According to the EPA, the recycling and composting rate, in the United States, has hovered, for many years, around the 32% mark of the total materials discarded (MSW). These low recycling recovery rates have led to an astonishing 146.2 million tons of materials being landfilled in 2018 alone. Of this large tonnage, 7.5 million tons of glass, 13.9 million tons of metal, 27 million tons of plastic and 17.2 million tons of paper/cardboard were landfilled respectively. These numbers are especially discouraging when the EPA estimates that nearly 75% of national waste is recyclable. 75% compared to the current 32%? What are we doing wrong?
One simple piece of the explanation relies on the cross contamination of recyclables.
What is cross contamination?
According to Rubicon, a global waste and recycling solution’s company, “recycling contamination occurs when materials are sorted into the wrong recycling bin or when materials are not properly cleaned, such as when food residue remains on a plastic yogurt container”.
The effects and the causes of cross contamination.
Rubicon calculated that In California alone, nearly 1,000 recycling plants have shut down within the last two years, directly suffering from a staggering national average of 1 in 4 items being cross contaminated.
Many citizens, here in the US, are not familiar with cross contamination, the term wish-cycling or even the implications of how what they place in their own recycling bins, is affecting the next 100 households on a given recycling pickup route, says Zeb Parsons of Bricolage Dynamics, a glass recycling startup based in Greenville, SC. In Greenville, SC for example, Bricolage often hears from citizens that the local city and county do in fact recycle glass. These two entities, in fact, do not recycle glass. What Bricolage has found is that people who have moved from an area that still recycle items such as glass, do not think to check their new city and county’s publications on what can and cannot be recycled. Additionally, simple items such as Keurig capsules, Styrofoam, certain types of plastic, certain types of containers as well as beverage caps can all lead to recycling confusion and ultimately cross contamination. Further complicating the matter, the rules and regulations regarding acceptable materials can vary from town to town, let alone state to state, making things particularly confusing for the average citizen.
How much cross contamination does it take to send a truck load of recycling to the landfill?
The answer is not nearly as much as one would think. Sometimes the decision to landfill is done simply by spot checking the truck and other times it is done after the materials have been dumped out of the truck. The answer largely depends on a recycling plant’s individual ability to absorb the additional sorting, processing and disposal costs of the non-recyclables.
What can be done to mitigate cross contamination?
First and foremost, it’s healthy to view cross contaminates as trash, because if an item can’t be recycled, it is trash. Furthermore, checking with your local municipality on what items can and cannot be recycled is regarded as a great first step. The City of Greenville, SC has their up to date, accepted recyclables listed on every bin. Additionally, their list can be found here. Most municipalities will more than likely have this information readily available to their residents.
The second thing to take head of is just because a container has the recycling symbol listed, does not mean this material can be recycled in your town. Again referring to your town’s published recyclable materials will solve this issue.
Lastly, rinsing your recyclables in order to clear food waste goes a long way toward increasing your material’s chances of being recycled.
According to Zeb Parsons, “by the time your recyclables are being carted off, your recycling bin should look fairly clean and standardized.”
Ultimately, all three of these steps will put your household on the forefront of reducing recycling cross contamination, in turn, boosting your local recycling rates.