Believe that compostable fork or cup you bought at an Olympia business enterprise isn’t visiting the landfill? Re-evaluate.

Corporations which have organic wate hauled absent because of the city of Olympia have been told this spring that commencing June one, they might not set paper baggage and plates, food-soiled cardboard, waxy cardboard and paper, compostable bags, cups, plates, utensils, straws and other plastics into their organics bin.

"It’s now stepping into the trash,” claimed Jim Unzicker at Batdorf & Bronson Coffee Roasters, which uses compostable forks, cups along with other items. "There are companies that make a conscientious effort to buy and use these products. It’s a disappointment to be outlived by your coffee cup.”

Olympia takes residential and commercial natural and organic waste into the county’s Waste and Recovery Center in Hawks prairie. From there, it goes to Silver Springs Organics in Rainier, a commercial composting facility owned by Waste Connections.

That facility is designed to turn yard waste, food stuff scraps, wood and farm waste into compost in 45 days. It is then sold to a wholesaler.

But most compostable plastics don’t break down that fast, mentioned Silver Springs site manager Samantha Fleischner.

"The way I always explain it is, ‘Are you willing to have 40 percent of a fork left over in your garden soil blend?’” Fleischner stated.

"I think it’s been difficult from both the customer’s standpoint and the city’s standpoint to make this change because it was rather short notice,” stated Ron Jones, senior waste reduction specialist for town of Olympia. "Some customers are upset - they invested in a program, and we invested in a philosophy of maximizing diversions and a zero waste philosophy too.”

The change was only for commercial customers. Jones claimed residential organic and natural loads are mostly yard waste and food scraps, but on the commercial side there was much more cardboard and compostable bags.

Olympia had a lot more than 170 commercial customers using its organics hauling service. Since the change, 23 have canceled.

One of them is Old School pizzeria on Franklin Street downtown. Owner Kenny pugh estimates 90 percent of the restaurant’s waste is pizza boxes and paper plates.

"It’s a bummer,” stated pugh, who is now looking for somewhere else to compost the boxes. "I try to throw absent as little as possible.”

Batdorf & Bronson was able to significantly reduce its trash output by recycling and composting far more items, reported Unzicker, the company’s maintenance engineer. Over the years, its roasting facility and tasting room at 200 Market St. went from filling a two-yard dumpster to a 35-gallon trash can.

Unzicker is now looking at likely again into the dumpster.

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