Is Recycling Circular?
By Kristin Schillings
Recycling systems and a circular economy go hand in hand. Recycling is a vital part of municipal waste management plans, diverting millions of tons of material from municipal landfills every year and providing thousands of jobs. Recyclable materials are a commodity, and there are businesses built around collecting used materials and processing them into parts that can be used for something new. With curbside pickups that accept many different types of recyclables mixed together, we’ve gotten good at collecting. Cities contract with Material Recovery Facilities (MRFs) who sort through the materials they collect at the curb. Durham, along with many other NC cities, uses Sonoco Recycling to processes their recyclables. Sorted materials are baled up and sold to processors and end users of the recycled material. As part of sorting, MRFs remove material that can’t be recycled or is contaminated and unusable. Unfortunately, the value of recycled materials is not always enough to cover the significant expense of collecting, sorting, and removing contamination. While being able to recycle a resource seems to imply that it is part of a circular system, the reality is complicated by the challenges faced at the Material Recovery Facilities and those inherent in trying to reprocess something old into components that can be turned something new.
The first hurdle for sorters of recycled material is contamination. Many places have moved to single stream recycling, which means all the different types of recyclables go into the same bin. This requires a great deal more sorting, not all of which can be done by machine. Frequently things that aren’t recyclable at the Material Recovery Facility (straws, bags, takeout containers) end up in the bin and have to be removed and trashed, and not every facility is set up to process the same types of recyclables. It’s hard to ensure that people only put the right type of recyclables in the bin, especially when what is acceptable varies by MRF.
Not only does contamination make materials more difficult to sort, but it also significantly reduces the value of the materials for sale. Until they banned the import of recycled material in 2018, China was the most significant buyer of sorted recyclables for many cities in the United States, including those in the Triangle. Abruptly, towns like Cary suddenly went from being able to sell their curbside collections to having to pay the Material Recovery Facility to take what they picked up. Recycled materials are only valuable if there is somebody interested in taking the trouble to process them back into useable raw materials. While certain types of plastics and aluminum may still be valuable enough to be worth collecting and processing, some traditionally recycled materials like glass are no longer worth selling. It is a long and costly journey from the curbside collection bin back to the manufacturer. Recycled materials are exported all over the world before they end up in new products, and the countries that still accept recycled materials are finding that importing plastic waste is associated with water contamination and respiratory ailments from incineration.
Being able to easily collect a large variety of materials and turn them back into new products would be great. Unfortunately, the reality of the situation is just not so simple. From the current state of our recycling infrastructure, we can see that just because a material can be recycled, getting it through the system to churn out something new comes with an incredible amount of cost. A circular system includes designing resources that last a long time and can be reused indefinitely. Instead of trying to recycle our way out of filling up our landfills, a better solution would be to reduce the number of materials designed to be used once and wasted.
The Zero Waste Hierarchy give us a better model to work towards, one that prioritizes reduction and conservation. Recycling needs to be reframed as a small but important part of a comprehensive waste strategy.