by Meredith Griffith

Weekly contributor

The San Juan County council has approved a new landfill on Lopez Island designated for crushed or broken concrete and clean glass only.

“The market for glass is so low right now, there’s no location to take it, for storage or recycling,” said solid waste program administrator Mark Herrenkohl. “Glass has become a difficult waste stream to get rid of, which is unfortunate. There’s just no market for it. Folks think it’s going to be recycled, but not all of it is.”

The county currently has no existing landfills. So the newly approved amendment to the county’s solid and hazardous waste management plan will allow for one site-specific inert waste landfill to be sited at the Lopez Sand and Gravel facility located at 618 Channel Road. As a former sand and gravel pit, the facility already has a reclamation permit from the state Department of Natural Resources allowing them to fill in the removed areas with inert fill. They have been using that permit to backfill with crushed glass and concrete, but at a certain threshold of mass, the facility must apply for a solid waste permit. So the Lopez Solid Waste District asked public works for the amendment.

During the recent council hearing, public works director Brian Vincent said the Solid Waste Advisory Committee and Lopez Sand and Gravel were all in full support of the proposal, with minor modifications to the wording. There was no public testimony given.

Council member Rick Hughes said he fully supports the program and hopes the county can look into similar solutions on other islands as well, at least until glass prices go up to cover the cost of hauling off island. Herrenkohl says the market for post-consumer glass is depressed across the whole nation.

The county actually owns a glass crusher, which is at the Orcas Transfer station. Orcas Recycling Services executive director Pete Moe said ORS has begun to repair the crusher, which has been inoperable.

“In the near future when we again begin to sort recyclables, we hope to crush the glass we receive, and use it here on the island as a source of clean fill, and/or as a landscaping material,” said Moe. “Even if we give away the material for free it would be cheaper than shipping it off island to be recycled – or more likely landfilled – on the mainland. Recycled glass no longer has any significant value as a commodity. In fact it is now more of a contaminant in the recycling stream than anything else.”

Islanders should note that any glass turned in for recycling that has food residue on it is automatically headed for the landfill anyway.

“If it’s not clean, they can’t recycle it,” said Herrenkohl.

After the council approved the amendment, titled “Authorizing Site-Specific Inert Waste Landfills in San Juan County,” the state Department of Ecology also approved the amendment.

The next step in getting the Lopez landfill approved is an ordinance to change county code, which does not currently allow landfills in San Juan County. Titled “An ordinance amending 8.12.030 of the SJC code and adopting an amendment to the county solid and hazardous waste management plan,” the draft is not yet available to the public, said Herrenkohl.

The amendment and draft new ordinance do not immediately open doors for any other landfills in San Juan County.

“It only approves the site on Lopez for inert fill,” said Herrenkohl. “They can only accept crushed concrete and glass – that’s it. Any additional sites must also be approved.”

The last step needed to fully approve the Lopez inert landfill is for the county council to accept the new ordinance in the coming weeks.