by Tracy Grisman
It’s mid-May in the great Pacific Northwest. I’m mesmerized by flowers. Shades of purples, reds, yellows, greens, pinks, and blues- all the colors! Like the colors one would find in a heap of trash! The trash that leaves our lives from our fingertips to the container to the curb to the T.S. to the heap at the landfill.
What’s the T.S.? It’s the Jefferson County Transfer Station located on 325 County Landfill Rd. Port Townsend where much energy by few humans and overused equipment is expended in dealing with our daily deemed discards including our refuse, recycling, green waste and septic waste (compost facility) batteries, fluorescent light bulbs, oil, refrigerators, etc., etc., etc.
Spotlighting the refuse/detritus – that pile of many colors, through a service agreement with Waste Connections a.k.a. Murreys’ or
Olympic Disposal, Port Townsend residential garbage is collected at the curb (we pay them) and delivered to the Transfer Station. Waste Connections drive the collected garbage over the scales, and pays (starting August 1st) $187.00 per ton (King County pays $217.20/ton). The transfer station team directs the trucks into stalls where the waste is dumped on the “floor” then swooped with a mattress padded loader into below ground box trailers and where it is weighed again. Individuals and businesses also bring waste directly, paying a minimum of $20 for up to 220 lbs — a relative bargain to King County’s $36 minimum. You probably have been there – on a busy day one may wait 30 minutes or more in line to offload those two worn blankets for $20.00.
A quick safety note: there’s one lane in and out. Don’t try to shortcut into the free recycling area — it risks a head-on collision!
The facility spends that earned revenue to pay Republic Services (under a “long-haul” contract) to drive the full trailers to Kent, WA. There, it’s transferred onto railcars and rolls down the line to its final resting place — the Roosevelt Landfill in Bickleton, WA, 145 miles east of Portland for a tipping fee of $81.34/ton.
Built in 1993, with the intention of lasting about 30 years, according to Jefferson County Solid Waste manager, Al Cairns, “the transfer station design capacity is clear in the planning documents, figuring an average of 55 tons per day. In 2024 we averaged 71 tons/day averaging .7 transactions per operational minute.” That translates to “23,725 tons of garbage across the scales and an additional 3,709 tons of yard debris with a full time staff of 9 for last year”. States Cairns, “We are doing everything we can to encourage curbside service over self-hauling to reduce facility congestion, lower staffing costs, and reduce the solid waste program’s carbon footprint.” Even though Solid Waste are in the business of garbage, Jefferson County Solid waste promotes a culture of waste reduction- emphasizing “Refuse” being the most effective “R” and Recycling the least. The mindset to divert items from their premature death – realizing the resources used to extract it, human capital used to assemble it and then to pass it along to someone else who can use it is key.
Plans are in motion to build a safer, more efficient station but until then, staff must make do with what they’ve got to keep this overburdened hub running. Cairns shared one solution: “In the past two years to keep up with service demand and reduce congestion on the tipping floor we now redirect construction and demolition debris to the area that had traditionally been used as a backup tipping floor. This required the purchase of an excavator at a cost of $250,000 and hiring a half-time operator to run it. C&D (Construction and Demolition) isn’t accepted at any of the transfer stations in King County”.
Bringing to light how good we got it, Cairns points out that Jefferson County offers more affordable and flexible waste services than King County. “If you want to dispose of concrete blocks, safes, wood stoves, stumps, automotive or rechargeable batteries, antifreeze, used motor oil, carpet, tablets and computers, televisions, insulation, fats and grease, boats, campers, or RV’s at a King County transfer station you’re out of luck. Also, King County self-haulers have to pay an additional $33.39 if they are offloading a mattress where we don’t. Refrigerators cost them 30.00 extra and our cost is $20.00. Our actual unit cost for recycling refrigerated appliances through a local vendor is $25 ea. so we operate at a loss on these in an effort to keep them from being disposed of along roadsides and in wooded areas.”
As you can see, garbage costs a lot of money not including all the other underlying costs it presents, and not to mention the ripple effect of added stress to our bodies and environment. Though colorful PNW spring flowers can be used as an analogy for colors in a trash heap – the more we educate ourselves on the reality of the costs of our waste, the clearer we will be able to see the flowers for the trash.
Tracy Grisman is a multidisciplinary artist who serves on the Solid Waste Advisory Committee and as a member of the Local 20/20 Beyond Waste Action group.
