Protect the Earth by Recycling Responsibly

This past weekend saw Earth Day, an annual holiday observed worldwide in support of environmental protection. And as every celebratory event has its symbol – think Valentine hearts and Christmas trees – Earth Day’s symbol is undoubtedly the recycling bin. After all, they’re familiar and iconic, and they provide an easy and impactful way for each of us to do our part on behalf of the planet. Who doesn’t like recycling?

However, recycling just isn’t quite as easy as it used to be. Over time, recycling has gotten more and more complicated with new grades of plastic being introduced into the market, new kinds of packaging finding their way onto store shelves and – in general – more and more people just unsure of what’s recyclable and what’s not.

In addition, these days the word “recycling” has been replaced with a new word: diversion, where the primary goal is to “divert” as many items from the trash bin as possible. However, diverting is not the same as recycling, since you are only saving natural resources if that item you diverted is actually recycled.

What it does mean is that more and more often we are seeing recycling bins that have a higher percentage of trash mixed with recyclables. In the industry, we call this contamination and it is causing a global problem.

Recycling across the globe

Last year, the Chinese government decided they were tired of importing increasingly contaminated recyclables. So, they changed their policy to only accept recyclables with a .5 percent contamination content. To give you some perspective, some of our recycling plants see material come in the front door that is 40 percent trash.

As a result, we have to try to pull out almost 99 percent of that trash from those streams in order to be able to sell those products as a recyclable commodity. As one of my Waste Management colleagues says, that’s like trying to shrink something the size of a grizzly bear down into a puppy, and let me tell you, that is one big bear.

As “diversion” goals have increased, so too have contamination percentages, which have jumped from 10-15 percent five years ago to 20-25 percent today. This problem not only impacts our ability to export materials to countries like China, it also comes with an environmental cost, since the more contamination there is in the stream the less we can ultimately recycle (the wrong items ruin otherwise good recyclables).

And no one wants to recycle less - especially Waste Management. In fact, we want to recycle as many of the right materials as we can the right way. We want to do that because that is true diversion.

What we’re doing 

Clearly, what I described above is not a sustainable business model for recycling. However, whether it’s Earth Day or any day of the year, Waste Management is committed to making recycling economically viable for years to come and for future generations. We know that will require hard work and high standards, which is why we’re working to reduce the level of contamination within our waste streams by:

• Providing education and outreach in collaboration with other industry stakeholders
• Investing in technology at our recycling facilities to efficiently process cleaner materials
• Enforcing contract provisions that charge for excess contamination in seeking cost recovery
• Supporting the development of domestic demand to reduce reliance on export markets

But it doesn’t stop with Waste Management. We’re counting on you, too. Help us by recycling the right items the right way, because a little more discipline at the bin will go a long way toward achieving the environmental and economic goals we all strive for. To learn more on how to do that, visit rorr.com. Help us spread the word, too.

Commit to recycling right every single day and that recycling bin at your curb will not only continue to be the symbol of our planet’s greenest holiday, it will be the symbol of how simple actions can make a big difference.

Do I have your commitment?