WDM’s Cynthia Milota shares what it really means to put something in the recycling bin. Read more for the actual impact incorrect recycling can have.
Not sure if that coffee cup or take away container is recyclable, we’ll throw it in the recycling bin, assuming “they’ll sort it out” somewhere in the process.
The Environmental Protection Agency estimates that about 75 percent of the waste produced in the US is recyclable, yet the actual recycling rate is only 34%. And of that 34%, the average recycling contamination rate is 25 percent—one in every four items. (EPA 2024)
In a circular world, there would be very little recycling required, because waste would be designed out of the system, with materials kept in circulation through processes like maintenance, reuse, refurbishment, remanufacturing, composting, with recycling as the last resort. Let’s break apart the recycling myths.
Symbols and Waste Streams
This symbol does not mean that products displaying it:
- Are made of recycled materials
- Will be automatically recycled if you drop them in the recycling bin
Know Your Waste
- Recyclable products and products made from recycled materials are two vastly different things.
- “Recyclable” means that the product/package can be recycled, theoretically, somewhere.
- “Made from recycled materials” means that the product/package was made with no virgin materials.
- There are generally six waste streams in the typical office
- Glass recycling is largely from beverages or food jars.
- Aluminum recycling of beverage cans reflects about 50% of all recycled aluminum in the office.
- Composting of food waste in the office by third party organizations is now commonplace with big city vendors, such as WasteNot Compost and smaller municipality operations like Curbside Compost Co-op offering receptacles and pick-ups to businesses, multi-family and educational facilities.
- Landfill is everything else.
- Plastic bags are NOT recyclable in your curbside or office recycling bin. They clog the sorting machinery at the recycling sorting centers. DO NOT deposit them with your typical recyclables.
- Plastic bags can, however, be taken to specific collection sites, like grocery stores.
- Pre-washed salad bags, coffee bags, fruit bags (from grapes, cherries, etc.) are not recyclable and are landfill bound.
Check out RTS’s “Complete Guide to Reading Recycling Symbols,” for more information.
Recycling Collection Strategies and Contamination at the Office
Strategies for how recyclables are collected fall into three categories (Method Sydney, 2024):
Also called co-mingling recycling, here, all recyclables are collected together. About 80% of U.S. communities utilize single stream. It is cost effective for facilities and property managers because it reduces efforts for housekeeping and increases participation rates, but the quality of the materials is reduced due to contamination.
- Dual Waste Stream Recycling
In this method, also called mixed recycling, paper is separated into its own bin, to reduce contamination. “Separating just one of the materials can improved material quality, thus the life of the resource and the commodity price,” (Method Sydney, 2024).
Here, separate bins are provided for each of the different materials being recycled. This strategy requires a little more effort on the office side but reduces contamination and requires less sorting at the Material Recovery Facility, where recycling is sorted into the various waste streams.
What is Recycling Contamination?
Recycling contamination rates in the US have increased almost 30% with the prevalence of single source recycling and “overzealous (if misplaced) environmentalism,” (Krisch, 2023). Contamination occurs when “non-recyclable material is thrown in with your recycling and when a recyclable material is thrown in that hasn’t been washed out,” (Moss, 2023).
That last sip of soda in your aluminum can, tossed into the recycling bin, will contaminate the entire load.
Two field studies conducted in 2020 suggest that labeling recycling cans with pro-environmental messages may guilt passersby into recycling items that cannot be recycled, (Krisch, 2023). Sometimes called wishcycling, “contamination takes many forms: the blissfully ignorant (materials like potato chip bags and plastic cling film), the lazy (containers that are still greasy, wet or covered in food) and the bizarre (like dirty diapers and bowling balls),” (EarthDay.org, 2019).
59% of public believes that ‘most types of items’ can be recycled in their community.
— Pew, 2016
What Behaviors and Attitudes Can we Adopt
Recycling is complex, but people want to do the right thing. “Recycling success requires packages that are designed and labeled for recyclability, policy that supports recycling, access to reliable, convenient, equitable collection and resources to support education and outreach,” (The Recycling Partnership, 2021).
Awareness is essential, but it does not always drive behavior change
— The Recycling Partnership, 2021
More information does not lead to greater recycling rates. “Knowing better does not result in doing better,” (The Recycling Partnership, 2021), particularly if the recycling bin is already full or you’re in a hurry to join the next meeting.
Whether your motivations for recycling — or not, are due to complexity, timing, confusion, laziness or a laisse faire attitude, “pride and guilt have been identified…as crucial drivers impacting recycling behavior,” (Huang, et al, 2024).
The physical environment can be a powerful tool to steer behavior and…tailored information can complement physical changes to promote pro-environmental actions
— Rosenthal & Linder, 2021
What We are Led to Believe
Emphasizing consumer responsibility and downplaying corporate culpability has led to tools like Carbon Footprint Calculators, first developed by BP in 2004 with their public relations firm Ogilvy & Mather to “improve its (BP’s) image…by conveying the message that consumers of oil and natural gas bear the responsibility for their greenhouse gas emissions, not the producers of the oil and gas they use,” (Schendler, 2021).
The mechanics of the system defaults to cheaper virgin plastics due to “a steep increase in petrochemical production…which has led to a global oversupply of industrial chemicals used in plastics, sending the price of new material so low that its recycled alternative has become uneconomical to use,” (Speed & Mnyanda, 2024).
Recycling should be the last option.
What We Can Do
Mies van der Rohe got it right when he famously said, less is more. We just need to Use Less Stuff every day. For a start, personally pledge to reduce consumption, go electronic and incorporate reuseable containers into your daily routine.
Organizationally explore the Using Less Stuff Behavior Change Program which guides teams to change minds, analyze, set goals, implement projects, measure and maintain using less. As developing circular economy strategies eliminate waste, in the meantime we can reduce waste by keeping materials in circulation longer through maintenance, reuse, refurbishment, remanufacturing, composting and recycling as a last resort.
References
EarthDay.org. (2019, August), “Confessions of an aspirational recycler,” Retrieved from: https://www.earthday.org/confessions-of-an-aspirational-recycler/.
EPA, (2024, November), “National overview: Facts and figures on materials, wastes and recycling,” Retrieved from: https://www.epa.gov/facts-and-figures-about-materials-waste-and-recycling/national-overview-facts-and-figures-materials#NationalPicture
Huang, W., Nguyen, J., Tseng, C., Chen, W., Kirshner, S,. “Pride or guilt? Impacts of consumers’ socially influenced recycling behaviors on closed-loop supply chains,” (2024, September), Retrieved from: https://pubsonline.informs.org/doi/10.1287/msom.2023.0721#:~:text=First%2C%20socially%20influenced%20pride%20and,when%20there%20are%20more%20recyclers.
Krisch, J. (2023, April), “Aspirational recycling: How bad is it to put things in the recycling that can’t be recycled?” Retrieved from: https://www.livescience.com/planet-earth/aspirational-recycling-how-bad-is-it-to-put-things-in-the-recycling-that-cant-be-recycled
Method Sydney, (2024, April), “What are waste streams and why do they matter,” Retrieved from: https://methodrecycling.com/au/journal/what-waste-streams-for-my-office
Moss, P. (2023, February), “The waste of aspirational recycling,” Retrieved from https://www.rubicon.com/blog/aspirational-recycling/
Pew Research, (2016, October), “Perceptions and realities of recycling vary widely from place to place,” Retrieved from: https://www.pewresearch.org/short-reads/2016/10/07/perceptions-and-realities-of-recycling-vary-widely-from-place-to-place/#:~:text=The%20Pew%20Research%20Center%20survey%20found%20that%2059%25%20of%20the,be%20recycled%20where%20they%20live.
Schendler, A., (2021, August), “Worrying about your carbon footprint is exactly what big oil wants you to do,” Retrieved from: https://www.nytimes.com/2021/08/31/opinion/climate-change-carbon-neutral.html
Speed, M. & Mnyanda, L., (2024), “Petrochemical gut makes new plastics cheaper than recycled,” Retrieved from: https://circularplasticsnl.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/01/Petrochemical-glut-makes-new-plastic-cheaper-than-recycled.pdf
The Recycling Partnership, (2021), “Start at the cart: Key concepts of influencing recycling behavior to drive a circular economy.” Retrieved from: https://recyclingpartnership.org/wp-content/uploads/dlm_uploads/2021/02/Influencing-Recycling-Behaviors-Whitepaper-Recycling-Partnership.pdf
