State regulators, haulers working to end ‘wish-cycling’

With the advent of single-stream collection and the recent automation of curbside pick-up, more Canton residents than ever are doing their part at home to separate recyclables from regular household trash.

Whether out of a genuine commitment to sustainability or simply as a matter of convenience, nearly every home in town now utilizes the 96-gallon recycling container issued by private contractor Republic Services. And more and more discarded material has been making its way into those bins, with recyclables now accounting for nearly a quarter of all material hauled away from the curb in Canton — almost 2,000 tons in the last year alone.

MassDEP’s new Smart Recycling Guide (click to enlarge)

Yet as the quantity of recyclables continues to rise both locally and across the state, there have been growing concerns from regulators and haulers about the quality of these materials, either due to contamination from food scraps or from various other non-recyclables — everything from Styrofoam cups to Christmas lights to bowling balls and even dirty diapers. The problem has been exacerbated by shifting market dynamics both at home and abroad, including the closure of a large glass bottling facility in Milford and a recent crackdown by the Chinese government on recycling imports that experts say has had a dramatic effect on the recycling industry over the past six months.

So when consumers toss the wrong items into their collection bins, they are inadvertently creating a host of problems on the other end of the recycling chain — driving up collection costs, increasing the risk for worker injury, and potentially, albeit inadvertently, sending their recyclables straight to the landfill.

In an effort to address the challenges and strengthen recycling programs across Massachusetts, the Department of Environmental Protection (DEP), in partnership with materials recovery facilities throughout the state, recently launched a new web portal called “Recycle Smart” that seeks to educate consumers about the important role they play in improving the recycling system.

The centerpiece of the program, which was rolled out on Monday, is a new “Smart Recycling Guide” that classifies accepted recyclables into four basic categories: metal food and beverage cans; plastic bottles, jars, jugs and tubs; glass bottles and jars; and paper and cardboard. The idea is to simplify the process for consumers in hopes of cutting down on contamination.

“It’s a very, very common problem,” acknowledged Gretchen Carey, recycling and organics coordinator for Republic Services in Massachusetts, referring to contamination in the recycling stream. “It is very widespread.”

Carey believes that most residents “really want to do the right thing,” but in their zeal to be good recyclers they gloss over the distributed lists and end up filling their bins with too many non-recyclable items — a phenomenon she refers to as “wish-cycling.”

“The recycling system was created to take out certain items: paper, cardboard, bottles, cans and containers,” Carey said. “Everything else is pretty much wish-cycling. Just because it’s made out of plastic does not mean somebody is going to pull it out and find a way to make it useful.”

Carey cited a 2015 DEP-commissioned study that found that while an overwhelming majority of Massachusetts residents regularly recycle and believe it is important to do so, a significant percentage were misinformed about what items could be recycled. For instance, 46 percent of respondents thought that Styrofoam cups and containers were recyclable while 48 percent said the same about plastic supermarket bags — an item that Carey said is the “bane of the recycling system’s existence.”

“Also, putting recyclable items inside plastic bags is pretty common and is something that we hate, because plastic bags get wrapped around the machinery,” she said.

Another common mistake that consumers make is not emptying the food or liquid from a container — or throwing in a pizza box covered in grease — which Carey said can contaminate a batch of otherwise good recyclables.

The DEP’s new Smart Guide asks that consumers empty and rinse all containers and empty and flatten all cardboard.

With the recent restrictions imposed by China, Carey said waste removal companies are now looking for much cleaner recycling, and generally that means “empty, clean and dry.”

At the same time, she advised consumers not to use up too much clean water to make something recyclable and suggested using some of the leftover soapy water from the dishes to remove sticky food such as peanut butter from the inside of a jar.

As for caps and lids, Carey said they can be placed back on the bottles or containers but should not be thrown into the bin separately. She also advised residents to ignore the recycling symbol or the Nos. 1-7 on plastics as not everything with a symbol is accepted in the single-stream system.

“The whole idea is to make it simpler for everybody,” said Carey. “What we’re going to be saying in the future is, ‘We want containers with lids.’ For example, milk jugs, laundry detergent bottles, plastic butter tubs. But we’re not saying anything about plastics 1-7 anymore.”

Asked about the current levels of contamination seen by Republic Services from their curbside collections, Carey said it varies considerably from town to town, ranging from “awesome” to “egregious.” Based on anecdotal evidence and conversations with colleagues, Carey said Canton’s recycling is considered “pretty good,” which is something she said the town can be proud of.

The most frequent contaminants seen in Canton are what she termed “inappropriate items” — large pieces of metal, appliances, and other items that contain metal or plastic but are not considered recyclable.

“We are really looking for paper, cardboard, bottles, cans, and containers,” she said. “It is a short list, and we would be grateful if people didn’t add to it.”

While Canton is currently under contract with Republic and therefore has a degree of cost certainty, the fact of the matter is that recycling costs have risen dramatically in recent months — as much as twentyfold in some south shore communities, according to a Boston Globe report — and one of the best ways to drive down those costs is to put out cleaner recycling.

Going forward, Carey is hopeful that consumers will “ease off on the wish-cycling” and is eager to see how consumer education programs such as Recycle Smart impact the recycling system.

“Remember, empty, clean and dry,” she said. “If we can get all three of those that would be awesome.”

“I think that there’s hope,” Carey added. “We’re going to keep trying to help people to understand what it is we are looking for, and if people just threw in the stuff that we ask for that would make our jobs so much easier.”

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Posted by Jay Turner on Sep 1 2018. Filed under Features. Both comments and pings are currently closed.