State agencies and businesses are recycling more now than ever before, thanks in part to a new Boise city program that lets businesses throw all their recyclables - from plastic to paper - into a single bin.

The result: 170 more businesses are recycling this year.

More than 550 businesses are recycling using blue-bin, wheeled-cart and dumpster-sized services within the city, said Megan Kershner, who works for Boise's Public Works Department. A year ago, just 380 businesses participated.

Many larger businesses, from commercial real estate companies to local Stinker stations, are signing up, said Rachele Klein, public relations and recycling manager for Allied Waste, which contracts with the city to run the program.

"We are seeing interest, and I think it's just a part of the green culture that is sweeping everybody," Klein said.

One big push is coming from Idaho state agencies.

Last year, Otter told agencies to look at greenhouse gas emissions and reduce them. Since then, a slew of government agencies have signed on to local recycling efforts, Klein said.

Eleven state buildings in the Capitol Mall have adopted Allied Waste's mixed recycling program, said Ric Johnston, facility services manager for the Department of Administration. One building tested the mixed recycling program in February, and it went so well, the others launched programs in April, Johnston said.

Most businesses can easily recycle 50 percent of their overall waste, Klein said. Between the paper and cardboard and the bottles and pop cans, a "significant" amount of recyclable material can be diverted from the Ada County landfill.

"We miss out on a lot of materials that could be recycled. It is a lot less work to mix it together," Klein said.

In Ada County, every single piece of trash goes to the Ada County Hidden Hollows Landfill, which has finite space. So anything that consumers recycle saves that much room. It also helps the environment by reducing energy costs and conserves natural resources.

Johnston said he doesn't have any hard numbers yet for Idaho's Capitol Mall buildings, but he estimates recycling now takes up between 15 percent and 40 percent of overall waste. Primarily, the state's Downtown buildings generate paper, with much of it coming from the Idaho Legislature, he said. The process is relatively painless, because white paper doesn't have be sorted from mixed papers, he said.

"We are trying to do something about the carbon footprint," Johnston said. "We were finding that businesses were doing it before the state was doing it, and we didn't want to have egg on our face. It was just a business decision on our part that we are keeping that waste out of the Ada County landfill."

The recyclables don't stay co-mingled forever. Paper, plastics and other materials are sorted out at Allied Waste and other recycling facilities down the line.

On Friday, Klein showed employees at a state lab in Boise how to put everything but kitchen waste and bathroom trash into convenient all-in-one bins. Klein likes to get employees excited about the ease of using a mixed recycling program.

At the Idaho State Department of Parks and Recreation, the excitement was already there.

"We have always recycled," said Jennifer Wernex, communications director for the parks department. "As an agency, we have employed a new system which is more convenient. Every desk has a receptacle. That has really increased participation in our program."

Wernex said every work station has a mixed recycling bin, and the building's janitorial staff empties the bins into a large, commingled bin each night.

"It makes it more convenient for folks," Wernex said. "If it is easier to participate, more people will do it. That's what we've seen."

It doesn't take a lot of staff time or resources because no one needs to sort out the recyclables, Allied Waste's Klein said.

"People sometimes get down on the state," Klein said. "This is a redeeming activity."

Kathleen Kreller: 377-6418