Is this recyclable?

I started writing this blog post in order to do some research and find a site to where I could direct readers to plug in their city and state and find their own local recycling guidelines. Unfortunately, no such site (that I could find) exists. So, since I can’t possibly give you the links for every different recycling program and its guidelines in the country, I urge you to go to your city’s homepage and look up the local recycling guidelines. You may even find that your community doesn’t have a recycling program at all!

It's important to note that not all members of plastics are recyclable. In addition, each type of plastic is recycled separately, so the potential for cross contamination is high. This is a concern because one dirty or wrong type of plastic can ruin an entire batch of recyclables.here are three different types of recycling programs that are typically offered. They are: Dual Stream Recycling, Single Stream Recycling, and Pay-As-You-Throw programs.

Dual Stream Recycling - This is the most common type of recycling program offered. Recyclers separate aluminum and plastics into one bin and paper items into another container. There is still the potential for contamination by mixing of non-recyclables into the mix and by dirty food waste left in containers.

Single Stream Recycling - aka commingled recycling. All recycling items are thrown into the same bin. The recycling collectors take the commingled items back to the recycling center to sort.

The EPA recognizes that this system of recycling is highly inefficient because a large chunk of post-consumer recycled items end up being thrown out by cross contamination into the wrong product stream. The EPA also states that the biggest concern with losing recycled items is that it reduces the amount of material to be used for making new products, thereby increasing the need for use of “virgin materials” in production. This concern is greater than the concern that the unused recycled items will be transported to the landfill. (http://yosemite.epa.gov/R10/homepage.nsf/topics/ccrs)

Quoted from the EPA site on single stream recycling: " Portland Metro’s study found a loss rate of 6,230 tons of recyclables. By material type, there was a loss rate of 26% incoming cardboard, 14% metal, 24% plastic bottles, and 1% newspaper.”

Pay-As-You-Throw - This system is actually a waste collection system, but it is an incentive for recycling. With pay-as-you-throw, the consumer is charged for each bag of trash put on the curb for pick-up. As consumers are charged more for their waste, they put less trash out on the curb. As Chaz Miller of the Environmental Industry Association says in his article, this system of charging for trash doesn’t cause consumers to create less waste, but they find other ways to deal with their waste be it in the form of recycling, reusing, or composting for example. (http://wasteage.com/mag/waste_payasyouthrow/

Problems of Cross-Contamination in Recycling
I’ll admit that in the past I’ve been guilty of throwing an unwashed plastic container in the recycling bin on occasion by using the rationale that it is better to recycle it even if it’s dirty. I know that I’ve been told the containers need to be food-free before putting them in the recycling bin, but sometimes cleaning the plastic seems too inconvenient or undesirable. This rationale of recycling the container anyways, however, is not correct, and I figured that a lot of other people may be guilty of the same mistake I’ve made.

So, the next time you finish your yogurt and are left with a mostly empty but dirty plastic carton, remember why it’s worth the effort to rinse it out:

1) It’s more energy and time intensive for workers to sort and clean the recycled items. Often the energy and time required is too inefficient and the contaminated materials are just thrown out to go to the landfill. http://daviswiki.org/Recycling
2) A contaminated batch of recycling produces recycled items that are not as durable or as strong as they need to be to serve their intended purposes. If the integrity of the post-consumer recycled plastic container is compromised, then manufacturers who need the products for packaging will opt for new rather than recycled plastic containers. http://discovermagazine.com/2009/jul-aug/06-when-recycling-is-bad-for-the-environment

Other References:

http://www.nrc-recycle.org/ - This site gives a search box of what you want to recycle and a location (city and state, area code). Great place to look for local recycling locations for those items that your regular curb side pick-up won’t take.
http://www.recyclingcenters.org/
http://earth911.com/ Information on Dual Stream Recycling, Single Stream Recycling, and Pay-As-You-Throw