Nevada's First Single-Stream Recycling Program to Launch in Support of "Keeping Tahoe Blue"

Jun 5, 2008

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PR/Marketing Coordinator
(775) 832-1120

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

For Further Information:

Incline Village GID
Madonna Dunbar
(775) 832-1212 – Office
mod@ivgid.org

Waste Management
Justin Caporusso
(916) 294-4077 – Direct
(916) 501-4280 – Mobile
Jcaporus@wm.com

Incline Village, NV – May 27, 2008 – Incline Village General Improvement District (IVGID) and Waste Management (WM) are pleased to announce the launch of the first single-stream, municipal recycling program for the State of Nevada. 

This new program will service the mountain communities of Incline Village and Crystal Bay, Nevada, located on the eastern shores of Lake Tahoe, 25 miles west of Reno. This program will bring the community even closer to achieving the State of Nevada voluntary 25% diversion goals.

The “Don’t Just Trash It, Blue Bag It” program is a major upgrade from the source separated recycling collection program that has been in place for 15 years.

“The new program will feature single-stream collection for both residential and commercial customers,” said Justin Caporusso, Communications Manager for Waste Management. “In addition to replacing customer pre-sorting of recyclables with a single container, the new program also greatly expands the list of acceptable materials.”

Officials based the new plan on a successful 2007 summer pilot program. “The pilot program we ran last summer allowed us to ‘test drive’ major changes to our recycling program”, stated Madonna Dunbar, IVGID Resource Conservationist. “One neighborhood was selected for a 10 week trial of the single stream system. Historic diversion rates of 3% were dramatically increased to 18% during the pilot. Community support for the new system was overwhelmingly favorable, so the District opted to pursue full conversion.” 

The new program, which launches on June 30, 2008, allows commingled collection of: glass, tin, steel, aluminum, mixed paper, cardboard, paperboard and plastics #1 through #7. Residential clients will use “blue bags” for bi-weekly recycling collection while commercial customers will be serviced weekly using designated 96-gallon recycling carts.

A community advisory group consisting of District staff, Waste Management officials, local business owners and community residents was instrumental in the process of developing the new program. The committee members were motivated to improve recycling diversion in response to visitor and resident requests to improve collection as part of efforts to help preserve Lake Tahoe’s unique alpine environment.
 
The “Blue Bag” program is modeled on a highly successful voluntary collection program used in the North Lake Tahoe and Truckee, California area. Diversion rates in the California area serviced by Tahoe-Truckee Sierra Disposal have reached more than 50% diversion since their “blue bag” program began. 

The new program consolidates recycling guidelines for the entire North Lake Tahoe area. Several communities in South Lake Tahoe are considering adoption of a similar program, which would result in unified collection programs within the entire Tahoe Basin. The varying recycling collection systems of the different communities, separated by the California and Nevada borders, have been problematic for years, resulting in materials contamination and low diversion rates for some of the area.

Materials from the Incline/Crystal Bay program will be processed at the Cabin Creek Materials Reclamation Facility in Truckee, California for the first year of the program. Waste Management officials in the northern Nevada region are considering upgrades to their Reno based processing facilities, in order to expand single stream recycling to the Reno area in 2009.