What not to recycle
In addition to being
wowed by the combination mechanical and human-operated sorting system,
the biggest takeaway from our
tour of the local recycling facility was what was best not tossed
in the recycling bin.
Our tour guide prefaced
his warnings with the statement that every recycling facility is
different. And single-stream facilities like theirs (where you deposit
all of the recyclables in a single container) are more particular than
ones where the consumer sorts their own trash.
With those caveats out
of the way, here's what I shouldn't have been recycling:
Don't bag your
recyclables because the line workers will have to tear the bag apart
before the machines can start sorting. And, whatever you do, don't put
your recyclables in a black bag --- they workers will assume it's trash
and throw it out for safety reasons.
Anything smaller than a
business card tends to get lost in the shuffle. That means shredded
paper is a no-no. Plastic bottles should be crushed then the cap should
be screwed back on.
Similarly, heavy scrap
metal just doesn't work on the assembly line. Our guide told us about
the metal from a ratchet strap that got caught in the line and messed
up a $40,000 motor. Yikes!
Tanglers are also
trouble. That's anything like string, cords, or rope that will wind
around various materials (and parts of the assembly line), clogging up
the works.
Finally, don't stuff
different types of recyclables inside each other (like filling up
cardboard boxes with plastic bottles). The materials won't get
separated properly and will result in contamination in the finished
product.
All of that said, a
non-profit like our local recycling and trash pickup facility manages
to salvage 91% of the materials that go on the assembly line, finding
buyers despite the fact China no longer wants our waste. Great work,
Athens-Hocking Recycling!
(And one final piece of
fun trivia --- did you know Mark wanted to be a garbageman when he was
a kid?)
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About us: Anna Hess and Mark Hamilton spent over a decade living self-sufficiently in the mountains of Virginia before moving north to start over from scratch in the foothills of Ohio. They've experimented with permaculture, no-till gardening, trailersteading, home-based microbusinesses and much more, writing about their adventures in both blogs and books.
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