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Recycling to become easier while saving money at ITD HQ

The Idaho Transportation Department is ramping up its recycling program.

ITD Print Tech Gabe Sielaff is overseeing a recycling revolution of sorts (no pun intended) at headquarters with the hope that it encourages more people to recycle, while saving the department thousands of dollars annually.

“When we looked at the current program, we determined it was pretty much non-existent,” Sielaff said.

While a recycling effort was in place, it only included paper that employees had to sort individually, with no collection of cans, bottles or any other commonly recyclable items. Sielaff did some research and contacted Republic Services (the trash and recycling company it currently contracts with) for some insight into how ITD could go green, while saving some green.

Sielaff determined that ITD was paying $2,000 a month for trash pick-up and dumping five days a week. In contrast, by decreasing the pick-ups to twice a week, and adding recycling services, ITD would instead pay $800 a month, a cost-savings of $14,000 a year. The addition of recycling bins around headquarters will cost $2,000, Sielaff said.

“In this day and age of going green, these savings are considerable.”

Information about where to pick up individual bins for offices will be distributed this fall, along with details about what items can or can’t be tossed in those blue bins.