Reduce, Reuse, Recycle: Are Americans really doing their part?

Reduce, reuse, recycle: a simple phrase taught across the United States, yet participation rates for recycling programs remain low. A 2007 Harris Poll study found about one-quarter of Americans don’t recycle in their own home.

According to Portage Recycles, Americans go through 2.5 million plastic bottles per year, but Waste Management’s educational website “Recycle Often. Recycle Right” reported “69 percent of plastic bottles don’t get recycled”, illustrating that improved public education has not solved the problem.

Kelsey Shackelford, education specialist for Portage County Recycling Center, said community involvement is beginning to improve due to the new single-stream recycling program, which makes recycling easier and user-friendly.

“We used to have a duel-stream system where you had to separate the recyclables into two small bins,” Shackelford said. “Now it can all go into that one container like you would do with trash. The EPA estimates that single-stream brings participation up about 30 percent. We’re not there yet because it’s still extremely new, but they have gone up at least 10 percent, if not more.”

The single-stream program comes partially as a result of plant operations shutting down in February 2016. Now considered a transfer station, Portage County Recycling transports their recyclables to Waste Management for processing. Waste Management then rates the recyclables sent to their plant based on contamination levels and, if the materials sent to them are mostly clean, they’ll pay a rate of $10.67 per ton of recyclables.

However, contaminated recyclables have proven to be an issue for Portage County. Contamination can come in the form trash, food, metal, wood, yard debris, construction debris and clothing.

Vince Crawford, public sector representative at Waste Management, said the basic breakdown of recyclables that come to their site by weight, in order from highest to lowest amount are: paper products, glass, garbage residue, aluminum and steel cans, and plastic products. Crawford said that Waste Management sees 20 to 25 percent of residue contamination coming to their site. Dealing with that material then costs Waste Management twice as much as it would of if disposed in a trash bin.

“People think that if they put things in a can that says recyclable, Waste Management will find a way to recycle it, but that’s just not the case,” Crawford said. “Unfortunately, Americans are generally lazy and they don’t want to read what is supposed to be recycled. People say, ‘Well, I think this greasy paper plate full of leftover pizza cheese and sauce can go into the recycling because it’s made of paper’, but what could we possibly recycle that into? Something like that is for the garbage.”

Shackelford said if the drivers identify high levels of contamination at a specific curbside address, they’re able to tag the location with a white sticker explaining the problem with the resident’s container and how to fix it. If the contamination is not fixed, that address will be removed from the route.

Bill Steiner, director of Portage County Recycling Center, said the single-stream program’s funding came largely from a $3 million, closed loop loan, which covered the cost of four new trucks. Portage County Recycling also received an EPA grant that funded truck five, $173,00, and six, $150,000, including the cost of containers.

“The money to pay off the loan will come out of our operating budget. As far as taxpayers are concerned, they don’t pay a tax for this program per say.” said Steiner. “But, we have service fees and a generation fee that go to pay for the operation of the district.”

While Portage County is actively working to remedy participation rates by providing containers within the community, a majority of Kent State University students in a private, online poll answered they choose not to recycle because they aren’t able to find a recycling bin. Noel Bowers, vice president of the Kent State University environmental society, said lack of education and laziness are to blame.

“It does take a little bit more effort to recycle something then to just trash it and our mentality and our way of life is to just trash things, it’s automatic,” said Bowers.

Bowers’ approach to student engagement is shock value. She cited various films and photos that have had a lasting impact on her.

“I’ve seen photos of turtles caught in plastic when they were young, so their shells grow around the plastic,” said Bowers. “It’s really sad to see.”

Bowers gave two simple changes she regularly urges students to make that don’t involve finding a recycling container: first, invest in a reusable water bottle to reduce plastic bottle waste; second, eat in the dining hall and ask for your food on an actual plate instead of a takeout container to avoid adding to landfills.

“The way I look at it is I want my future generations to see all the great landmarks I see,” Bowers said. “I want them to have a more hands-on experience and actually see it with their own eyes, but if we destroy it now they won’t have it later.”

 

 

 

Portage Recycles from Gabrielle Payne on Vimeo.

 

 

The United States represents 5% of the world’s population, but we generate nearly 1/3 of the world’s trash. Be the change. #JMCRPP #GoGreen

— Gabrielle Payne (@GabiePayne) October 5, 2016

The impact of recycling in Portage County #JMCRPP. https://t.co/AmIdipHqOp

— Lauren Blue (@LaurenBlueRPP) October 5, 2016

“If we recycled all newspapers, we would save over 250 million trees each year.” – Conserve Energy Future organization #JMCRPP

— Felicia Guadagni (@granolaguadagni) October 5, 2016