It's 2019 and still no curbside recycling is offered by the city of Yakima. Loretta Zamarchi, the solid waste and recycling manager, says it could still be years away.  The last time the city tried a successful pilot program was in 2014. But since then, she says the global recycling market has plunged, making it economically impossible to start a program -- especially with the state of the current city budget.

Zamarchi says the poor state of the global recycling market and the lack of good prices for recycling is actually good news in the long run. "It made people pay attention domestically to say what markets do we need here so we don't have to depend on global markets to determine whether or not we're going to have recycling," she explains.
City officials are looking for answers with the projected closing of the Terrace Heights landfill set for the year 2022.
You can get curbside recycling for a fee from Yakima Waste Systems.

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