BY KATHY WILLIAMS

HERALD DEMOCRAT

Sherman's eight-year-old recycling program remains highly successful because residents participate at high rates and follow the rules, its managers said Friday. A contaminated waste stream or low participation rates would blow the city's numbers and possibly make the service impossible to continue.

Currently, Sherman's residential curbside recycling is an "enterprise fund," Sherman Public Works Director Jeff Miller said. That means it pays for itself. It doesn't make a lot of money, and last summer it looked like it might actually cost the city money to run it. However, the market for recyclable products is on the rise again, particularly corrugated cardboard. So the Recycling Fund won't likely require an infusion of cash from the General Fund.

Sherman's curbside, residential program and its brush and limb pickup take 25 percent of what residents throw away and divert that from the landfill. That helps the city pay for recycling in two ways. First there's avoidance of landfill tipping fees, about $30 per ton, or roughly $125,000 this year; and then there's the revenue derived from selling what's recycled.

Miller said 25 percent is an unusually high rate, with most cities able to avoid sending about 10-11 percent of their solid waste stream to recyclers rather than the landfill.

Sherman's curbside program is called a single stream commingled system because households don't have to separate paper from plastic, glass or metal. As long as it's a permissible item, residents can put it in the blue or teal rolling containers. Items residents may recycle are plastic bottles that are marked either 1 or 2 in the recycling chasing arrows logo, usually on the container's bottom. These are mainly soft drink and water bottles, milk jugs, detergent bottles and the like. Please take off the bottle tops and discard them.

Cans -- rinsed out -- aluminum, steel and tin, including empty aerosol cans go into the recycling bins along with clean paper -- newspapers, colored slick advertising and magazines, phone books, junk mail and office paper. Corrugated cardboard comprises shipping and other regular boxes. And then box board, like those that hold cereal (but not the liners,) and shoes boxes also go in the recycling bins. Glass bottles and jars of any color are acceptable, but plate glass, mirrors and ceramics are not. As with plastic bottles, please toss the tops.

Contamination happens when people put non-recylcable items into the teal or blue recycling bins. "This time of the year, that's mainly grass clippings or yard waste," said Michael Springer, solid waste supervisor for the city of Sherman. "You can't recycle grass clippings in Sherman that way." The best way to recycle yard waste is to compost plant matter and put brush and limbs out for the monthly special pickup the city offers.

Other "contaminants" in the recycling stream, and thus not allowed in the bins, are plastic bags, plastic wrap, oil, paint or pesticide containers (or anything toxic or hazardous) soiled or wet newspaper, pizza boxes or plastic foam.

City trucks pick up containers with robotic arms that dump it into the bed without a human having to touch it. Then the trucks roll into the transfer station, a raised driveway where the trash trucks dump their loads into 75-yard transfer trailer. The station has compactors that fit inside trailers that pack them full.

"We've only had one load rejected by the MRF (materials recovery facility,)" Miller said. "That's the place we go in Plano with all the commingled stream ... once it gets there it's dumped on this big tipping floor where a cadre of equipment separates everything into the various components. Then the aluminum, which is very valuable, is sent off to its market, and the paper is sent off to its market. It's a very mechanically oriented process, for the ease of collection, and then to sort it back out again."

Making it easy on the customer invites higher participation rates. And there's a cost for separating it. The market value offsets the processing and transportation costs, sometimes with a little left over.

"We've never had to pay a processing fee because the market value of the various components has generated enough revenue, Miller said.

"That's why it's so economical and pays for itself," Miller said. "We have good participation rates, good markets (for the recyclables) and good transportation. With the transfer station equipment, we can send compacted 18-wheelers to Plano. Otherwise, if we just sent the dump trucks, it would cost too much."

The brush pickup is a big part of the recycling picture for Sherman because brush and limbs are chipped and sold for boiler fuel. In fact, Brush and limbs represent a little more than 13 percent of 25 percent of trash Sherman diverts from the landfill. This year the city also added bulky household trash to the monthly pickup. Each resident can put out 10 cubic feet of brushes and limbs and 5 cubic feet of bulky trash each month. The pickup schedule is worked in quadrants of the city. It begins on the southeast quadrant the first Monday of the month; then the northeast the second Monday; then the northwest on the third and the southwest on the fourth.

Recycling is picked up every other week. The schedule is available from the city's Solid Waste Department. For more information, contact Springer's office at 903-892-7261 or visit www.ci.sherman.tx.us, and check under "Citizens Services;" then, "Solid."

Sherman residential solid waste customers pay $3.25 per month for a recycling container. Extra containers are free. Residents older than 65, and those who are disabled may request a waiver to either not participate or to participate for free. There is no additional charge for the brush or bulky items pickup.

Although the creators of Sherman's recycling program originally wanted to include apartments in the plan, apartment managers went to their statewide organization. A representative came the city and said the managers were opposed to the idea. That was because the larger recycling bins take up space in the parking lots, the management must ensure enough space around the bins for a sufficient turning radius for the trucks and the heavy trucks are rough on parking lot surfaces.

Miller said the city is always ready to provide recycling to apartments if an apartment manager requests it on behalf of the residents.

Apartment dwellers used to have the option of taking their recyclable items to Texoma Area Solid Waste Authority on State Highway 56; however TASWA has stopped that service.

Businesses can opt into a recycling program as well, and the city offers a large range of options for that, Miller said. So far, the one that has worked best for both businesses and the city is corrugated cardboard. Recycling cardboard can save business that get lots of shipments in boxes because they are bulky and quickly fill commercial containers.

Many of the items that cannot be recycled or picked up through the bulk trash service, can be properly disposed of through the city's annual Household Hazardous Waste event. This year, that will occur at 9 a.m. on April 10 at 220 W. Mulberry. Residents, on a first-come, first-served basis, may bring toxic substances like pesticides and paint, pool chemicals and drain cleaners, electronic items like televisions and computer parts and other items like guns and ammunition to the event.