Seattle Public Utilities
2015 Recycling Rate Report
Seattle City Council
Civil Rights, Utilities, Economic Development
& Arts Committee
July 12, 2016
Background
Report is called for in Resolution 30990.
Set 60% recycling goal for municipal solid
waste (MSW) by the year 2012; 70% by 2025.
City Council in 2013 revised recycling goals for
MSW to recycle 60% by the year 2015, and
70% by 2020.
About the Recycling Rate
Seattles recycling rate is the percentage of MSW
diverted from the landfill by reuse, recycling and
composting.
Organics managed onsite by Seattle residents (yard
debris and food scraps).
All garbage, organics, and recyclables generated by
businesses and residents set out for collection.
All garbage, organics, and recyclables hauled to the
Citys recycling and disposal stations for reuse,
recycling or composting.
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About the Recycling Rate, Contd
60% goal combines separate goals for each of the
four primary MSW sectors: single family residential,
multi-family residential, self-haul and commercial.
Specific recycling goals for each sector are different
since waste stream materials, opportunities to
recycle, and likelihood of participation vary among
the sectors.
Consistent Improvement
We continue to make steady progress in our citywide recycling rate.
Recycling rate has risen 19.8 percentage points since
2003 low of 38.2%.
In 2015, Seattle recycled 58% of its MSW, an increase
of 0.9 percentage points over 2014.
Biggest source of improvement was the composting
requirement.
Single Family Recycling
Recycling in the single family sector increased by 3.%
to 74.3%, due primarily to 2015 prohibition on
disposing food waste and compostable paper.
1.3% decrease in total tons generated. Recycled tons
increased by 4,648 (3.2%), and disposed tons
decreased by 7,243 (12%).
Single Family tonnage 2000-2015
Year
Generated
Disposed
Recycled
Recycle Rate
2000
208,468
87,499
120,969
58.0%
2001
211,982
91,072
120,910
57.0%
2002
206,474
87,834
118,640
57.5%
2003
205,748
87,426
118,322
57.5%
2004
209,132
86,029
123,103
58.9%
2005
208,675
80,478
128,197
61.4%
2006
216,946
78,078
138,868
64.0%
2007
220,128
77,494
142,634
64.8%
2008
213,889
73,961
139,928
65.4%
2009
215,015
67,229
147,786
68.7%
2010
216,484
64,309
152,175
70.3%
2011
212,861
62,779
150,082
70.5%
2012
211,030
60,906
150,124
71.1%
2013
206,592
60,291
146,301
70.8%
2014
206,992
59,772
147,220
71.1%
2015
204,397
52,529
151,868
74.3%
2015 Program Highlights Single Family
Outreach campaign to raise awareness of new food
waste requirements and increase diversion
Media partnerships
Direct mail including citywide newsletters and
reminder notices to non-compliant households
Community engagement including 50 community
events, distributing 8,000 free kitchen compost
containers, outreach multiple languages
2015 Program Highlights Multi-Family
Multi-family sector increase 2.2% to 36.8%,
setting a record high for the fourth year in a
row.
Generation decreased 1,911 tons (-2.4%).
Multi Family Tonnage 2000-2015
Year
Generated
Disposed
Recycled
Recycle Rate
2000
208,468
87,499
120,969
58.0%
2001
211,982
91,072
120,910
57.0%
2002
206,474
87,834
118,640
57.5%
2003
205,748
87,426
118,322
57.5%
2004
209,132
86,029
123,103
58.9%
2005
208,675
80,478
128,197
61.4%
2006
216,946
78,078
138,868
64.0%
2007
220,128
77,494
142,634
64.8%
2008
213,889
73,961
139,928
65.4%
2009
215,015
67,229
147,786
68.7%
2010
216,484
64,309
152,175
70.3%
2011
212,861
62,779
150,082
70.5%
2012
211,030
60,906
150,124
71.1%
2013
206,592
60,291
146,301
70.8%
2014
206,992
59,772
147,220
71.1%
2015
204,397
52,529
151,868
74.3%
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2015 Program Highlights Multi Family
Multifamily residents were very aware of food waste
requirements and 71% reported regularly using food
waste carts.
Provided technical assistance to 75 large apartments
or condos, serving nearly 5,000 residents. Supported
920 buildings with educational resources and
information.
Delivered 15,000 free kitchen compost containers to
multifamily properties and trained 175 new Friends of
Recycling and Composting volunteers. On-site
presentations to 27 properties and 28 community
groups.
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Self-Haul Sector
Includes material brought by residents, businesses
and governmental agencies to the two City-owned
transfer stations.
Self-haul recycling includes organics (food and yard
waste, clean wood), appliances and metals, and
other recyclable material.
Self-haul recycling rate fell 0.2%, continuing the
trend of annual decreases since 2007. Generation
increased 5.1%. Disposal increased by 5.3%.
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Self-haul Tonnage 2000-2015
13
Year
Generated
Disposed
Recycled
Recycle Rate
Year
Generated
Disposed
Recycled
Recycle Rate
2000
123,024
101,883
21,141
17.2%
2001
124,453
102,305
22,148
17.8%
2002
125,710
102,981
22,729
18.1%
2003
123,597
101,232
22,365
18.1%
2004
2005
122,819
124,364
99,750
100,499
23,069
23,865
18.8%
19.2%
2006
127,444
103,429
24,015
18.8%
2007
132,545
107,098
25,447
19.2%
2008
111,229
90,814
20,415
18.4%
2009
97,893
81,565
16,328
16.7%
2010
91,618
79,293
12,325
13.5%
2011
81,776
71,033
10,743
13.1%
2012
80,568
70,474
10,094
12.5%
2013
84,341
74,019
10,322
12.2%
2014
64,681
57,847
6,834
10.6%
2015
67,993
60,938
7,055
10.4%
2015 Program Highlights Self-haul
Significant self-haul recycling increases not expected
until solid waste facility improvements are complete.
North Transfer Station (NTS) remained closed for
rebuild all of 2015. Self-haul customers were
directed to take materials to the new South Transfer
Station.
Construction and Demolition Waste (C&D) sorting
pilot improved.
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Commercial
The commercial sector includes garbage, recyclables and
compostable materials collected from businesses.
The commercial sectors recycling rate increased very slightly
to 62.3%, or 0.1 percentage points. Considering that we know
that organics diversion increased in 2015, non-composting
recycling must have decreased.
Total commercial generation increased for the third year in a
row, up 837 tons in 2015. Recycling rose 737 tons, and
disposal, increased 107 tons.
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Commercial Tonnage 2000-2015
16
Year
Generated
Disposed
Recycled
Recycle Rate
2000
391,406
228,417
162,989
41.6%
2001
377,927
228,405
149,522
39.6%
2002
366,224
217,195
149,029
40.7%
2003
339,844
213,247
126,597
37.3%
2004
375,739
216,112
159,627
42.5%
2005
385,093
205,637
179,456
46.6%
2006
416,564
201,231
215,333
51.7%
2007
418,979
198,968
220,011
52.5%
2008
390,267
176,774
213,493
54.7%
2009
335,992
151,398
184,593
54.9%
2010
345,692
142,180
203,511
58.9%
2011
351,214
135,536
215,678
61.4%
2012
347,673
134,089
213,584
61.4%
2013
356,480
132,401
224,079
62.9%
2014
369,407
139,457
229,950
62.2%
2015
370,237
139,557
230,680
62.3%
2015 Program Highlights Commercial
Continued growth in commercial food waste diversion with
approximately 8,000 new tons of commercial food waste diverted.
Provided technical assistance to 750 businesses through Green
Business program. Conducted 370 recycling and composting program
site visits to businesses. Conducted 80 food service business visits to
support compostable food packaging implementation.
Provided outreach via 15 business community events or tradeshows.
Supported public food and recycle diversion at special events
Provided technical assistance to 250 ethnic businesses; provided inLanguage support in Vietnamese, Ethiopian, Somali, Korean and
Spanish, as well as translated printed materials.
Mailed postcards to 16,000 business, to provide information regarding
new recycling and food waste composting requirements
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Construction and Demolition Debris (C&D)
Construction, demolition, and land clearing debris
collected by a firm under contract with the City, or are selfhauled, to recycling facilities.
Generation correlates closely with economic and building
activity cycles.
C&D generation decreased particularly for concrete which
has a large impact on the C&D recycling rate.
Overall, C&D recycling rate fell from 64% to 57% and the
amount of wood recovered for beneficial use increased
from 7.4% to 9.9%.
Estimated diversion rate from landfill disposal is estimated
at 67.2%.
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Construction & Demolition Debris Tonnage 2000-2015
19
Year
Total
Generated
Disposed*
Recycled
Beneficial Use
2007
2008
2009
2010
2011
2012
2013
2014
2015
415,801
397,052
288,551
288,957
201,156
181,241
115,446
97,241
204,907
200,851
162,742
178,794
9,738
14,961
10,362
11,864
359,390
376,328
118,216
129,383
227,049
224,060
14,125
18,519
386,200
494,055
408,395
127,040
136,837
133,804
234,982
317,331
234,255
24,178
39,887
40,336
2015 Program Highlights Construction and
Demolition Debris
Clean wood added to the recycling requirement in 2015 for
construction job sites.
Seattle and the King County continued C&D processing
facility residuals sampling as part of the certification process
for C&D recyclers.
Waste diversion reporting by construction and demolition
project improved from 25% in 2014 to 60% in 2015.
City and King County staff presented at trade associations,
architecture firms, and construction companies to educate
stakeholders about requirements.
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Waste Prevention
Waste prevention programs work to reduce waste
volumes from households and businesses and
toxics purchased by people, institutions and
businesses.
When possible, SPU seeks to quantify results, and
reflects these results in the MSW recycling rate.
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2015 Waste Prevention Program Highlights
Reuse: Began with charitable and for-profit reuse
organizations to quantify reuse activities, including sales of
donated reusable goods.
Packaging: Engaged with industry organizations to address
packaging design, labeling, tinting and recyclability and
compostability issues.
Food Waste Prevention: 450 residents educated through
booth outreach, presentations, classes, and door-to-door
outreach; reduced 4.5 tons of apples from the waste stream
through a partnership with City Fruit
Commercial Food Waste Prevention & Recovery: Partnered
with OSE to conduct analysis of commercial sector barriers
and opportunities for food waste prevention and recovery.
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2015 Program Highlights Waste Prevention,
contd
Threadcycle: launched campaign with textile collection partners to raise
awareness about recycling damaged textiles when donating used
clothing.
Junk Mail Opt Out Service: 30,147 total opt out accounts, an increase of
433 accounts in Q1 2015 (no data available for Q2-4); 415,366 total opt
outs, an increase of 28,463 in 2015.
Master Composter/Soil Builder Volunteers: 1,206 hours served
contacting 8,893 residents in 2015; 34 new volunteers recruited and
trained from across the city.
Garden Hotline: 9,432 public contacts in 2015, including Hotline staff
attending 159 events and classes.
Pesticide Reduction: 255 landscape professionals attended fall IPM
workshop; trained 122 staff at 8 area nurseries; reached 32 Spanishspeaking landscape professionals in targeted trainings.
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Recycling & Waste Reduction Activities for 2016-17
SPUs major areas of emphasis in 2016/17 to get the rest of
the way to the goal are:
Compostables diversion in the multi-family and other
sectors.
Reducing customer contamination of recycling.
Sorting construction and demolition material at our
South Transfer Station to recover more.
Opening our new Reuse and Recycling Center at North
Transfer Station this year.
Potential refinements to the SMC to make it easier for
Customers to know what is compostable.
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Questions?
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