Recycling, landfill dumping both drop in Waukesha County

Feb. 14, 2012
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By Laurel Walker of the Journal Sentinel

Feb. 14, 2012 0

Waukesha - Waukesha County residents recycled slightly less last year, but the amount of trash they threw into landfills decreased by an even bigger percentage - continuing an eight-year trend.

And while the amount of recyclables processed at the Waukesha County Materials Recycling Facility in 2011 dropped slightly, their sale at markets brought in significantly more revenue than a year earlier, said Karen Fiedler, supervisor of the county's solid waste program.

Twenty-five of the county's 37 communities haul their recyclables to the county processing plant in Waukesha. In 2011, the facility processed 21,431 tons of recyclables, about 1% less than 2010. The sale of bottles, steel and aluminum cans, glass and paper brought in $1.6 million, compared with just under $1.2 million a year ago, Fiedler said.

Money from the sale of recyclables, plus a state grant that dropped about 40% this year, to $874,000, are used both to return funds to the participating communities and earmarked in a fund balance that will eventually help the county replace its recycling facility in the future.

Fiedler said that the level of greenhouse gas emissions reduced from recycling those materials was equivalent to taking more than 6,400 cars off the road for a year, and it kept 50,000 cubic yards of waste out of landfills, equivalent to a football field filled more than 30 feet high.

While specific recycling numbers aren't available for all 37 communities, since a dozen don't participate in the county program, Fiedler said records are compiled on trash hauled countywide to landfills.

The amount of trash disposed of in landfills dropped by 3% last year, she said.

In the past eight years, Waukesha County has seen a 17% decline in solid waste generated per capita, from 661 pounds per person in 2004 to 546 pounds per person in 2011.

In that same period, recycling has dropped 12%, from 190 pounds per capita to 168 pounds per capita.

Fiedler cited several reasons for the decline. Lighter containers are being used. Packages are changing - for example, from glass to plastic. Newspapers and magazines are smaller, and circulation is declining as more people rely on digital sources for information.

The economic recession and slow recovery have also played a role, she said.

About Laurel Walker
Laurel Walker covered local, school and county government for 20 years -- the last half of that at the Milwaukee Journal and Milwaukee Journal Sentinel -- before she was named Waukesha County columnist in 1997. Today she writes about the people, places and events around metropolitan Milwaukee with a broad suburban focus. She was the youngest of nine children raised on a central Wisconsin farm before leaving the nest for journalism studies at the University of Wisconsin-Eau Claire and a masters degree at the University of Oregon. She has spent the last half of her life in Waukesha County, where she and her husband raised two sons. Though she has a fondness for life in Waukesha, she eagerly partakes in the culture of the big city to the east and the recreation of the forests to the west. With sons in the arts, she has a special fondness for symphonic music concerts and art museums. She finds peace in a good book at a Northwoods getaway weekend, adventure in family visits to the east and west coasts, and satisfaction in a column well-written that reaches readers.
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