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<\/a>As King County residents, we all enjoy the convenience a highly developed and efficient trash and recycling system – light years ahead of what I experienced in my youth.\u00a0 You simple put your trash, recycling, and yard waste carts out at the curb once a week and the Garbage Fairy makes it magically disappear by the time you get home from work.\u00a0 But the question I\u2019m frequently asked is, \u201cWell, where does it all go?\u201d<\/p>\nFor this article, let\u2019s talk about your trash.\u00a0 After you put it out at the curb, a friendly Waste Management driver will stop, deftly manipulate the machine\u2019s hydraulic \u201cgrabbers\u201d and lift your trash cart into the air, dumping its contents into the truck\u2019s hopper.\u00a0 This is what we refer to as \u201cautomated collection.\u201d\u00a0 It saves a significant amount of time when compared to a driver having to hop out of the truck at each stop – kind of like the difference between broadband and dial-up internet.<\/p>\n
Once the truck is full, the driver will head for the nearest drop off site.\u00a0 We call these sites transfer stations and we just happen to have one here in Kirkland called the Houghton Transfer Station.\u00a0 This facility, along with several others sprinkled around the county, is owned and operated by the King County Solid Waste Division (KCSWD).<\/p>\n
The load of trash is Once the truck arrives at the landfill, it\u2019s weighed and the driver is directed to the area where active landfilling is underway.\u00a0 The trailer is backed into th<\/a>dumped into a large, enclosed trailer at the transfer station. It then officially becomes the responsibility of King County to manage and transport the waste safely.\u00a0 Once the large truck trailer is full, the top is closed and a semi hooks up and hits the road for our one and only landfill hidden amongst the trees in Maple Valley called the Cedar Hills Landfill.\u00a0 At the newer transfer stations, the trash is actually compacted inside the trailer before it leaves the facility to minimize the number of trips, maximize efficiency, and lower transportation costs.<\/p>\n<\/a>e landfill area and it is detached from the truck.\u00a0 The trailer is then picked up by a large machine or \u201ctipper\u201d which lifts the trailer high into the air and dumps it contents out quickly and into the perfect spot.\u00a0 Like clockwork, a large bulldozer with steel wheels will level off and compact the trash to make sure that it takes up as little space as possible.<\/p>\n<\/a>And it\u2019s here that your bag of trash will be entombed for eternity<\/a>.\u00a0 So when you throw a plastic bottle or an aluminum can in the garbage, it will never be recycled.\u00a0 The resource is lost forever and will have to be replaced with virgin natural resources.<\/p>\n