YUBA SUTTER DISPOSAL INC

Recology Yuba-Sutter serves more than 43,000 residential customers and 3,500 commercial customers and collects more than 100,000 tons of materials annually. We provide service to the communities of Beale Air Force Base, Live Oak, Marysville, Wheatland, Yuba City and the counties of Yuba and Sutter.

People sometimes have difficulty envisioning how commingled bottles and cans are segregated after collection, or how cardboard is separated from mixed paper.

The sorting process for recyclables takes place at the Integrated Waste Recovery Facility (IWRF) at the Yuba-Sutter Transfer Station in Marysville. Collection trucks from residential homes enter the IWRF and are weighed on a certified truck scale. After the weight is logged into a computer, collection trucks empty the recyclable materials in a designated area. Recyclables are moved along elevated conveyor belts and are sorted manually. Although mechanical devices that separate materials are commercially available, manual separation by skilled sorters is an extremely reliable and adaptable way to segregate materials for a changeable commodities market, and for maximum diversion to help our community meet AB939 goals.

Once segregated by type, recyclable materials (except glass) are moved onto another conveyor line that feeds into a compacting unit. Sorted recyclables are compressed into large cubes - or bales - weighing approximately 1,500 pounds each. Bales of like materials are stored together until there are enough bales to fill a shipping container or semi-truck. (Sorted glass is collected into 40-cubic yard containers for shipment to glass mills.) Recyclable materials collected and processed by Recology Yuba-Sutter are shipped to manufacturing plants around the world to be made into new items.

Collection trucks also pick up the green recycling carts that contain the yard waste from residential homes and are weighed on a certified truck scale. After the weight is logged into a computer, the yard waste is taken to a central location and is used in our composting operation. The weight of the yard waste is important for the diversion number needed in meeting the state mandated goal of 50%. If a blue or green cart is contaminated with non-recyclable material, the contents must go straight to the landfill, and the diversion numbers are not applicable.