How does single-stream recycling actually work?

May 11, 2012 12:39 AM

My community has recently switched over to a single-stream recycling system. That's cool, but what don't I know?

For instance, I helped a friend replace his brakes the other day. Can we throw his old rotors in the recycling bin, and trust that the sizable amount of steel contained therein will go to some new use? Would it have been better to drop them off at a proper scrapyard? To what extent does this answer apply to the other nontraditional scrap steel that my household generates (electronics housings, mounting hardware, etc)?

I'm sure that the end processors can deal with contamination: a gum wrapper thrown in an aluminum can will get burned off in the smelter, the paper pulper won't break if encounters the occasional staple. At the same time, my understanding is that this system relies on manual sorting of materials. Will the sorters take time to pick out small items like paperclips or bottlecaps or broken glass? Will they know what to do with brake rotors or steel shelving? Is it even worth pretending that such items will be recycled?

In short: how does such a system really work, and how can I use it most effectively?

posted by 7segment to Technology (6 answers total)

My single stream recycler sends us a big long list of specifics of what can and can't go in the magic hopper. We post it by the door that leads to the nova in case we need to check ... Ours has guidelines for steel. If they don't accept something it either identifies it as trash (thermal paper) or tells where to call to recycle it (main facility, city or county drop boxes, any car parts store, the industrial scrapyard, etc.). So start with the recycling company's website.

Officially everything has to be in the hopper but our guys take big stuff next to the hopper ... Usually cardboard, but also like plastic lawn furniture. Good to know to save you a "bulky items" trip.

I'd recycle steel shelving without worrying about it, but I've found you can also put out larger steel items the night before trash or recycling day and metal scavengers will come take it for industrial scrap they sell to the foundry. The efficiency of you local scavengers may vary. I put a sign that says "free" on it if I'm worried scavengers won't be bold enough to take something in good shape. (People who don't understand what they're doing sometimes freak out when they take stuff.)
posted by Eyebrows McGee at 12:54 AM on May 11, 2012 [2 favorites]

I think this is one of those things that varies pretty widely by community. When we contacted our local waste removal organization, they explained the entire process of what happened to our metal recycling, which was really helpful.

Google's first response for your location gave me WM as your local waste management system. Their FAQ wasn't particularly fruitful (though it does have a list with examples of some things you can and cannot recycle), but here is their contact information for your area.
posted by aniola at 1:45 AM on May 11, 2012

This depends entirely on your local provider. Search their web site or ask them, they want you to recycle properly and will likely be able to tell you about any crazy thing you want to throw away. You may want to look up things your local hazardous waste disposal provider accepts since it's unlikely that the recycler will happily take them.

(For example, one place I've lived had Pringles cans and those microwave crisping things explicitly verboten, while in another place they were explicitly allowed.)
posted by Ookseer at 2:11 AM on May 11, 2012

This varies quite a bit by town. Check your town's DPW website. They usually have pretty specific guidelines. If they don't, find their phone number and call and ask. (Or call City Hall's general number.)
posted by pie ninja at 4:16 AM on May 11, 2012

echoing the "call WM". I live in a metro area serviced by wm, and each darn city and municipality have their own rules for what goes in where and how. One place we could put steel cans in the recycle bin, the other we could not. Once place we could recycle plastic 1-3 but not 4-7 except six. I had a scheme with friends for a while, trading recyclables across city boundaries.

now I'm in an area that can take everything, including steel cans (though it's not printed on their bins). I called up a while back to see if they had started taking them yet and the person who answered the phone was surprised I hadn't seen the tv ads, radio ads, or newspaper ads (Netflix, mp3 player, and adblock on the news website). It can't hurt to call every year or so to see if the guidelines have changed.
posted by tilde at 5:53 AM on May 11, 2012 [1 favorite]

I'm in Boulder and the only HUGE no-no they emphasize is never put plastic bags into the recycle bin--they wrap around the sorting machinery and break expensive equipment.

Beyond that, I tend to err on the side of being conservative about what I drop in the recycle bin; it's not costless to sort the materials and get rid of stuff that shouldn't be in there, and I see it as my part of keeping the recycling program sustainable. Of course, I also live in Boulder where I can compost a lot of things that I hesitate to throw into the recycle bin and use Eco-Cycle for larger stuff that isn't included on the list of recycle-able materials that WM sends us once a year.

There's some decent tips about things to keep in mind with Colorado Spring's single-stream recycling program at the bottom of this article:

"The cleaner the products, the more efficiently we run, which drives costs down," says Alpine Waste & Recycling's Brent Hildebrand. So remember to wash bottles and jars.

Here are three other tips to help save you time, keep it clean and make a friend out of your recycler:

Don't worry about removing the plastic window from envelopes.

Remove lids from your soda bottles; when trucks run over them at processing plants, they shoot off "like bullets," says Hildebrand, potentially injuring staff.

Don't put plastic bags in with your recyclables. They gum-up processing machines used in single-stream. Instead, reuse bags at King Soopers for a five-cent rebate per bag or at Whole Foods for a 10-cent per-bag rebate, use them as a wastebasket liner at home, drop them at the Humane Society for the Pikes Peak Region (610 Abbott Lane) to be reused as poop bags, or recycle them inside your local Wal-Mart or King Soopers.

posted by iminurmefi at 6:46 AM on May 11, 2012