DAYTON—When the Columbia County Commissioners met last week, Public Works Director Andrew Woods gave an update on progress toward reinstating the county’s recycling program.

“The grant funds are there,” he said.

Woods said his department is waiting for the “thumbs up” from the state Department of Ecology so bids can be solicited for some fencing that needs to be done, before the county can accept recyclables at the new recycling station at the county’s transfer facility.

“We’re waiting to hear back. As soon as they say ‘yes’ we will get the fence installed and get the containers down there, ASAP,” Woods said.

Woods said Basin Disposal, Inc. will provide separate containers for each type of recyclable, and there should be adequate signage explaining which containers to use. BDI will take the recyclables for processing, Woods said.

Going forward, the county will not get paid as well as it was, Woods said. Until recently, China has been buying the lion’s share of recyclables, but it is no longer buying them in the same quantities.

“China is not purchasing, and what they are purchasing they have put such stringent contamination rules on it, nobody can meet it,” he said.

For instance, China will only take cardboard containing 2.5% or less of contaminant. In the past the amount the county got paid for corrugated cardboard has made up for any financial losses, Woods said.

The county relies on the DOE’s solid waste/ecology grant, which pays for 75% of the total costs of the recycling program. But the county is on the hook for the remainder.

The recycling program was suspended in 2017 when the DOE said there would be no reimbursement of costs associated with it, as long as the state was operating without passage of a capital budget. The state’s $4.2 billion capital budget was signed by the governor last month.