For decades, households around the country have been recycling everything from plastic bottles to cardboard boxes, all in an attempt to reduce waste while touted as a way to protect the environment. However as our lives and shopping patterns change, so does the demand for these once highly sought after post-consumer products.
In cities across the country, municipalities and waste haulers are now struggling to keep up with the sheer volume of recycling material coming through their doors. At the Memphis International Airport, recycling bins filled with water bottles and newspapers collected from passengers is now sent to a local landfill as waste. In Philadelphia, officials have turned to burning around 50 percent of their collected recycling in a new incinerator that converts materials into energy.
Here in Wayne County, the Board of Supervisors long ago abandoned their curbside program, citing cost concerns around keeping it running in perpetuity. Instead they passed the responsibility on to area trash collectors, mandating that anyone who picks up trash must also offer recycling services.
Kevin Wright, along with his wife, Dawn, own K& D Disposal out of Newark. While the two say the recycling program has always been an added layer of complication for their business, the tides have now truly turned turbulent as fluctuations in pricing have left their operation, and collectors around the country, wondering each day what tomorrow will bring.
Kevin says recycling has never been a major boon to their business, but now products they were once paid for by the ton are now costing them twice as much as trash to dispose of. With online shopping and the endless stream of recyclable products now ingrained in every facet of our lives, the volume of material has everyone from processing facilities to residents wondering what to do with it all.
Al Plumb, owner of Alpco Recycling in Macedon admits the markets for recycling, across the board, are down. “Mills are running at 62%, corrugated (cardboard) is way down”. He stated that even metals have hit a low. Plumb says that people should continue doing what they are doing as far as recycling goes and that markets will recover. He added that unemployment is way down and contractors are currently very busy. His take - the economy is good, even though recycled materials is going through a change.
So, what part did the extensive cut in Chinese import of U.S. recycling products play in the current recycling market? China has all but eliminated its import of recycled materials. One of the chief reasons given is the commingling of recycled materials, brought forward years ago.
In an effort to increase recycling in communities, some of the larger companies established ‘single-source’ recycling, where homeowners could combine various recycled products, plastics, glass, paper and cardboard, into a single bin for pick-up. The recycled materials were then sorted by machines, with human assistance, into their categories. Problems arose when materials, during bundling for transport, became cross contaminated with other materials. Broken glass contaminated papers and plastic, cardboard too became a victim of cross contamination.
The Chinese, the largest market for recycling, no longer found it profitable to accept the contaminated U.S. materials. With no market to buy the growing volume of material, what once was a revenue source for communities has turned into massive, million dollar deficits.
Pictures of pollution in oceans, lake shores and streams, along with statistics on the dangers of plastics, especially to wildlife and human health, also has industry and consumers finding alternative methods of packaging and marketing.
California has proposed state law that would require a 20% plastic recycling rate by 2024, gradually increasing to 75% by 2030. This coming as recycling programs are being canceled and that plastic has little value on the recycle market. This has come as many are stating: Don’t recycle plastic — stop using it instead.
New York State’s recent call to eliminate plastic grocery bags came as a shock to many, but not to those aware of the long term problem.
According to a published letter in the Los Angeles Times last month; “U.S. export data show that in April alone, 14.3 million kilograms of plastic were shipped from California’s three largest ports. Those ships went mostly to Asian countries with no final fate accountability. Numerous verified reports have shown the environmental and social harms caused, including insufficient worker protections and an increase in plastic pollution flowing into the ocean. Exporting plastic waste may still be legal, but we now know it is irresponsible and unethical.”
Currently, Wayne County waste haulers are still under an obligation by local law to collect recycling. It, however, has become a cost burden that will have to be passed along tocustomers. Palmyra Town Supervisor/ County Board member Ken Miller acknowledged there is a problem, even on the local level. “I think that if the haulers request a meeting with us and help us come up with a resolution to solve the problem, we are open to it.” He admitted that most people still think there is money to be made in recycling, but with current markets that is a fallacy. “We have to come up with a way to disperse the cost of recycling,” he added.
