-off creates basically more carbon (emissions),” Sieverkropp said. “So, really the most efficient is curbside.”

Moses Lake and Quincy are the only two cities to offer curbside recycling services in Grant County, taking residents’ plastic bottles and containers, mixed paper, cardboard, and aluminum cans.

“Each county is different in how much they're going to get involved, how much they rely on private enterprise,” Sieverkropp said. “It's really kind of up to the city, what program they run … In our Solid Waste Management Plan, the county could require more cities to have curbside recycling, but we haven't. And the cities signed off on the Solid Waste Management Plan, as well as the county.”
As of now, Sieverkropp said the county doesn’t have many opportunities to educate individuals about recycling, nor does it receive much funding for recycling programs. 

“It's not necessarily enough to run entire major programs. Actually, we provide some grants to cities,” Sieverkropp said. “For most of them … they've utilized it for organics recycling. They'll have a drop-off, or like the city of Moses Lake, people will go around and pick up yard waste, and it’s usually stuff that can be chipped. Then our grants, we use a lot of those to run our household hazardous waste collection and education.”

Sieverkropp said she doesn’t know of any expected expansion of Grant County’s recycling offerings.

For a detailed directory of recycling locations in Grant County, visit bit.ly/GrantRecycling.

Gabriel Davis may be reached at gdavis@columbiabasinherald.com. Download the Columbia Basin Herald app on iOS and Android.

Recycling in Grant and Adams counties:

- Coulee Recycling (Grand Coulee): Aluminum cans
- Delano Regional Transfer Station (Grand Coulee): Aluminum cans, corrugated cardboard, mixed paper
- CDSI Transfer & Recycling Center (Moses Lake): Aluminum cans, newspaper, corrugated cardboard
- Ephrata Recycling Drop-off: Aluminum cans, newspaper, corrugated cardboard
- Lakeside Recycling and Buy-Back (Moses Lake): Aluminum cans, plastic bottles and containers, mixed paper, cardboard
Mattawa Recycling Drop-off: Corrugated cardboard
- Quincy Recycling Drop-off: Aluminum cans, newspaper, corrugated cardboard.
- Royal City Recycling Drop-off: Aluminum cans, newspaper, corrugated cardboard.
- Warden Recycling Drop-off: Newspaper, corrugated cardboard.
- Ephrata Landfill Recycling Drop-off: Corrugated cardboard.
- Othello Recycling Center: Newspaper, cardboard, aluminum cans.
- Ritzville Transfer Station: Paper, corrugated cardboard, aluminum cans.

    Grant County Solid Waste Program Coordinator Joan Sieverkropp at a household hazardous waste collection event in Moses Lake in October 2022.