Following a plastic water bottle
Ever feel smug when you toss a plastic water bottle into the recycling bin, proud that you’ve “done your part” to help the planet?
Yeah, me, too.
Ever take that feeling a bit further and marry it with curiosity to see what happens afterward? Where does that bottle go? What happens to it, and all the other recycled materials?
Not long ago, I succumbed to my curiosity and was shocked at how little I knew. I’d assumed so much, yet a trip to our nearest MRF (material recovery facility) wasn’t to the facility 10 miles away. It was nearly an hour, my first misconception of many.
Entering the MRF parking lot, I saw dozens of bales of crushed materials 10, 12, 15 feet high. When I later asked if those were materials from a few days or a week, I was informed all those bales were from ONE DAY. And I was there at midday. This facility processes 700. tons. of material. every. single. day. That’s 40 truckloads of finished product per day.
Whoa.
In North Carolina, our raw material (aka, recycled goods) are mixed into single stream, which means we don’t have to sort it all. That works well for travel and transport but it then requires manual separation along with machine separation at the facility. Cardboard, mixed paper, aluminum and H2O bottles are all baled, but for obvious reasons, no glass. (There’s even a term for the increasing amount of cardboard being processed: “Amazon Effect” thanks to the uptick in online ordering.)
From there, they go to a secondary processor where the material is broken down further. Plastics, for example, can be used to create items like fleece and carpet.
MRFs are vertically integrated, using their technology and know-how to reduce the footprint of their products. It is, they admit, tough to strike a balance between minimal packaging and packaging strong enough to withstand pressure seals, altitude drops and freshness challenges during transport and shelving.
Multiple machines work in tandem to sort through the recyclables. Cardboard sorters, glass breakers, conveyor belts that “shoot” lighter objects over the top into separate containers, magnets for steel, air repellants for aluminum, and scanners for PET products are all part of the process. Not to mention the hand sorters bent over conveyor belts laden with an array of materials that sneak through or can’t be categorized.
Seeing these crazy materials in the recycling area are a powerful reminder that recycling is ultimately accomplished through a trifecta of human labor, the producer, and the consumer before it even gets to the recycling facilities.
Why can’t plastic bags be recycled?
I used to think it was because of what they were made of, but alas, it’s much simpler than that. Plastic bags are known as “tanglers” — and they are considered the #1 Tangler — because of their tendency to get tangled in part of the machinery that reminded me of oversized bicycle chain links. Plastic bags, ropes, cords, hoses, even VHS tapes, and similar items fall into the Tangler category.
Tangled items require that the system is stopped and workers have to physically climb onto these screens. The more items that are entangled, the more frequent the stoppages, detrimental when you’re processing 700+ tons a day.
Now you know why plastic bags, bread bags, cereal bags, etc, cannot be recycled. Resist the temptation to bag your other recycled materials, because if they’re in a bag, chances are they won’t be accepted. Of course, the best solution is to reduce the number of bags we use, BUT if you do want to recycle your plastic bags, most local grocery stores have facilities to handle them. Just look for a box usually located near the front of the store. There you can recycle plastic bags, bread bags, bags from paper towels and toilet paper, and more. Otherwise, your plastic bags have a direct ticket to the landfill where breakdown is nearly impossible.
What shocked me the most?
2/3 of the products processed have NO VALUE. That, in turn, means the MRF has to pay (!) to get rid of nearly 70% of what is brought in to the facility. After it’s been picked up and transported and run through the machines. 70%!
To be fair, even though much is shipped out, MRFs are making concerted efforts to recycle materials to produce their own products, particularly with ramifications of other countries no longer accepting our raw materials. Our MRF, for example, is starting to include PET-based clamshell packages to reuse them for fresh fruit packaging.
My biggest takeaway?
I admit I was overwhelmed by all the waste. I understand quite clearly now that recycling is NOT the key. REDUCING what we use is the biggest step we can make, and that starts with our shopping habits. Rethinking packaged goods we routinely buy — how much plastic is used? How much extra packaging? Even our online buying habits — how can we consolidate purchases into fewer deliveries and boxes?
I’m far more mindful of what I use and how I dispose of items, but I have a long way to go. Needless to say that smug feeling of “recycling to help the planet” no longer sustains my semblance of peace of mind like reducing does. What is one step you can take today to reduce the waste you create?
