Pictured from left: Karen Bandhauer, The Recycling Partnership; Diane Bickett, Cuyahoga County Solid Waste District; and Chris Coady, ReCommunity Inc.
Reducing contamination at material recovery facilities (MRFs) begins with the customer. During a session titled “Recycling Education and the Bottom Line” at the 2015 Paper & Plastic’s Recycling Conference in Chicago, speakers provided several examples of effective tools being employed throughout many communities to improve the quality of the recyclables collected at the curb.
Chris Coady, director of bidding and governmental affairs for ReCommunity Inc., shared some of the strategies the company has used in its MRFs that have effectively improved the quality of recyclables it is receiving for processing. The Charlotte, North Carolina-based company, operates 28 MRFs in several parts of the country as well as three transfer stations.
“Shifting consumer preferences and new packaging designs are causing a significant change in the composition of waste streams processed by MRFs,” he noted. “Nonrecyclable residue and contaminants are consistently high across facilities, lowering plant efficiency and the value of commodities produced.”
Coady broke down the recyclers who are causing contamination at the MRF into three categories:
- Wishful recycling – defined as residents tossing items in the recycling bin/cart, hoping materials can be recycled, even if not officially acceptable.
- Unsafe materials – which includes items such as yard waste, wood, hoses, wires, cables as well as biowaste items, medical waste, diapers and needles; and
- Household waste – residents in some areas are simply treating the recycling cart as an extra trash can, contaminating the stream with food waste, dirt and plastic bags.
Coady estimated stream composition changes can directly cost a typical MRF up to nearly $100,000 per month in lost productivity because of slower throughput, higher residue rates and increased downtime.
“We have to enforce more stringent rules with our customers,” Coady said.
ReCommunity MRFs conduct inbound quality inspections and record photos and data on electronic tablets. Coady showed two different educational tools ReCommunity has used to educate customers. One included photographs of materials that are unacceptable for recycling programs, and the other highlighted the importance of keeping needles out of the recycling bin, which pose a safety hazard to workers. He also pointed to a flyer produced by the National Waste & Recycling Association, Washington, which can be tailored to a program’s specific needs.
Haulers can also be equipped with software to flag loads that contain a high number of contaminants.
Coady also emphasized the importance of public-private partnerships (P3s) in addressing the contamination issue.
Karen Bandhauer, project director, The Recycling Partnership, Falls Church, Virginia, echoed Coady’s comments. She outlined what she called “The Six Aspects of Healthy Recovery,” which are:
- committed communities;
- public private partnerships;
- supportive policy;
- robust MRF processing;
- strong end markets; and
- thoughtful outreach.
The Recycling Partnership leverages grants and technical assistance to transform the U.S. curbside recycling system.
She pointed to a recycling study that showed the overall recycling rate in Michigan was 38 percent, but the participation rate among those who had access to curbside programs was 67 percent. What brought the statewide rate down was that subscription-based programs only had a 15 percent recycling rate.
“One of the immediate solutions there is to try to move subscription programs over to equitable access to recycling,” Bandhauer said.
Collection costs are a significant part of a municipal budget around recycling,” noted Bandhauer. “The more that you can drive high participation with a wide range of materials so you have full carts and convenient services and maximizing the effect of your program you are driving down your collection costs.”
Bandhauer also emphasized the importance of consistent messages between elected officials and call centers so the right information is getting to the customers.
While about 15 percent of the population is opposed to recycling, another 20-25 percent are what Bandhauer described as die-hard recyclers. Most people, about 60 percent of the population fall into the middle category of “sometime recyclers.”
Figuring out how to get to the 60 percent in the middle to recycle frequently and correctly is the goal, she said.
The Recycling Partnership website recyclingpartnership.org offers tools that are adaptable to local governments, haulers and operators.
One community in particular who has been working with the Recycling Partnership is Cuyahoga County, Ohio, in which the city of Cleveland is located. Diane Bickett, executive director, Cuyahoga County Solid Waste District, discussed the challenges of overseeing the recycling programs that vary from municipality to municipality in the 59 local governments the district oversees with a total population of 1.3 million.
All the communities are served by four privately operated MRFs – Republic Services in Oberlin, Ohio; Kimble Cos. in Twinsburg, Ohio; Rumpke in Columbus, Ohio; and Waste Management in Akron, Ohio.
More than 1.4 million tons of material are recycled annually from residents in Cuyahoga County.
Bicket said the county made “a very big mistake” six years ago when it developed a community recycling grant so that individual communities could develop their own recycling awareness materials.
“What we found was cities really are not good at coming up with their own recycling education materials,” she said. “Some are really terrible at it.”
Bickett added that in addition to producing ineffective material, often the information would be incorrect. Right now, she said Cuyahoga County has too many messengers too much resident confusion about what can go in the bin versus what can go somewhere else.
“In talking to our MRFs our material quality leave a lot to be desired,” she said. “Our contamination rate is up to 24 percent in some cases.”
The goal in working with The Recycling Partnership is for the Cuyahoga County Solid Waste District to take control of the message delivery back, with a goal of increases participation by reducing confusion and result in increased participation and improved material quality.
The district has been testing some initial messaging and will work with a local advertising agency to produce the education materials. They are also working with the four MRFs two develop a common list that will be deployed county-wide. This includes items the MRFs do not want, including needles, tanglers, plastic bags, shredded paper, scrap metal, textiles and propane tanks were all identified at items.
There is a different level of interest among residents so the message will start with the simplest message to help connect people to the idea of recycling, which could be a billboard or a bus ad. That will be followed direct mail piece, and those who have a deeper interested would be directed to a website for more information. People will change behavior if it is the social norm, she said, noting that more people will recycle at the curb if they see their neighbors doing it.
The campaign is expected to launch next year and will roll out for three years. The solid waste district will develop the materials for communities in a template form rather than leaving it up to the cities to develop their own recycling message.
“We are trying to take control over what information goes out,” she said.
Recycling Today Associate Editor Megan Workman moderated the session, which took place as part of the 2015 Paper & Plastics Recycling Conference, hosted by the Recycling Today Media Group, Oct. 14-16 at the Marriott Downtown Magnificent Mile in Chicago. Next year’s conference will be Oct. 19-21 at the same venue. More information will be available at www.RecyclingTodayEvents.com as it is confirmed.