In response to a changing recycling industry, Republic knows the demand for better quality recycled materials will maximize what can actually be used for new materials. As the largest recycler in Benton County, and the second largest waste hauling company in the country, Republic is focused on educating consumers on how to properly discard and sort materials.
“Our new program is Empty, Clean and Dry, so it’s really simple,” said Julie Jackson, municipal manager at the Corvallis office. “It has to do with why you prepare recycling to ensure it is usable at the processing facilities.”
With 14 million customers in 39 states and Puerto Rico, Republic has over 15,000 trucks moving materials to 67 recycling centers across the country. That correlates to 5 million tons of materials processed each year.
Last year, Benton County created 7,076 tons of co-mingled materials and an additional 3,000 tons of cardboard. This year, discarded cardboard is expected to continue to increase.
“It’s interesting that there’s more cardboard then we were seeing before,” said Jackson. “My theory is that Amazon and Amazon Prime may be contributing to this increase.”
In the past, many stateside recycled materials in poor condition were sent across seas. Because there was a home for lower quality materials, the push for high quality materials has not been on the industry radar. But now countries are changing their recycling regulations to be similar to those in the U.S.
“It used to be that we as an industry could send not-so-clean materials to Asian markets,” said Jackson. “Anymore that is not the case. The Asian markets, and all markets, are now demanding a cleaner product.”
Once put into recycling bins, if materials are not empty, spilled contents may contaminate others in the same bin. If materials are not clean, for example, paper is not white, then they may require extra bleaching or chemicals to restore it. If materials are not dry, they may become degraded and unusable.
“You have to think about recycling as a commodity like any other that is bought and sold,” said Jackson. “The product that is not-so-clean and of good quality won’t be sold as much. We have to think about our recycling the same way.”
Republic has found that many consumers don’t know the basic steps they can take to keep their recyclables in a condition that makes them a likely candidate for reuse. The 2017 campaign is designed to help increase awareness.
“When we talk to people about it it really resonates as to why they are doing it,” said Jackson. “A big piece of it is, I think, for a long time we haven’t been as transparent as an industry as to how recycling really works.”
In Oregon, for example, all plastics are processed by hand. At the processing facilities materials are put on a conveyer belt that moves 100 feet per minute. Workers have to be able to quickly and easily identify types and sizes of materials to sort accordingly. Having materials empty, clean, and dry helps weed out contaminants that don’t get recycled.
Common mistakes made by consumers using co-mingled bins include the notion that styrofoam is recyclable. Republic does not recycle styrofoam products and has to remove all such materials at processing facilities. Also a common mistake is including plastic bags or plastic films from packaging.
“Plastic bags sort of float around in the air like plastic tumbleweed in the facility,” said Jackson. “Every day at a certain time they have to shut down and have people clean out the plastics stuck in the machines.”
Such plastics should be discarded in labeled containers at the Corvallis facility, or at grocery stores with designated bins. According to Jackson, these plastics are valuable if clean and a commodity to the industry, but they need to be recycled correctly.
As Republic moves into a new year and continues to focus on sustainability, they hope to stay ahead of the industry with this initiative. All Republic customers will be informed of further details and tips in a newsletter to be sent later this month.
No comments:
Post a Comment