Recycling Service is Back: What We Learned Along the Way
Posted on 04/22/19 in The Neighborhood
University Circle Inc. offers a waste and recycling program for the institutions and businesses located in the Circle. Last year, the waste management company that provides this service abruptly decided to cancel recycling for us and many others in Greater Cleveland. We successfully lobbied to get recycling services returned, but the journey to get there came with an eye-opening look inside the waste and recycling industry.
The Big Picture
What comes to mind when you hear the word recycling? Green trees? The well-known recycling symbol? A healthier, happier Earth? For me, it’s always the popular 90s animated television show, “Captain Planet”. Those are typically the answers you'd hear throughout our community but the reality is recycling is an international, multi-billion dollar industry. Similar to the stock market, there are ups and downs because recyclables are commodities and eventually those ups and downs are felt by the general consumer - you and me. In the words of Diane Bickett, Executive Director of the Cuyahoga County Solid Waste District, "Recycling is an industry fueled by environmental responsibility but ultimately driven by economics." Unfortunately for all of us, the recycling industry we see today is in the dumps.
The reason recycling was working was because there was value in the product and there was an international market for it. Bottles, metal, paper, etc. all had a value and therefore, a company would be interested in getting into the business. Although there was contamination, the value of the commodities was high enough to offset the cost of collecting the recyclables and removing the contamination. The resale value of recycled goods offset the cost waste companies would pay (either from our cities or commercial users) to take our recycled goods to facilities to sort them. In 2017, a recycling company collecting mixed paper could resell a bale for about $100 per ton. Today, that same company is paying close to $15 or $20 per ton just to get rid of it (AP: Market forces put America’s recycling industry in the dumps).
Why Did the Markets Change?
China, and other developing countries, no longer want our waste. China, the top destination for the world’s recyclables, began refusing shipments in 2017 due to high contamination. They now demand a better quality of material. Beyond the basics, recycling has also gotten sloppy. Constantly changing messages in today’s technology driven world has led to a misinformation campaign unlike any other. Consumers are seeing social media posts from individuals and organizations in different counties, cities and states – which likely have different recycling protocols – that lead to further confusion. “Do I need to rinse out everything?” “How can I tell if there is too much grease in my pizza box?” “What about this red solo cup?” “Keep caps on or caps off?” ...and these questions are from the people that are invested and want to do good. I'm sure you can imagine what's happening in the homes and offices of people that might not care all that much.
The more contamination we see in our recycling streams, the lower the value of the product. You wouldn't want to buy dirty clothes from a store - and if you did, you'd certainly expect to pay far less than clean clothes. That same logic applies to the companies that purchase our plastics, paper, metal, and cardboard. Because of contaminated recycled materials, companies want to pay less and less. Beyond that, sorting facilities are seeing more and more overhead costs. Plastic bags are getting tangled in sorting machines. Greasy pizza boxes and spilled salad dressings are turning what was marketable materials into garbage. Sheer laziness by some result in bags of actual garbage ending up at a recycling facility, which in turn has to be driven back to a landfill.
What's with 'Wish-Cycling'?
A colleague and I were casually discussing the complications in the recycling industry and it led to her telling me a story about her mother. With only the best intentions, her mother was constantly throwing things in her recycling bin that shouldn’t be there. She hated the thought of something going to the landfill that could have been recycled but this wishful thinking – or “wish-cycling” – is threatening the future of sustainable recycling.
How do we fix it?
Education campaigns for an entire community are difficult to achieve so imagine how difficult it is to effectively implement a reeducation campaign. Unfortunately, that is where we are today. County and city governments are doing all they can to reeducate their citizens on what can and cannot be recycled. The Cuyahoga County Solid Waste District launched a campaign in 2016 to begin the process of reeducating Cuyahoga residents and cleaning up the recycling streams. The goal was to simplify the message, reduce confusion and contamination.
In the meantime, those of us that care need to do our parts if we want to keep the option to recycle in our homes and offices. Now is the time to err on the side of caution. If you have to question if it’s trash or recycling, throw it in the trash and seek out the correct answer later. Pay attention to what others are doing around you and don’t hesitate to educate a colleague or a family member when they accidentally throw something into the bin that shouldn’t be there. We all need to be more vigilant because ultimately that one piece of trash that ends up in your recycling bin is further elevating the risk of losing the option to recycle, at least in the traditional way we know today, all together.
For information and resources on recycling and waste management in Cuyahoga County, visit www.CuyahogaRecycles.org or call 216-443-3749.
Back to Blog