Let’s get trashed
Trash, garbage, rubbish, refuse, call it what you will, it means something we don’t want any more and have the compulsion to throw away so as not to have to deal with it. The recyclable stuff, we hope, makes it to a processing place that solves the issue for us in an environmentally friendly way, and relieves our collective consciences. The other stuff that is biodegradable and decays relatively fast, we trust, will be dumped where it can break down, away from our noses and feed the soil.
At BetterWorld, we’ve set ourselves the goal of creating a business that doesn’t contribute to landfill. We only supply goods in reusable, biodegradable or recyclable packaging so as to make it easier for our customers to do the right thing.
So, what really happens with the contents of recycle bins, as well as the other bins filled with everything else that we want to forget about? The answer to this is not as simple as one might hope. But first, a little background on where we stand.
What on Earth?
In history, you may come across terms like the bronze age, the golden age, the age of enlightenment, so you might be compelled to ponder what name would best suit the age we’re living in now. Well, it doesn’t take much thought to figure out the prevalence of one particular material that would lend its name to our times: plastic. Yes, we’re in the ‘golden’ age of plastics.
Never has any material been so ubiquitous in our daily use as plastics. And it’s getting to the point where the macro is becoming micro. Plastic has now been found even in our blood, in the form of nano particles. Since plastic is not something that animals or humans have had to deal with before, unsurprisingly it can wreak havoc with our hormones and produce mutations that translate into epigenetic inheritance of obesity from one generation to the next, as well as reproductive diseases. There are plenty of studies that pertain to the fact that we, as humans, are not built to be ingesting or breathing (yes, breathing) in the stuff.
But here we will discuss the looming mountains of non-biodegradable garbage that we are generating, with no clear-cut solution in sight. The reason for most of our garbage not being biodegradable is plastic - which is made from crude oil, natural gas and coal derivatives, all of which are non-renewable resources, and which are combined into hardy and noxious plastics that can take up to 500 years to decay.
Will recycling save us?
Multinational companies that produce plastic or the materials to make it, are not interested in slowing down, because that’s how they make their money.
Garbage disposal companies collect, sort, sell or burn it, so they’re not in the business of creating environmentally friendly alternatives. At best, they sell the sorted stuff to companies that process it for further use.
Us, consumers, have been conditioned to use plastic products to the point that we need to think hard before we can unlearn the habits of storing everything in plastic, or what is even harder, try to buy anything that doesn’t come in plastic, apart from fresh produce. There are plenty of people who are worried about what we are doing to the planet, but until it becomes an economic problem, it’s hard to make the big guys hear.
But we cannot let cynicism and hopelessness dictate the future. We must do what we can, at least so as not to contribute to the problem.
Know your numbers
So, what is plastic? Petrochemical plants convert compounds derived from oil and gas - such as ethane, propane, butane, and methane - into chemicals like ethylene, propylene, butadiene, and methanol.
These chemicals are then used to make various types of plastics, industrial chemicals, agricultural pesticides.
While we all know what ‘plastic’ means in general, when it comes down to the way that we dispose of our plastics, it’s not so simple. It’s a game of numbers. According to the Department of Environmental Conservation (DEC) the numbers shown inside those triangular arrows we are all familiar with was developed by the Society of Plastics Industry. Each number refers to different types of resins used in making plastic products and containers that have different characteristics. This numbering system also denotes whether a particular type is biodegradable or recyclable. The DEC lists the following types of plastic, and a short explanation about how each type may be recycled.
1 - PET (Polyethylene terephthalate) is used in the production of soft drink bottles, peanut butter jars. PET can be recycled into fiberfill for sleeping bags, carpet fibers, rope, pillows.
2 - HDPE (High-density polyethylene) is found in milk jugs, detergent and shampoo bottles. HDPE can be recycled into non-food bottles and recycling bins.
3 - V (Polyvinyl chloride) PVC is used in personal care products and other household goods. PVC can be recycled into drainage and irrigation pipes.
4 - LDPE (Low-density polyethylene) is used in bubble wrap, shrink wrap and bread bags. LDPE can be recycled into furniture and flooring.
5 - PP (Polypropylene) is used in dairy products tubs. PP can be recycled into brooms, brushes and garden rakes.
6 - PS (Polystyrene) is unique in that it comes in many different forms. It can be found as both a rigid, clear plastic as well as a foamed material where the plastic has been “expanded” by air into a foam. Polystyrene is also used in other different forms for construction and building projects.
Expanded Polystyrene foam is commonly found in disposable food containers used for prepared food and beverages such as takeout containers, cups, plates, bowls and trays as well as loose fill packaging materials (packing peanuts) and trays used for packaged raw meat, fish and eggs.
Currently, the majority of local recycling programs for residential areas do not accept this material for recycling because it can be difficult to sort, can decrease the value of other recyclables through contamination, and is not economically viable.
7 - Other - This category is a Mixture of various plastics
Plastic bags are a type of film plastic and film plastics should NOT be put in household recycling bins. They must be clean and not have any receipts in them after which they should only be put in special film plastics recycling bins that stores must provide customers by law, in a visible, easily accessible location. According to the DEC, if film plastics collection containers are not available in a regulated store, the DEC advises to email recycling@dec.ny.gov or call (518) 402-8706 (they will need the store name and address). Acceptable Film Plastics for Return to Retail Film Plastic Recycling include grocery bags, retail bags with string ties removed, stretch/shrink wrap, zip top food storage bags, bubble wrap, air pillows found inside shipping packages (must be deflated), furniture and electronic wrap, etc.
As far as the numbers designated to each type of plastic, the DEC also points out that even when packaging or products have these symbols stamped on them, it does not necessarily mean the item is recyclable in our local recycling program. For that, we are told that we must check our local recycling coordinator to find out what types of plastic containers are accepted.
So at BetterWord, that’s what we did. We asked Recycling Coordinator at Orange County Division of Environmental Facilities and Services Ermin Siljkovic about the challenges that the recycling business has been facing through the Covid 19 lockdown.
Challenges
Siljkovic said that “over the better part of 2020, we have seen a steep drop in participation from commercial sources due to the lockdown and a glut of material coming from households, especially mixed paper and cardboard due to the increase in online purchases. There is also the potential of increased contamination of recycling with the sudden prevalence of PPE (masks, gloves, etc.) in the solid waste stream”.
Orange County has three operating transfer stations and, according to Siljkovic, “on a busy day, up to four or five trailers of Single Stream Recyclables get sent to Albany and one to two trailers of Mixed Paper.” Single-stream recycling refers to a system that doesn’t require consumers to do any sorting. All recyclable items (paper fibers, plastics, metals, and other containers) are placed in the same bin and mixed in the collection truck. These materials are later sorted out at a Materials Recovery Facility (MRF).
BUT recyclable garbage is only recyclable if it is clean. More on that later.
And one might ask, what happens to plastics that don’t have the recycling symbol on them?
“The Plastics Resin Code has little bearing on determining whether something is recyclable or not. While #s 1 and 2 may more than likely be a bottle or jug that can be accepted as recycling, #6 and #7 may be Polystyrene or a “compostable” plastic that is not accepted. The basic rule of thumb we should follow for plastic is that it must be a rigid plastic container and not be foam, film, or a straw,” writes Siljkovic. He advises that residents should check out the Single Stream Recycling Guide.
When it comes to the number 6 type plastic, PS (Polystyrene), it is not currently accepted for recycling by the majority of local recycling programs for residents “because it can be difficult to sort, can decrease the value of other recyclables through contamination, and is not economically viable,” writes Siljkovic, adding that “the inevitable end point for Polystyrene is in a landfill or incinerator.”
Polystyrene is particularly tricky because in the environment it breaks down into small pieces that can be ingested by animals, clogging their digestive system. Polystyrene foam and other plastics that are ingested by marine animals may also bioaccumulate up the food chain.
Incineration - is there anything good about it?
According to a National Geographic article, incineration plants can emit toxic pollutants such as dioxins, acid gases, and heavy metals - none of which are easy substances for our human lungs to cope with. And even though there are special filters to capture noxious compounds, this implies compliance with the latest technology so as to ensure proper filtration. Countries that are already lacking environmental laws, or strict enforcement, may try to save money on emissions controls. The article also points out the incineration also produces a constant stream of greenhouse gases. “In 2016, U.S. waste incinerators released the equivalent of 12 million tons of carbon dioxide, more than half of which came from plastics.”
Also, do we want to support an economic model which uses non-renewable fossil fuels that already pollute the natural environment when used to produce plastics, that we use one time only, before we burn and produce even more toxic waste in that process? This is what is happening right now. Realistically speaking, even if plastics stop being produced right now, we would still need years of cleaning up to get rid of all the waste in our landfills and water ways.
The promise of compostable cups
Feeding into our preference for disposable products, there is a movement of sorts that seeks to make disposable containers that are at least compostable, if not destined for multiple use. When something is compostable it means that it can be used as compost when it decays. But, at the risk of sounding like a total killjoy, compostable cups are … not that compostable. In theory, yes, they are. But what people don’t realize is that these kinds of cups take years to break down and throwing them out in landfill doesn’t solve the problem.
According to the article “The compostable cup conundrum”, in practice, compostable cups break down in an industrial-scale composting facility with actively managed piles of compost under controlled conditions, and fed a diet of digestive microbes. If such conditions are met, polylactic acid (PLA) which is a material processed from the starch of plants such as corn, sugar cane and sugar beet used to manufacture compostable cups will break down in less than two months.
Another scenario would be if someone chooses to compost them in their backyard compost heap, in which case “it could easily take more than a year”.
However, the deal breaker is that if these kinds of cups are accidentally sent to a landfill and buried, it could take over a century for them to break down. Not at all what a conscientious consumer wants to know when they choose to use compostable cups. To further exacerbate the complications, if PLA cups go into a plastics recycling bin, they will contaminate the recycling process. Conversely, if plastic cups that should be recycled go into containers that are headed to the composting facilities, they contaminate that process too. The answer is more education so that well-meaning consumers can actually ‘do good’, as well as more facilities that break down compostable materials.
Where does US garbage go?
But back to recycling. The looming conclusion here is that in the most optimistic scenario, where everyone cleans their recyclable plastic containers, stores them away from water with the caps off, the percentage that is recycled is still very small. According to the United States Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) in 2018, municipal solid waste (MSW) plastics comprised 35.7 million tons in the United States, which represents 12.2 percent of municipal solid waste (MSW). The total amount of plastics combusted 2018 was 5.6 million tons, landfills received 27 million tons of plastic, and only a little over 3 million tons was actually recycled. A graph of Plastic waste management spanning decades starting from the 1960 to 2018 shows a grim picture. In the 1960’s 390,000 tons of plastic waste was landfilled - data regarding recycling or combustion amounts is not available. So, our plastic waste has grown to be over 90 times more since the 1960’s.
According to an extensive article published in The Guardian a team of reporters in 11 countries found that in 2018 the equivalent of 68,000 shipping containers of American plastic recycling were exported from the US to developing countries. These countries are not the kind that have stellar environmental records - places such as Bangladesh, Cambodia, Laos, Ghana, Ethiopia, Kenya and Senegal already face problems in dealing with their own waste due to poor regulations and mismanagement. Exports of plastic waste to Turkey also increased exponentially after 2017 when China restricted imports of plastic waste from the US. The move was followed by Vietnam, Malaysia and Thailand that also banned imports of plastic waste from the US.
The Guardian article also points out that even in the best-case scenario, the plastics recycling business is not that lucrative because virgin plastic that is higher quality, and therefore preferable by manufacturers, costs only marginally more per ton ($900 to $1,000) than recycled plastic ($800).
In a nut shell, there is no easy way to either recycle or get rid of plastic waste. Even if we ship it abroad, it ends up wreaking havoc with people’s health, the food chain, the environment, and ultimately, it just comes back through our food supply, if not other bad karma. What goes around, really does come around.
Is ‘reduce, reuse, recycle’ still the way to go?
So, what can we do to reduce the burden on our towns’ and cities’ public works departments and ultimately, our planet? The simple answer is: a lot more than we think.
Just as fast as one household’s garbage can increase due to buying certain products in stores and online, it can also decrease if we compost our vegetables scraps and don’t let our food contaminate the small amount of recyclable plastic that, we hope, gets recycled.
Here are some more things that can easily become good habits if we want to try:
Use cups that are for multiple uses instead of single-use
Wrap and store our foods in paper and glass, opting out of using cling wrap and plastic containers
Wash recyclable plastic containers so that they can actually be recycled
Opt out of plastic or paper shopping bags - use cloth and wash them now and then
There are also loose organizations such as Repair Cafe Hudson Valley that seeks to share traditional repair know-how and skills with people interested in keeping household items such as mechanical, electrical and other stuff in working condition for longer.
Clothing is a major contributor to landfill refuse. The rise of fast fashion is a Goliath of a subject to tackle and for that reason, best left for later. Suffice to say, fast fashion is something that needs to slow down. Siljkovic advises participating in take back programs for clothing and textiles, which helps reduce the volume in curbside refuse receptacles. Residents should familiarize themselves with drop-off locations for acceptable clothing and textiles that can be found at Re-Clothe NY.
When it comes to recycling though, both Siljkovic and the Director of Public Works at City of Port Jervis, Jack Farr, warn against getting overzealous with what is recyclable. Farr wrote to Better World, that the biggest issue is “the thought that everything is recyclable which it is not.”
Ultimately, hoping that something is recyclable, not checking whether it truly is, could actually contaminate the whole batch of items that are potentially recyclable, resulting in everything being dumped in landfill. The reason is that an item that is wrongly thought to be recyclable is dumped in the recycling bin, may not be able to be processed at the local MRF, it could potentially damage their equipment, or require extra staff to presort items in an effort to avoid such damage. And when recycling is no longer economically feasible, some local governments may choose to end their recycling programs. This is clearly not what anyone intends to happen when throwing out such items in the recycling bin, but due to a lack of information, it is the harsh reality of what actually happens. So due diligence is key.
Siljkovic concurs with Farr: “When in doubt throw it out … the phenomenon of “wishcycling” or using the recycling bin as a second trash bin is a great contributing factor to the recent recycling crisis”. The takeaway is to simply check that the number on the back of each container to see if it can be recycled, and make sure to clean it of any food residue before throwing it into the recycle bin.
What is even more preferable though, as a long-term solution to the tons of non-recyclable waste with which we’re suffocating our living environment, is changing our habits of using disposable products or materials. When we as consumers speak with our dollars, big business will start to listen. It’s just the nature of business.
The attitude of ‘out of sight, out of mind’ is not serving us well as a country, and as a planet. We are all individuals with our own will-power to affect change. We can start small - start with ourselves and don’t give up.
For a list of recyclable refuse. www.orangecountygov.com