Recycling

The Zero Waste Center We All Need

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Day 333 – Kamikatsu, Japan is a beautiful mountain region that has a total population of 1,500. In 2003, Kamikatsu became the first in Japan to issue a “Zero Waste Declaration.” The idea is to prevent the waste from happening at it’s origin. Making changes to manufacturing, logistics, and consumption systems is key to reducing waste.

The town residents held many discussions and decided to have each household compost kitchen scraps and bring other wastes to the town’s waste station. Waste was initially separated into nine different categories, eventually increasing to 34 categories with the start of the Zero Waste Declaration and then 45 categories today. The recycling rate surpasses 80%.

“Kamikatsu Zero Waste Center embodies the principle of Zero Waste as an earth-friendly complex facility that adds the functions of education, research, and communication to a waste-sorting treatment plant, aiming to recreate community and develop the region.” – nakam.info

The Zero Waste Center not only collects 45 different categories for recycling or reuse, but it also has a hotel, a community hall, a laboratory, and a resell shop. It is truly the blueprint for sustainability. Every town needs a Zero Waste Center. It may not be located in a lush mountain region, but it will make an immense positive impact on the planet.

Tomorrow, a playground that helps flooding issues.

Let’s Make Sense of Chicago’s Recycling

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Day 319 – It’s National Recycling Day! So, I thought I would write about the Recycle By City website. Nine cities participate, Chicago being one of those nine.

The Chicago Recycling Guide helps answer all those questions regarding what can go into your recycling bin and what should stay out. It breaks items down into categories.

Accepted Items in the Blue Cart

  1. Cartons – put lids back on cartons
  2. Glass bottles and jars – labels can stay on
  3. Metal cans and foil – labels can stay on cans
  4. Paper and cardboard – free of food and grease
  5. Plastic containers – put caps back on (pumps and nozzles can not be recycled in blue bin)

Unaccepted Items in the Blue Cart

  1. Bagged recyclables – keep recyclables loose in the bin
  2. Plastic bags and film – recycle plastic bags and film at grocery stores and Target
  3. Food or liquids – consider composting food waste
  4. Scrap metal – recycle at scrap metal recycler
  5. Cords, cables, hoses or chains

Call 311 for Pickup

  1. Yard waste – bag yard trimmings in a bag, do not include rocks, dirt or gravel
  2. Leaves – bag up and call 311
  3. Furniture – try to donate when possible
  4. Major appliances
  5. Mattresses

Hazardous, does not go into recycle or garbage can and can be brought to the Household Chemical and Computer Recycling Facility (1150 N. North Branch Street)

  1. Rechargeable batteries
  2. Electronic waste
  3. Pharmaceuticals
  4. Household chemicals
  5. Metal tanks
  6. Fluorescent bulbs & tubes
  7. Oil based paint and stain
  8. Motor Oil

Before we can start to think about recycling we need to consider, refusing, reducing, and reusing.

Tomorrow, green hotels and what they’re about.

Do your recyclables need to be clean?

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Day 314 – Choosing to recycle is a big step in helping the planet. However, it can get confusing. One question that many people have is, “How clean do I need to get my recyclables?” The folks at Earth911 put together a guide to help answer that question and they broke it down by type of material.

Jars, Bottle and Cans

  1. These usually only need a quick rinsing.
  2. If dealing with something like mayonnaise or peanut butter, try to get the majority out, but it does not need to be spotless.
  3. For stickier stuff like honey or jelly, give it a good scrubbing with soap, so you can remove most if not all of the substance.
  4. You do not need to remove labels from jars, bottles and cans.
  5. Allow these containers to dry if you are placing them with mixed recyclables (like paper or cardboard).

Cardboard and Paper

  1. When dealing with cardboard, like a pizza box, recycle what you can. Usually the lid is without grease or food, and can be put with your recyclables.
  2. Don’t be ready to trash a box if you happened to spill a little food on it, while cooking. If it’s not a significant amount, still get that box to the recycle bin.
  3. When it comes to paper, crumbled or wrinkled paper can go into a recycle bin. However, shredded paper can not.

Plastic Bags and Film

  1. If a bag has food on it, make sure you clean it.
  2. Make sure they are dry.
  3. Some crumbs would not hinder the recycling process, but be sure to shake out bags before recycling.
  4. Don’t put your plastic bags and film in your curbside recycling. Find a location (most grocery stores and Target) that will accept them.

By keeping contaminants out of your recycling bin the better chance your items will get recycled.

Tomorrow, drinkable ocean water.

Top Cities with Successful Recycling Programs

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Day 307 – After China banned the import of recycled material from the U.S., our rates have declined. Many municipalities have been struggling to meet demand due to the sheer weight of material that needs to be processed and the labor-intensive need to separate clean from “contaminated” recyclables, due to Americans’ imperfect recycling habits. However, there are some cities that are doing something right and have seen their recycling rates increase over the years.

Here is the list shared by rts.com, along with a brief summary of their efforts (shared on the rts.com website)

  1. Phoenix, Arizona – Phoenix is promoting real change both by setting realistic diversion rates that encourage accurate measurement – unlike some cities and companies that set unrealistically high goals – and by acknowledging and budgeting in for recycling and compost market realities to ensure that materials are actually recovered. Phoenix does this by forging creative outside partnerships, including with Arizona State University (ASU) and the Resource Innovation and Solutions Network incubator (RISN). To date, RSIN has incubated 16 companies and created 74 jobs with a total of $5.17 million in revenue generated.
  2. New York, New York – Developed through a collaborative process in 2016, the zero waste guidelines encourage architects, planners, developers, city officials, waste haulers, recycling experts, building managers, business owners, and the general public to work together to refine existing systems and build new ones.
  3. Los Angeles, California – LA’s Solid Waste Integrated Resources Plan (better known as the Zero Waste Plan) aims to achieve the goal of 90% waste diversion by 2025, rising to 97% by 2030. Introduced in 2013, the plan highlights both manufacturer and consumer responsibilities in the fight for a cleaner city. Resources for businesses and private citizens are available at the Rethink LA portal, where advice and guidance on waste reduction and recycling can be downloaded. Additionally, the CalRecycle website offers further information on wider state policies and programs.
  4. San Francisco, California – The city introduced one of the first composting collection programs in the US, as well as a plastic bag ban in 2013. Numerous programs and laws now exist to reduce waste and increase recycling, including; the Zero Waste Textile Initiative, the Cigarette Litter Abatement Ordinance, and the Construction and Demolition Ordinance.
  5. Seattle, Washington – Seattle’s commercial recycling program was made mandatory in 2013, and in 2010 it adopted a zero-waste policy that aimed to design and manage products and processes to eliminate landfill and incineration. In addition to this, the city provides numerous resources to help both businesses and citizens recycle more efficiently.
  6. Boise, Idaho – Among Boise’s numerous recycling initiatives, the Hefty® EnergyBag® stands out as particularly innovative, allowing residents to recycle previously non-recyclable plastics by collecting them in an orange bag. Over 550,000 bags have been collected so far.
  7. Portland, Oregon – The City of Portland aims to increase material recovery rates to 90% by 2030, engaging citizens and businesses in a range of initiatives including a comprehensive youth education program. Available free of charge to schools and young adult groups, it includes a broad range of resources designed to raise awareness of recycling, composting, and climate change as a whole aim to ensure that future generations have the tools and skills required to achieve truly zero waste.
  8. San Diego, California – Its Zero Waste Plan is now aiming for “zero” by 2040, with the city heavily investing in new technologies and promoting awareness throughout its communities. This also includes a Resource Recovery Center at the Miramar Landfill to maximize diversion, even at the final stages of the waste management journey.
  9. Boston, Massachusetts – Boston’s Zero Waste initiative was introduced in 2018 and is striving to achieve 80% diversion by 2030. Offering residents and businesses a wealth of information alongside a range of practical toolkits designed to help residents reduce, repair, and recycle materials effectively and efficiently, the city has drastically improved its recycling and material recovery reputation in recent years.
  10. Denver, Colorado – Its recent collaboration with The Recycling Partnership is helping to raise awareness through a range of pilot routes designed to increase the types of materials residents can add to their purple recycling carts. One of these pilots encourages increased aluminum and steel can diversion – with on-the-ground experts assigned to routes, guiding residents by providing information cards detailing how to properly recycle these materials. This information will also be available in mailers, signs, and social media.

Sadly, but not surprisingly, Chicago is not on the list. We are the 3rd largest city in the country, but have still not figured out how to become a leader when it comes to zero waste initiatives and programs that would educate residents and businesses. There is much work to be done.

Tomorrow, the crisis in Madagascar.

There’s Money Available to Help Your Curbside Recycling

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Day 291 – The goal of the Recycling Partnership is to create scalable solutions to packaging and system challenges and to accelerate the shift to the circular economy that uses fewer limited resources. They have given $1.8 million in grants to help meet their goal and to help communities improve recycling. Through its Polypropylene Recycling Coalition, the partnership has given the grant money to six recipients to advance curbside polypropylene (PP) recycling. 

The six companies include:

  • Green Waste, San Jose, California;
  • Murphy Road, Berlin, Connecticut;
  • Palm Beach County, Florida;
  • Pellitteri, Madison, Wisconsin;
  • Sonoco-Raleigh, Raleigh, North Carolina; and,
  • Sonoco-Onslow, Jacksonville, North Carolina

The coalition has helped fund 13 facilities’ recycling efforts, which will positively impact nearly 15 million Americans.  The grants increase the recovery of polypropylene by an estimated 13 million pounds annually to be made into new products. This includes consumer packaging and automotive parts.  

Reducing the use of plastic and increasing recycling rates is a partnership that is a win for the environment.

Tomorrow, recycled plastic with a story that needs to be followed.

Breaking Down the Truth About Plastic

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Day 286 – Charlie Rolsky is a plastic pollution researcher, finishing up his PhD at Arizona State University, and he serves as the Director of Science for Plastic Oceans. Charlie and Plastic Oceans International has created a video series to help educate us all on the plastic pollution problem.

The videos are short and to the point. They cover topics like:

  1. The Rs (Reduce, Reuse, Recycle)
  2. Burning Plastic: The Pros and Cons
  3. Plastic in Our Food…and Bodies
  4. Recycling
  5. Biodegradable Plastics: Working with What We’ve Got

Plastic Oceans International offers many resources to help you better understand the plastic pollution crisis.

The first step in fighting this war on plastic is to educate ourselves on the root of the problem. If we can not see that we all need to change our relationship with plastic, we will never be part of the solution.

Tomorrow, recycling water in office buildings.

Beverage Container Deposit Laws Need to be Nationwide

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Day 277 – It’s not a difficult concept to understand.

  1. When a retailer buys beverages from a distributor, a deposit is paid to the distributor for each container purchased.
  2. The consumer pays the deposit to the retailer when buying the beverage.
  3. The consumer receives a refund when the empty container is returned to a supermarket or other redemption center. 
  4. The distributor then reimburses the retailer or redemption center the deposit amount for each container, plus an additional handling fee in most states.
  5. Unredeemed deposits are either returned to the state, retained by distributors, or used for program administration.

The Can Manufacturers Institute, Glass Packaging Institute and National Association for PET Container Resources have come together to push the idea of a deposit program. The associations say deposit systems lead to higher recycling rates, as well as to better quality material.

“The organizations also say the increase in deposits can decrease litter, provide more pure material beneficial to each of the industries they represent and produce a resilient supply of material needed to make new beverage containers.” – Recycling Today

Ten states plus Guam participate in a deposit program and these programs are making a difference.

“According to the Container Recycling Institute, in 2018, in the 10 states with deposit systems, recycling rates for polyethylene terephthalate (PET) bottles, glass bottles and aluminum beverage cans were 62 percent, 64 percent and 77 percent, respectively. That’s compared with countrywide recovery rates of 28 percent, 40 percent and 46 percent, respectively.” – Recycling Today

The can, glass and plastic companies want their containers back. The only way we can move from a single-use society to a circular economy is to get these highly recyclable materials back to those that can use them again. Otherwise, they will continue ending up in the landfill or incinerator.

Does your state have a deposit law?

Tomorrow, when sustainability and art collide.

What is Cart Tagging?

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Day 268 – Cart tagging involves a group of people that go out and inspect recycle bins. They take note of any contamination that is found in the recycling bins. That information then helps pinpoint where outreach efforts are needed. Those using the cart tagging process have found that having a conversation with residents about what should and should not go into the recycle bins has helped decrease the amount of contaminates and increased the amount of material that can be recycled successfully.

In an article in Resource Recycling, Collin Staub writes about a campaign that started in Centerville, Ohio. The city on Aug. 11 announced the effort, explaining that the project is “mobilizing specially trained staff and volunteers to conduct curbside cart observations. Cart inspectors will flip lids in several neighborhoods and will deploy “oops” tags on contaminated carts. The tags will include “specific feedback designed to reduce contamination,” the city wrote, and those carts will not be emptied for that week.

Cart tagging programs are happening around the country. Those running these programs realize that not every town can employ cart inspectors. Ron Jones, a senior planner for the city of Olympia, Washington, offers another option for getting feedback on cart quality. “The drivers are there every week picking up recycling,” he said. “They know customers, they get to kind of understand who is contaminating really badly versus not so bad, who is doing well.” Olympia, which uses municipal crews for collection, gives drivers a tablet and directs them to note which households set out highly contaminated carts. Drivers can identify the type of contamination through the system as well. Afterward, the city’s recycling department downloads the data and uses it to tailor outreach materials.

In Regina, Saskatchewan they are using a new automated technology to help decrease decontamination. The technology uses a camera installed on the recycling collection truck. The camera takes an image of the cart contents as they are emptied, and a software program visually identifies contaminants. An “oops” mailer is delivered to households with high contamination levels, indicating the contaminants and providing tips for proper recycling.

Even though these programs have had overall success, they have faced some residents that don’t comply or become unpleasant when explaining what needs to be done to have a successful program. It is unfortunate that something as simple as making sure you are placing recyclable items in your recycle cart has to create friction. Many of the programs will take away the recycle cart after a number of violations. In order to get it back a fee needs to be paid. Those cities currently landfill those recyclables while trying to educate residents about how to properly recycle.

It will take a group effort to make sure recyclable items are recycled. Residents, waste management companies and city government need to work together for a common goal, a healthier planet.

Tomorrow, protecting rivers.

Reducing Recycling Contamination

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Day 260 – Our neighbors in Grand Rapids, Michigan, just recently won an award. They earned Resource Recycling Inc.’s 2021 Program of the Year award in the Large City category, which was open to municipalities with 150,000 residents or more.

The City of Grand Rapids teamed with the Michigan Department of Environment, Great Lakes, and Energy (EGLE) and national nonprofit The Recycling Partnership to introduce a first-of-its-kind community wide project aimed at improving the quality of materials residents recycle in their curbside carts last fall. The Recycling Racoon Squad helped educate residents, ““Know It Before You Throw It”. The effort promotes best practices and emphasizes that recycling materials saves energy, reduces water use, decreases greenhouse gases, conserves resources, and translates into local jobs. 

City crews collected 7,170 tons of recyclables from more than 50,500 households in the most recent program year. In its submission materials to the awards program, Grand Rapids reported a contamination rate of 7.4 percent. The percentage is far lower than what’s being seen in many local programs in the U.S., where contamination rates above 20 percent are common. 

Grand Rapids program leaders work closely with the nearby Kent County materials recovery facility (MRF) to educate residents and enforce strict anti-contamination controls. Educational efforts include removing carts after high levels of trash are found in recycling at a residence three times and providing “Recycling 101” educational materials before residents can get their carts back.

Grand Rapids also implemented a “Feet on the Street” anti-contamination tagging program in the fall of 2020, inspecting recycling setouts at all 50,540 serviced households over the course of eight weeks. That effort reduced contamination in the local recycling stream by 37 percent, according to program leaders.

So the question is, could this work in other cities?

It seems like it all comes down to education and of course having people that care about the planet. Without those two things, reducing recycling contamination will continue to be an unreachable goal.

Keep up the good work Grand Rapids! You are showing the country and the world that coming together as a community to accomplish an important goal that helps benefit people and the planet is achievable.

Tomorrow, the story of stuff.

Sustainability Expo

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Day 249 – A sustainability expo is coming to Morton Grove.

So, what’s a sustainability expo?

It is a gathering of like minded people, trying to conserve and protect the planet.

Go Green Illinois wants you to know:

Join the Morton Grove Environment and Natural Resources Commission at the Morton Grove Sustainability Expo. This free event is family friendly, all are welcome, and encouraged to attend.

Over 30+ vendors and exhibitors. Come learn about solar options in IL, sign up for a free energy audit, pick up a sapling to plant, design an eco-focus button, pick up some native plants, eco-friendly tools, or learn about composting, recycling, green lawn care and more!

Stop by the Go Green Morton Grove table for some free native plant seeds and enjoy a fun activity to show how your efforts to go green help us all combat climate change.

Don’t miss the electric car show!

Event will be inside and outdoors at the Morton Grove Civic Center: 6140 Dempster Street in Morton Grove. 

One can only hope that there is a sustainability expo coming to your neighborhood in the near future.

Tomorrow, drones and their impact on wildlife.