Are we trashing our recycling?
May 15, 2012 7:30 AM Subscribe
How bad is it if non-recycling/non-compost items end up in recycling/compost bins? Is it counter-productive to green efforts to give office workers ONLY recycling and compost bins and their desks, no trash cans?
The company I work for, in an effort to encourage composting and recycling, has taken away trash cans at our desks, replacing them with compost and recycling bins only. Landfill trash has to be taken to conference rooms or the break room. Attempts to add a trash bin or bag are removed.
Needless to say, a certain amount of plastic wrappers, mixed packaging materials, and other random trash ends up in either the recycling or compost bin.
How bad is this? Does it "spoil" the batch of compost/recycling?
If a trash item has to go in one wrong bin or the other, which is better?
If it matters, we're located in San Jose, CA but I don't know what company handles waste removal.
The company I work for, in an effort to encourage composting and recycling, has taken away trash cans at our desks, replacing them with compost and recycling bins only. Landfill trash has to be taken to conference rooms or the break room. Attempts to add a trash bin or bag are removed.
Needless to say, a certain amount of plastic wrappers, mixed packaging materials, and other random trash ends up in either the recycling or compost bin.
How bad is this? Does it "spoil" the batch of compost/recycling?
If a trash item has to go in one wrong bin or the other, which is better?
If it matters, we're located in San Jose, CA but I don't know what company handles waste removal.
May I ask why it is so hard to take your trash to the break room? At my previous office, I did that anyway, since the grand majority of my office trash was paper, and I knew the janitor had to separate out paper and trash on her nightly rounds anyway.
If I really had to stay at my desk and couldn't get up right when I had trash, I'd stick the trash in a plastic bag temporarily (I usually had one hanging around) and then take it away from my desk when I could.
posted by ocherdraco at 7:38 AM on May 15, 2012
If I really had to stay at my desk and couldn't get up right when I had trash, I'd stick the trash in a plastic bag temporarily (I usually had one hanging around) and then take it away from my desk when I could.
posted by ocherdraco at 7:38 AM on May 15, 2012
I wouldn't advocate taking away the trash cans, this seems really extreme. Most of the waste created at your desk is paper, which goes right into the recyling bin, but the rest is contaminated food waste. Food waste, well greasy stuff, really fucks with the whole recycling process. We do single stream recylcing, but our recycling provider has threatned to quit picking up our recyclables because of the high amount of non recyclable stuff that gets thrown in there.
And its not that its "hard" to throw away trash, but in my kinda formal office, I just don't see people walking around with trash in their hands, its kind of icky and perhaps not professional.
posted by stormygrey at 7:50 AM on May 15, 2012
And its not that its "hard" to throw away trash, but in my kinda formal office, I just don't see people walking around with trash in their hands, its kind of icky and perhaps not professional.
posted by stormygrey at 7:50 AM on May 15, 2012
Is it counter-productive to green efforts to give office workers ONLY recycling and compost bins and their desks, no trash cans?
Depends on how lazy and/or careless the office workers are.
The answers to the other questions depend entirely on how the company/authority that removes rubbish from your building deals with it.
posted by A Thousand Baited Hooks at 7:53 AM on May 15, 2012 [1 favorite]
Depends on how lazy and/or careless the office workers are.
The answers to the other questions depend entirely on how the company/authority that removes rubbish from your building deals with it.
posted by A Thousand Baited Hooks at 7:53 AM on May 15, 2012 [1 favorite]
I would suggest it depends on who does the sorting...and what they are sorting.
My office recycling company comes right into my office. For plastics/glass – he just throws it all in a bin. But for paper, he goes through it and discards the “unacceptables” and scowls at us. From what I understand, there are fines at the local recycling depots for putting in unacceptable items.
A few years back, I had to spend a week at our City recycling depot (where most major recycling companies deposited their gatherings) and I was surprised to learn that the people sorting the recycling (often disabled people) had to pick out the dead cats, used diapers, shoes, luggage etc… It was an eye opener for me.
posted by what's her name at 7:58 AM on May 15, 2012
My office recycling company comes right into my office. For plastics/glass – he just throws it all in a bin. But for paper, he goes through it and discards the “unacceptables” and scowls at us. From what I understand, there are fines at the local recycling depots for putting in unacceptable items.
A few years back, I had to spend a week at our City recycling depot (where most major recycling companies deposited their gatherings) and I was surprised to learn that the people sorting the recycling (often disabled people) had to pick out the dead cats, used diapers, shoes, luggage etc… It was an eye opener for me.
posted by what's her name at 7:58 AM on May 15, 2012
May I ask why it is so hard to take your trash to the break room?
I presume the actual reason is because: "You're take away our trash cans? Fuck you then, you can sort the trash out of the recycling can."
posted by tylerkaraszewski at 7:58 AM on May 15, 2012 [8 favorites]
I presume the actual reason is because: "You're take away our trash cans? Fuck you then, you can sort the trash out of the recycling can."
posted by tylerkaraszewski at 7:58 AM on May 15, 2012 [8 favorites]
We have one trash can at our desks, a big one in the kitchen, a large locked bin for paper to be shredded and recycled, plus a recycling bin. It seems to work.
Recyclers have to expect a certain amount of trash with single-stream recycling. Not only do people try to recycle things that aren't accepted (mine just started accepting paper milk cartons and they still don't take all plastics), when I leave my home bin out for collection some goofball always seems to find it convenient to throw his trash in my bin. Better than throwing it on the street, but still beyond my control.
posted by caryatid at 7:59 AM on May 15, 2012
Recyclers have to expect a certain amount of trash with single-stream recycling. Not only do people try to recycle things that aren't accepted (mine just started accepting paper milk cartons and they still don't take all plastics), when I leave my home bin out for collection some goofball always seems to find it convenient to throw his trash in my bin. Better than throwing it on the street, but still beyond my control.
posted by caryatid at 7:59 AM on May 15, 2012
Best answer: Taking desk trash cans away is insane and likely to breed a lot of willful sabotage of recycling efforts.
posted by Perplexity at 8:03 AM on May 15, 2012
posted by Perplexity at 8:03 AM on May 15, 2012
My passive-aggressive reaction to this idiotic policy would be to drop my unidentifiable non-recyclable trash in the hallway, unobserved, while I was on my way to the break room.
posted by Rash at 8:19 AM on May 15, 2012
posted by Rash at 8:19 AM on May 15, 2012
Mod note: Folks, "what's the impact of mixing trash in recycling" is definitely the more askme-answerable part of the question, opinions about the bin policy itself not so much. Please try to keep this from descending into chat about the latter.
posted by cortex (staff) at 8:22 AM on May 15, 2012 [3 favorites]
posted by cortex (staff) at 8:22 AM on May 15, 2012 [3 favorites]
Taking desk trash cans away is insane and likely to breed a lot of willful sabotage of recycling efforts.
Not only is it not insane, I would say it is well on its way to being standard practice in large offices. Like all cultural changes it initially meets with unthinking opposition (see comment above) but quickly becomes second nature.
posted by ninebelow at 8:24 AM on May 15, 2012 [2 favorites]
Not only is it not insane, I would say it is well on its way to being standard practice in large offices. Like all cultural changes it initially meets with unthinking opposition (see comment above) but quickly becomes second nature.
posted by ninebelow at 8:24 AM on May 15, 2012 [2 favorites]
My experience is that there will always be a sub-group of workers whose hostility to environmental concerns in-general leads them to ignore the recycling anyway and just toss their crap in whatever bin is nearest.
Taking away general trash cans would only seal the deal for them.
posted by Thorzdad at 8:35 AM on May 15, 2012
Taking away general trash cans would only seal the deal for them.
posted by Thorzdad at 8:35 AM on May 15, 2012
Mixed trash needs to be sorted before it can be recycled - recycling/composting only works if the input is correctly sorted by material type. Stuff that does not belong there is essentially pollution and can cause the entire trash load to require conventional waste disposal = landfills. Landfills come with all sorts of problems of themselves. If the trash is sorted properly there is very little left that would constitute residual waste.
If the office workers do not sort their trash there are several possibilities:
a) janitor / cleaning crew has to do it -> sometimes that only happens once a week = trash starts to decompose -> we can argue the line of inhumane vs. humane jobs, who does them, how they are compensated and so on
b) recycling company has to do it -> leads to higher cost that will be distributed to the consumer per taxes/annual fees or sometimes fines
It seems fairly easy, as an individual, to walk over to the break room once or twice a day and dispose of your trash there. Or better yet, don't bring stuff you can't get easily rid of with you to work at all!
'I just don't see people walking around with trash in their hands, its kind of icky and perhaps not professional.'
posted by stormygrey at 7:50 AM on May 15 [+] [!]
Yeah right. Maybe you want to tell us it is not professional to use the restrooms next?
posted by travelwithcats at 8:38 AM on May 15, 2012 [1 favorite]
If the office workers do not sort their trash there are several possibilities:
a) janitor / cleaning crew has to do it -> sometimes that only happens once a week = trash starts to decompose -> we can argue the line of inhumane vs. humane jobs, who does them, how they are compensated and so on
b) recycling company has to do it -> leads to higher cost that will be distributed to the consumer per taxes/annual fees or sometimes fines
It seems fairly easy, as an individual, to walk over to the break room once or twice a day and dispose of your trash there. Or better yet, don't bring stuff you can't get easily rid of with you to work at all!
'I just don't see people walking around with trash in their hands, its kind of icky and perhaps not professional.'
posted by stormygrey at 7:50 AM on May 15 [+] [!]
Yeah right. Maybe you want to tell us it is not professional to use the restrooms next?
posted by travelwithcats at 8:38 AM on May 15, 2012 [1 favorite]
Best answer: Perhaps you could put a small bin in a file drawer if you want trash disposal at your desk, or line a drawer with a plastic bag?
Depending on your field, this policy may partly be your employer's way of encouraging all of your documents going to the shredder and protecting confidentiality. It is an increasingly common step for businesses to take and not weird or crazy at all.
Talk to the person heading the effort at your office or call the recycling vendors. How much cruft recyclers are willing to tolerate depends on what the local market and global prices for recyclables are, and vary with demand. The recycling stream is kind of fascinating, actually.
posted by momus_window at 8:58 AM on May 15, 2012
Depending on your field, this policy may partly be your employer's way of encouraging all of your documents going to the shredder and protecting confidentiality. It is an increasingly common step for businesses to take and not weird or crazy at all.
Talk to the person heading the effort at your office or call the recycling vendors. How much cruft recyclers are willing to tolerate depends on what the local market and global prices for recyclables are, and vary with demand. The recycling stream is kind of fascinating, actually.
posted by momus_window at 8:58 AM on May 15, 2012
Attempts to add a trash bin or bag are removed.
Oh, good grief, this is insane. Okay, try meeting them on their own level of priorities: money.
Are they paying their employees to do their jobs, or to walk back and forth to the break room every time they need to throw something non-recyclable away? And janitorial services are going to cost more, since there will inevitably be more spills in the hallways, plus some people are going to let stuff molder on their desks.
posted by desuetude at 8:59 AM on May 15, 2012
Oh, good grief, this is insane. Okay, try meeting them on their own level of priorities: money.
Are they paying their employees to do their jobs, or to walk back and forth to the break room every time they need to throw something non-recyclable away? And janitorial services are going to cost more, since there will inevitably be more spills in the hallways, plus some people are going to let stuff molder on their desks.
posted by desuetude at 8:59 AM on May 15, 2012
What all goes in the compost bin? Smaller compost piles generally can't take meat refuse, for example; I'd be more worried about inappropriate organic matter (gross to sort out/possibly unsortable) than anything else.
If the place you're sending compost accepts any organic matter, then my only concern would be plastic bags themselves; if they get in the single-stream recycling pile then they mess with any machine-based sorters.
posted by nat at 9:02 AM on May 15, 2012
If the place you're sending compost accepts any organic matter, then my only concern would be plastic bags themselves; if they get in the single-stream recycling pile then they mess with any machine-based sorters.
posted by nat at 9:02 AM on May 15, 2012
I don't know how it works in San Jose, but growing up we had municipal composting and if they found too many non-compostable items, they could and would fine you.
Which is why I had to pick all the metal staples off tea bags when I worked at Tim Horton's.
posted by hydrobatidae at 9:39 AM on May 15, 2012
Which is why I had to pick all the metal staples off tea bags when I worked at Tim Horton's.
posted by hydrobatidae at 9:39 AM on May 15, 2012
There area few variables here.
First the basics is it bad. Yes. as to how bad it depends. If a batch of compostables is grossly contaminated with non compostables. the processor may reject it and thereby increase the disposal costs for the batch. If it is not noticed it will contaminate the final compost and reduce it's salability. That may lead to an increase in removal costs for the company as a whole. As for recycling. Most big recycling operations use a combination of employees and optical scanners to remove contaminants from the recycling stream. If the stream has to many it may make the recycling effort too expensive by necessitating the use of more scanners and employees.
It is counter productive to do this without explaining it properly to employees .
posted by The Violet Cypher at 10:36 AM on May 15, 2012
First the basics is it bad. Yes. as to how bad it depends. If a batch of compostables is grossly contaminated with non compostables. the processor may reject it and thereby increase the disposal costs for the batch. If it is not noticed it will contaminate the final compost and reduce it's salability. That may lead to an increase in removal costs for the company as a whole. As for recycling. Most big recycling operations use a combination of employees and optical scanners to remove contaminants from the recycling stream. If the stream has to many it may make the recycling effort too expensive by necessitating the use of more scanners and employees.
It is counter productive to do this without explaining it properly to employees .
posted by The Violet Cypher at 10:36 AM on May 15, 2012
Best answer: Here in Portland, they recently started a curbside compost program that really stinks (literally!). They switched our garbage pick-up to every other week and pick up yard debris and compostables weekly.
Just today I saw a news story about how there is a new glut of used diapers in the recyclable materials because the trash isn't picked up as often. Having two kids in diapers myself, I can tell you for a fact that having your trash picked up every 14 days leads to crammed-full bins and a nasty odor. I'm not surprised some people are just tossing the diapers in with the recycling to get rid of the waste quicker.
The news story said the recycling center has seen an increase from about 1 dirty diaper a day to about 120 pounds of diapers daily.
If the city had just reduced our waste bills (because, you know, they halved the service!) then people might not be as irritated. But paying more (I had to get a larger bin) for half the service makes people irate.
All of that to say this: in Portland people are willfully tossing trash in the recycling to protest a program they don't like. I bet the same thing happens in office buildings.
posted by tacodave at 3:36 PM on May 15, 2012
Just today I saw a news story about how there is a new glut of used diapers in the recyclable materials because the trash isn't picked up as often. Having two kids in diapers myself, I can tell you for a fact that having your trash picked up every 14 days leads to crammed-full bins and a nasty odor. I'm not surprised some people are just tossing the diapers in with the recycling to get rid of the waste quicker.
The news story said the recycling center has seen an increase from about 1 dirty diaper a day to about 120 pounds of diapers daily.
If the city had just reduced our waste bills (because, you know, they halved the service!) then people might not be as irritated. But paying more (I had to get a larger bin) for half the service makes people irate.
All of that to say this: in Portland people are willfully tossing trash in the recycling to protest a program they don't like. I bet the same thing happens in office buildings.
posted by tacodave at 3:36 PM on May 15, 2012
Somebody can be granola-crunchy-green and still think it's unreasonable to be expected to get up and walk to the break room every time they have something non-recyclable and non-compostable to dispose of.
What my workplace did is to replace the previous wastebasket we each had at our desks with a blue recycling bin the same size and shape but which has a smaller bin for trash (about the size of a quart-sized zipper-lock plastic bag) that fits inside. Hey presto: the recyclables go in the main bin, the occasional non-recyclable thing goes in the small bin, the custodians don't have to pick through the trash, the desk workers don't have to break their concentration by getting up every time something non-recyclable needs to get tossed… everybody's happy. (We find that one generates compostable trash less often and at more defined times — lunch, coffee break, etc. — so getting up to take it to the kitchenette doesn't seem unreasonable. You've gotta wash your dish anyway, after all.)
posted by Lexica at 6:21 PM on May 15, 2012
What my workplace did is to replace the previous wastebasket we each had at our desks with a blue recycling bin the same size and shape but which has a smaller bin for trash (about the size of a quart-sized zipper-lock plastic bag) that fits inside. Hey presto: the recyclables go in the main bin, the occasional non-recyclable thing goes in the small bin, the custodians don't have to pick through the trash, the desk workers don't have to break their concentration by getting up every time something non-recyclable needs to get tossed… everybody's happy. (We find that one generates compostable trash less often and at more defined times — lunch, coffee break, etc. — so getting up to take it to the kitchenette doesn't seem unreasonable. You've gotta wash your dish anyway, after all.)
posted by Lexica at 6:21 PM on May 15, 2012
This thread is closed to new comments.
I don't know about municipal compost, but again, a program which assumes perfect compliance is going to be a disaster.
posted by muddgirl at 7:36 AM on May 15, 2012 [1 favorite]