Mountain of plastic trash
In 2018, China stopped accepting all but the cleanest shipments of recycling. Thus began a worldwide recycling crisis. Especially a plastic recycling crisis. For a while, it looked like the world could just send recyclables to other countries, like Vietnam or the Philippines or Malaysia.
But China stopped accepting recycling only after years of warning that it was receiving too much junk it had to send to its own landfills. Those other countries didn’t want to be dumping grounds, either.
You may have heard that lots of plastic is going to the landfill from recycling centers. That’s partly true. Many recycling programs have cut back on the plastic they accept.
For example, my local program used to accept those plastic clamshells from grocery store salad bars. They don’t anymore. They can’t sell them. If anyone puts them out at the curb by mistake, they go to the landfill.
Also, fewer places accept glass at the curbside.
Otherwise, whatever a recycling program accepts, there’s a market for it. Possibly smaller and harder to find than before. It probably pays less than before. But it exists.
Cities have responded in different ways to the plastic recycling crisis. Besides cutting back on what they accept, some have considered drastic changes to the whole recycling operation. Others have mounted campaigns to educate the public about what is and is not acceptable.
Here are some initiatives that have been in the news in just the past month.
Blair County, Pennsylvania
Trash and recycling truck
Let’s start with the longest article. It describes some fairly radical suggestions from a hauler in Blair County, Pennsylvania.
The Intermunicipal Relations Committee (IRC) oversees recycling in Altoona, Logan Township, and Hollidaysburg. Burgmeier’s Hauling is one of the area’s largest haulers. Dave Burgmeier has recently asked the IRC to make a number of changes:
- Eliminate plastic recycling.
- Require brokers who hire haulers for chain stores and restaurants to recycle.
- Eliminate single-stream recycling.
- Advocate for a state-wide container deposit law (bottle bill).
Burgmeier’s operates a transfer station that serves other local haulers. The article in the Altoona Times appears to have one detail wrong. It says that the transfer station sorts and bales recycling. Then it ships it to a materials recovery facility (MRF). That makes no sense. MRFs, not transfer stations, sort and bale recyclables.
It appears from Burgmeier’s website that it operates both a transfer station and a MRF. In any case, plastic recycling used to bring the company $125 a ton. Then came the Chinese crackdown. Now it costs $10 a ton to get rid of it. Burgmeier complains that it costs more to handle recyclables than trash.
Eliminate plastic collection?
Burgmeier doesn’t see a market for plastic coming back. In his opinion, therefore, a temporary suspension won’t help. He wants to eliminate the requirement to collect plastic.
Pete Previte of the Pennsylvania Recycling Markets Center agrees that the Chinese policy has led to a plastic recycling crisis. But he points out that a new facility will soon open in Reading. It will pelletize clear plastic PET bottles. Then it will sell the pellets to a nearby bottle manufacturing plant.
Even before that plant opens, he says, a market for both PET and HDPE exists near Altoona. (HDPE is the plastic used for milk jugs.)
Former IRC Executive Director John Frederick adds that changing recycling requirements is a public education nightmare. For example, ten years ago, the IRC changed its requirement on bottle caps.
It used to require residents to put PET bottles in recycling without the lids. Then the industry changed its standard. Now, nearly every program asks that lids be put back on the bottle before recycling. Ten years after the change, many people still think they have to take the lids off.
Chain store hauling?
Bales of recycled plastic ready for sale
Burgmeier seems to get more sympathy for his other proposals. Brokers working for chain stores and restaurants hire haulers. They don’t require them to provide recycling. So these stores have only one dumpster.
What if a hauler chooses to offer recycling? It has to add additional work to its bid prices. That puts it at a competitive disadvantage. The only way for these stores to participate in recycling is to require the brokers to include it in their contracts with haulers.
Frederick points out, however, that that the IRC can’t do much about it. Brokers don’t care about local requirements. He tried to get local haulers to cooperate with the IRC to nudge brokers toward compliance. They didn’t. Enforceable mandates, it appears, would have to come at the state level.
Eliminate single-stream recycling?
Recycling dropoff center, Kansas City, Missouri
Americans are addicted to convenience.
The city where I live recently stopped accepting glass in curbside recycling. It set up about half a dozen drop-off sites that accept only glass. A friend of mine told me that she wouldn’t recycle glass anymore. But she passes within a quarter mile of one of the drop-off sites a couple of times a week.
Source separation results in a much cleaner product. Unfortunately, it makes more work both for households and haulers. People have to sort everything into different containers. Haulers need separate compartments on their trucks. It’s too inconvenient. Many people won’t bother.
Single stream recycling gets much higher participation rates. It’s less expensive to operate. And it’s inherently prone to contamination. Part of the trouble is that too many people still find it too inconvenient to recycle correctly.
The truck that picks up recyclables compacts them. That improperly rinsed ketchup bottle bursts under pressure. Ketchup gets all over nearby paper. So it destroys its value for the uses that bring the most money. If someone recycles a broken glass bottle, little pieces of glass wind up contaminating bales of other materials.
Frederick would also like to eliminate single-stream recycling. Excess contamination from too many MRFs caused the current recycling crisis. Perhaps more communities will start to require at least some source separation. I have most often seen the idea of a dual-stream of paper and everything else.
Advocate for a statewide bottle bill?
Frederick and Susan V. Collins, president of the Container Recycling Institute, both agree with Burgmeier about the need for a bottle bill.
Ten states now have bottle bills. Consumers must pay a deposit on beverage containers. They return them to a store for a refund. Such laws make bottlers and stores responsible for recycling. Not municipalities and haulers. That is, it is an example of Extended Producer Responsibility (EPR).
Collins points out many more bottles and cans are recycled in those states. Also, the bills apply only to beverage containers. So contamination rates are dramatically lower. Bottle bills cut littering of cans and bottles by as much as 50%. People drink in all kinds of places. City recycling programs collect only from households. What about commercial and industrial buildings, recreational events, and institutions? Bottle bills cover them.
Bottlers and stores don’t like bottle bills very much. And the legislation doesn’t always work well. There are probably multiple reasons why more states haven’t passed them, but it’s worth a look.
Grand Forks, North Dakota
Plastic flake from PET bottles
From 2016 through 2019, residents of Grand Forks, North Dakota recycled 8,765 tons of materials. That’s nearly as much as the weight of 50 blue whales. Recent years have seen a drop in the total weight of recyclables. Not because residents are recycling any less, but because manufacturers have moved to lighter packaging.
Lighter shipping materials, plus the loss of the Chinese market, makes it challenging to find buyers for it.
The state of North Dakota has set a benchmark of 40% of waste diverted from landfills. Both recycling and composting contribute to that goal. Grand Forks has achieved 36% in recent years.
The article about it starts with a warning to residents. They need to make sure that what they put out at the curb or in drop-off locations is actually recyclable. But it doesn’t describe any particular outreach to the community. Nor does it provide any guidance about the meaning of clean recycling.
But the article does have one useful reminder. Lighter and lighter bottles cause trouble in recycling programs. They contribute to the plastic recycling crisis.
Tippecanoe County, Indiana
Plastic shopping bags
Every recycling program probably mails out flyers to explain what to recycle. I put mine up on the refrigerator. I don’t look at it much. Lots of people probably toss theirs without looking at it at all.
Every recycling program probably has a recycling educator. I can’t guess how visible they are. Tippecanoe County Indiana’s Amy Krzton-Presson did something that’s probably not unique. But it captured the attention of a local TV station. She recruited some students at Purdue University. They conducted an audit of the county’s four drop-off locations.
It appears that the county doesn’t require citizens to sort recyclables there. The students found that many people put plastic bags in them. Plastic bags get tangled in the sorting equipment. They can even break system components., The whole operation shuts down. It gets expensive. If, somehow, bags make it through the system, they contaminate any bale they wind up in.
Krzton-Presson presented the findings to a public recycling seminar. Dozens of people attended. And many of them were dismayed to learn that their habits actually hindered recycling.
Of course, dozens of people make a small fraction of county residents. But the seminar led to an improvement of how those people recycled. Coverage on the TV news called attention to the plastic recycling crisis. It probably encouraged other people to change their habits.
Bay City, Michigan
Bay City, Michigan and the state’s Department of Environment, Great Lakes, and Energy (EGLE) have launched some public awareness ads. They call the campaign “Know It Before You Throw It.”
Talking raccoons teach the public how to recycle correctly. They urge them not to put plastic bags, Styrofoam
, or tanglers in their recycling containers. Tanglers include wire coat hangers, extension cords, and any kind of rope or string. Just think of the havoc they cause in rotating sorting equipment.
EGLE estimates that half of Michigan residents think they can add plastic bags to their recycling. About three in four don’t know how much damage failing to rinse out containers can do.
In addition, Bay City has also announced plans for a new drop-off site that will accept items not suitable for curbside recycling. I suppose they include Styrofoam and plastic bags.
The commercials specifically mention Bay City. But EGLE is collaborating with other cities to make similar ads.
The plastic recycling crisis won’t last forever. Can we develop mindfulness in proper recycling that will outlast it?
Sources:
Collectible or not? Hauler wants IRC to trash plastic recycling / William Kibler, Altoona Mirror. February 23, 2020
Grand Forks recycling between 2016-19: 8,765 tons / Sam Easter, Grand Forks Herald. February 23, 2020
Residents learn the right way to recycle / Micah Upshaw, WLFI. February 22, 2020
Talking raccoons to teach Bay City residents how to recycle / Caitlyn French, Saginaw and Bay City News. February 24, 2020
Photo credits:
Mountain of plastic trash. Some rights reserved by Shafiu Hussein.
Trash and recycling truck. Some rights reserved by fairfaxcounty
Recycling bales. Some rights reserved by Nick Saltmarsh.
Recycling dropoff center. Kansas City, Missouri Public Works.
Plastic flake. Source unknown
Plastic shopping bags. Public domain from Wikimedia Commons
Raccoon. Public domain from Wikimedia Commons rel=”nofollow”. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Waschbaer_auf_dem_Dach.jpg
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