Upswing - but let's not be short sighted.



Things are finally looking up in the recycling industry. It has been a long and difficult journey that unfortunately many didn't survive. Positive changes are underway; end-users are now seeking material that collection centers and materials recovery facilities were recently begging & paying to move. Another positive step is that more and more companies are making commitments to increase the recycled content in their products and aiming towards the goal of a truly circular economy. This is amazing news that benefits not only the recycling industry but our environment as a whole. 

With all the positive trends there does remain one consistent issue. End-users will require quality material in order to make quality products. The number one issue that directly contributed to the crumbling of the recycling industry remains the number one issue with recycling; contamination. Outreach, education, and investments by so many have helped to make the information more available and easier to access but the recycler still needs to make the effort to ensure what they are placing in their recycling bins can actually be recycled. 

So many community collection centers opted to close because they just could not properly police their residents or afford to pay the disposal costs for the large amount of contamination they receive. We found that even with clear signage and bin labeling the contamination remains unreal. Below is a picture from our residential collection area. Signage clearly lists what items are accepted, that no plastic bags should remain, and nothing should be placed outside the containers?!? Do people not read, not understand, or not care? Your guess is as good as ours. 


So what is the solution? How do we ensure that people clean up their act and recycle with care? We wish we had an answer. 

We have definitely found success in educating children and they many times successfully guilt parents into compliance. The mini recycling police of the house push parents and siblings to abide. It's all a matter of finding the right motivation but we just aren't sure what that is. 

We are sure that recycling will continue to struggle if people do not do their part to recycle with care. 



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