Editor’s Note: Diverted: Tracing the path of recycling in Whatcom County is a fascinating journey that follows waste from curbside to the commodity market. Discover the various efforts and opportunities in this county's recycling landscape.

Uncover the Potential of Recycling in Whatcom County

Construction and Demolition Waste: A Big Opportunity for Diversion

Wood and construction debris make up a significant portion of the waste stream in Washington, around 1.2 million tons annually. These materials take up a lot of space in landfills but have great potential for reuse or recycling. Recyclers view C&D waste as one of the biggest opportunities for diversion, second only to organic compostable waste. Lautenbach Recycling processes between 1,200 and 1,500 tons of C&D material a month at its sorting facility in Mount Vernon. President Troy Lautenbach mentioned that a substantial percentage of the material comes from Whatcom County. In 1991, Lautenbach started a business grinding up drywall and combining it with sawdust to make cattle bedding. Later, in 2009, he and his brother built the Mount Vernon C&D sorting facility. The company has expanded into multiple Skagit- and Whatcom County-based businesses, including recycling, hauling, commercial composting, and storage container rental, with transfer stations in Ferndale, Mount Vernon, and Friday Harbor.The C&D sorting facility is open to contractors and self-haulers and accepts various materials like concrete, wood, asphalt shingles, drywall, wiring, and all kinds of metal. Operators sort through mixed loads by hand, separating the material into different streams. Concrete is ground up to be reused as aggregate, asphalt shingles are repurposed into road base, gypsum is made into new drywall, scrap metal is recycled, and wood is either mulched on site and sold for landscaping or sent to regional paper mills for biomass fuel.

Transfer Stations and Sorting Programs

A family-owned transfer station in Ferndale, Recycling & Disposal Services (RDS), operated a small-scale C&D sorting room from 2016 to early 2020 but didn't have enough volume to continue. RDS still separates out concrete, wood, and metal that gets tossed at the transfer station for processing or sale. Recently, they implemented a "mixed waste recycling" program to more thoroughly sort mixed materials containing recyclables. The sorting room conveyor belt will be moved onto the main tipping floor, and RDS employees will be able to pull recyclables out, similar to Lautenbach Recycling's C&D facility.Whatcom County's "flow control" ordinance ensures that revenue from solid waste stays within the county but has exemptions for recycling and C&D. William McCarter, the manager of RDS, hopes to see the ordinance updated so that C&D is no longer exempt, making local sorting more financially viable. Jennifer Hayden, the solid waste supervisor at Whatcom County Health and Community Services, confirmed that the county is expected to review and update the ordinance in 2025.

Contractor Recycling and Salvage Programs

The City of Bellingham is working with nonprofit Sustainable Connections to study the possibility of requiring contractors to recycle C&D, and the county could follow suit. Seattle and King County are among the few jurisdictions in the state that mandate some C&D recycling.As part of its Toward Zero Waste program, Sustainable Connections offers technical guidance to contractors for reducing waste on job sites. Currently, it's a voluntary program, and builders can choose to dump all their trash in one dumpster and send it to a landfill.Nate Witham, who manages the salvage program at the RE Store in Bellingham, believes that reuse is preferable to recycling. The store, run by RE Sources, diverts an estimated 2.7 million pounds of material from the landfill annually. The salvage crew has extensive experience with deconstruction projects of all sizes. Instead of using an excavator to crush a structure and then picking through the debris, they systematically dismantle the building from the inside out, removing fixtures, cabinets, trim, and flooring before dealing with the structural elements.The RE Store operation is currently limited by space as all the reusable materials take up a lot of room in their 20,000-square-foot retail store and warehouse. If they grow and get more projects, they might rent another warehouse space.In 2023, Seattle received a $4 million grant from the Environmental Protection Agency to establish a central lumber warehouse. Witham dreams of having a similar facility in Bellingham, an abandoned Kmart with a huge single-story open space where the RE Store can process, sort, store, and sell lumber and other bulky but high-value salvaged goods.With high home prices, buyers often demand perfection and may demolish existing structures. While some owners use the RE Store's crew or get creative and relocate their homes, there are no local regulations mandating deconstruction. Witham believes that if there were incentives, the RE Store would be more competitive.There are minor tax incentives for deconstructing buildings instead of trashing them, but Witham emphasizes that the benefits are not just financial. One of his favorite projects involved salvaging old-growth lumber from a 1890s Bellingham house, likely from a single massive tree. Preserving the material and its history is very important.Julia Tellman writes about civic issues and various happenings; contact her at juliatellman@cascadiadaily.com.