Recycling cycle: What residents need to know

Monday, 30 May 2016 02:19 by admin
Posted: Sunday, May 29, 2016 1:45 am By Matt Harding, Yuma Sun staff writer It all starts on Thursdays and Fridays, when many Yuma residents dutifully take their recycling to the curb as a part of the city’s curbside recycling program, which began in May 2013. The city’s curbside recycling private vendor partner, Republic Services (formerly Allied Waste), picks it up and residents don’t see them again until the following week, when the recycling cycle continues. But what happens after the roughly 25,000 curbside bins are hauled away from city and county residences? Not much happens here in Yuma. The recycling first makes its way to the Republic Services transfer station at 3040 S. Avenue 3½ E. From there, it is dumped and then loaded onto trucks and hauled off to the nearest processing facility in El Centro, Calif. That facility sorts and bales about 1,200 tons of recyclables a month, according to Peter Sterenberg, general manager of Yuma & Imperial Hauling, Transfer, Landfill and Materials Recovery Facility at Republic Services. Of course, he said, that pales in comparison to the 800 tons a day that are processed at other regional plants, such as the ones in Las Vegas and Anaheim. However, processing really starts in the home. Sterenberg said that making sure recyclables are “empty, clean and dry” goes a long way in making sure that they are salable. “Once you collect the material, you bale it,” Sterenberg said. “And so, invariably, the dirty stuff ends up on the outside of the bale.” He said this is a problem because it is the first thing buyers see when looking at the recyclables. Having dirty recycling, with likely unpleasant odors, can make it difficult to sell and can hurt the market value, Sterenberg said. Much of recycled goods end up being shipped overseas for repurposing, which can inflate that issue due to it being on a cargo ship for an extended period. “You’re risking a rejected load,” he added. Luckily, material like paper and cardboard, which are most likely to be the cleanest, make up a majority of the volume of recycled items — at about 73 percent nationally, according to Republic Services. Sterenberg said aluminum has the highest value, but accounts for less than 1 percent of total volume of recycled items. “Paper is one of the easiest things, provided it’s clean, to recycle,” Sterenberg said. In addition to paper, cardboard and aluminum, the city’s curbside program allows glass and plastics 1 through 7. The most commonly recycled plastics are Plastic 1 (polyethylene terephthalate) and Plastic 2 (high-density polyethylene). Plastic 1 is mostly clear plastic like water bottles, and Plastic 2 includes things like milk jugs and detergent bottles. The most important thing about the city’s program, Sterenberg said, is the fact that the curbside bins are “all-in-one recycling” containers. No sorting is required by residents, as had often been required in early recycling programs around the country. “You don’t have to separate it,” he said. “You don’t have to have one bin for glass, and one bin for plastic, and one for paper. That’s how it used to be (in many places). Now it’s all in one container.” Making the process easier for people is a priority. The easier it is, the more likely it is that they will recycle, Sterenberg said. He suggests putting a recycling container next to trash cans in the home to make it more practical than constantly taking recyclables to the outside bin. “If you have two containers that are next to each other, your chances of getting recycling volume up greatly increase.” One goal for Republic Services is to help educate the public on what they can recycle. “A lot of stuff is recyclable, but on a curbside program, there is some limit,” Sterenberg said. “While if you had a lot of one item (such as plastic bags) — if you have a whole couple tons of that stuff, you can bale it up and sell it. But in a curbside program, it’s rather difficult.” He suggested taking back plastic bags to grocery stores since Republic Services does not accept them, or not using them at all, instead opting for reusable bags. Aside from plastic bags, the curbside program doesn’t take bubble wrap, Styrofoam, paint, food-soiled paper and other items that are listed at www.yumaaz.gov (search for “Curbside Recycling Program”). The city has a Household Hazardous Waste Collection Program that allows residents to get rid of many products — oil, batteries and chemicals among them — that cannot be recycled or thrown away with the trash. The remaining two hazardous waste events in 2016 will be held July 9 and October 8. Despite such programs, something that shouldn’t be there always ends up in the recycling, Sterenberg said. While it may only be a small fraction of people contributing to the problem, he said that food waste, diapers and even used needles sometimes end up in recycling containers. He said he urges people not to use recycling bins as an extra trash can, or worse yet, for hazardous waste. Overall, the city’s curbside recycling program helps to divert 16 percent of material from landfills in the city. “As residents learn about recycling and choose to recycle, the percentage of recyclables that are diverted from the landfill will increase,” said City Administrator Greg Wilkinson. “Our goal is to achieve a recycling rate of 20 percent in the next few years.” Wilkinson said the city’s portion of money made from selling recyclables has allowed it to delay the need to raise trash collection fees. It also cuts landfill costs, he said. “You see less and less going to the landfill every year,” Sterenberg said. “At the end of the day, you’re saving the resources. We find most people have that commitment, and want to be sustainable, and here’s one way to do it.” Recycling is picked up on Thursdays for subdivisions south of 16th Street and east of Avenue B, and on Fridays for subdivisions north of 16th Street and west of Avenue B. For those who do not get curbside service, or have a larger capacity of recyclables, the city also has a drop-off location with numerous large bins. It is located at 265 W. 13th St.
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