LAYTON – Layton city is now providing an option for its residents to recycle.

With the renewal of the city’s contract with Waste Management, Layton residents can now opt-in to Waste Management’s recycling plan beginning in July.

Layton city has looked at recycling options for their residents for years, but ultimately made the decision not to adopt the opt-out recycling option available through their old contract. With the new contract with Waste Management, the city has negotiated an opt-in option to give their residents the opportunity to recycle.

To opt in, Layton residents need to contact the city’s utility department to make arrangements for a recycling truck to deliver and pick up their recycling can every other week on the same day as garbage pickup. Cost for the recycling can is $5.50 per month, with rates for resident’s regular garbage cans increasing to 35 cents per month for the first can and 25 cents per month for the second can.

Utah Waste Management Public Sector Solutions Manager Beth Holbrook said having the city participate in the recycling program will be beneficial. “I believe one of the advantages of a recycling program is that there is an opportunity to really divert a portion of what would normally go to the landfill or burn plant, and send it to become a commodity,” Holbrook said. “As a city, it means they will pay less for landfill fees from traditional garbage disposal.”

Layton Mayor Bob Stevenson said the city is also looking to see what new developments are being implemented and researched at the landfill, located in the north part of the city.

Currently Wasatch Integrated Waste is requesting bids for installation of a trommel screen at the Energy Recovery Facility to remove organics, rocks, dirt, broken glass, batteries and heavy metals from curbside waste to improve the quality of the garbage for combustion in the incinerator.

“Right now we are a mass burn facility, where we burn everything that comes in. This (screen) will allow us to take out stuff that doesn’t burn, which improves the facility operation and efficiency,” Nathan Rich, Executive Director of Wasatch Integrated Waste said.

The facility is also in the research phase of developing another system that would also pull recyclables directly from the waste stream, such as used beverage containers (aluminum), soup cans, plastics, cardboard, and milk jugs. Garbage would first go through a screen, then a series of magnets and optical sorters to recover substantial amount of recyclable materials prior to going into the waste energy facility.

“We would be able to recover a higher quantity of recyclables, but it could be lower quality than a separate recycling can because of contamination since people don’t have to sort them from the regular waste, but we’ll get a higher recovery rate,” Rich said. “The beauty of it is you can avoid the cost of running a second truck through neighborhoods picking recycling bins up.”

Phase two is still a couple years away Rich said as they ascertain the feasibility of the process, which would come with a substantial price tag.

“It really interests me though because our level of diversion will go way up and boost recycling, dovetailing with our energy recovery facility,” Rich said. “Recycling is a global issue, but on the Wasatch Front, clean air is the number one problem we have, so locally, maybe there is a more creative way to handle recycling without the cost of running a recycling truck.”