For the first time in the 20-plus years that the Washington state Department of Ecology has generated recycling statistics, Spokane County residents recycled more waste than they threw away in 2010, according to figures released late last month by the Spokane Regional Solid Waste System.

In 2010, the most recent year for which data are available, Spokane County residents recycled roughly 332,800 tons, or 51 percent of the 646,100 tons of waste generated. That recycling rate is nine percentage points higher than the previous year, when Spokane County residents recycled about 232,000 tons, or 42 percent of about 552,000 tons of waste generated that year.

At that rate, Spokane County outpaced the state as a whole in 2010. That year, Washington state residents recycled 49 percent of its solid waste.

Suzanne Tresko, recycling coordinator for the city of Spokane, says that in recent years, the recycling rate typically has bounced around in between 40 percent and 49 percent. Even in that range, it's dramatically higher than when the Department of Ecology first started tracking such statistics in the late 1980s. The first recycling rate for Spokane County, posted in 1987, was 20 percent.

The 2010 increase in recycling involves a variety of recyclable types, including glass, office paper, and plastics, and Tresko says there isn't a single event or trend she can point to that accounts for the increase in activity. Also, she says she isn't aware of any changes in the way the data are gathered that would skew the figures.

Russ Menke, director of the Spokane Regional Solid Waste System, says in a press release, "This really is about people making a conscious effort to recycle more and generate less garbage. Educating a community on the benefits of recycling and providing the structure to do it is important, but the success of the program depends on actual participation."

Tresko concurs, likening the effort to boost recycling to dieting. With a diet, she says, a person eats less and exercises more, then one day notices a big difference. Similarly, recycling advocates have worked in recent years to raise awareness and change consumers' behaviors, and those efforts are starting to pay off, she contends.

The data lag the calendar by a year, meaning the 2011 statistics likely won't be available for a year. Tresko says she's unsure what the next set of statistics will show, but she expects recycling rates to increase in coming years due to a number of factors, including greater business participation.

Kim Pearman-Gillman, business development director at the Spokane office of Seattle-based mechanical and energy-efficiency contractor McKinstry Co., says that company has been proactive in its recycling efforts here.

In its recent renovation of the Spokane & Inland Empire Rail Road building, at 802 E. Spokane Falls Blvd., the company was able to recycle a high percentage of the construction waste and salvaged materials from the building, Pearman-Gillman says.

Since moving into that building last fall, the company has given employees separate recycling and landfill cans, she says, naming them as such so people are more acutely aware of what happens to the goods they throw away. For the office in general, she says, waste is separated into bins marked recyclable, compost, and landfill. The company hasn't been in that space long enough to have figured its own recycling rate, Pearman-Gillman says.

Generally speaking, she says she isn't surprised that Spokane businesses and residents now are recycling more than they throw away.

"It's part of our ethos," she says. "We all really think about it now."

Tresko says she isn't sure whether the recycling rate for 2011 will be above 50 percent as it was for 2010, and she declines to speculate on whether it will increase once again or fall after the spike in activity.

In the future, however, she expects recycling to become more commonplace, especially with the planned addition of single-stream curbside recycling in Spokane County.

Waste Management of Spokane, a subsidiary of Houston-based Waste Management Inc., plans to bring its single-stream recycling program on line in September or October.

Both the city of Spokane and Waste Management, which collects garbage and recyclables in Spokane Valley, Liberty Lake, Deer Park, and other parts of Spokane County, are adding new trucks and bins in coming months to accommodate the new system.

Single-stream recycling allows consumers to put all recyclables in one bin without having to separate them out. With the new system, both the city and Waste Management have said they will be able to accept a wider range of recyclable materials, some of which they don't have the ability to process presently.

Ken Gimbel, a Spokane municipal relations manager for Waste Management, says the company late last month broke ground on the new facility, which is being built on 8 acres of leased land in the Spokane International Airport Business Park, next to the waste-to-energy plant, at 2900 S. Geiger Blvd.

He says the prefabricated building that's to be erected on the site is scheduled to arrive during the first week in March, and sorting equipment is expected to be on site a month later.

In all, the facility is expected to cost $20 million and will be able to process up to 37 tons an hour.

Currently, Gimbel says, between 30 percent and 35 percent of Waste Management's customers in the Spokane area participate in the recycling program during a typical week. In general, he says, about 85 percent participate from time to time.

In other communities, he says, participation has increased dramatically when single-stream recycling came on line. For example, a single-stream system geared up in Coeur d'Alene in late 2010, and participation increased to about 60 percent of customers in a given week, from about 25 percent prior to single stream.

At the same time, the volume of recyclables increased substantially, increasing by 166 percent initially and continuing to run at almost double the volume processed prior to putting the single-stream process in place, Gimbel says.

In the city of Spokane, 14-gallon recycling containers will be replaced with 64-gallon containers, and recyclables will be picked up weekly.

Meanwhile, Gimbel says Waste Management plans to give its Spokane-area customers 96-gallon bins—the same size as yard-waste bins the company provides its customers—and to pick up every other week.

Curbside pickup, however, accounts for only a portion of all recycling that occurs in Spokane County, Gimbel points out.

"(Single-stream recycling) is not going to move the overall number dramatically, but it certainly is going to increase the participation and volume," he says.