recycling myths debunked (city of burnsville 3/20/2014)
TRANSCRIPT
Recycling
Thursday, March 2011:00am, Burnsville City Hall
Dakota Valley RecyclingLeigh Behrens & Andrea Uhl
Recycling Misconceptions:
Doesn’t save natural resources
We already recycle all we can
Recycling is too inconvenient
Recyclables get thrown in the landfill anyway
Single-sort recycling leads to useless, contaminated recyclables
Recyclables aren’t worth much if anything
Causes more pollution than it prevents
Costs too much/should pay for itself
All gets shipped somewhere far away
One person can’t make a difference in recycling
Myth 1: Recycling Doesn’t Save Natural Resources Life-cycle analysis: examines the entire
chain of events from manufacture to disposal
For every item recycled, that’s one less item that needs to be produced from virgin material
Recycling 1 ton of steel saves 2,500 pounds of ore, 1,400 pounds of coal and 120 pounds of limestone
Source: Steel Recycling Institute
Every ton of newsprint or mixed paper recycled saves the equivalent of cutting down 17 trees to make paper
Source: National Recycling Coalition
The energy conserved by recycling exceeds the electricity generated by waste-to-energy facilities
Minnesota’s Waste Management Hierarchy
Myth #2: We already recycle as much as we can In 2013, MPCA took samples of garbage
from 6 landfills, including: Pine Bend Landfill, Inver Grove Heights
Findings: about 40% of garbage could have been recycled
Compostable material (such as food) is over 25% of our trash
Similar to 2000 (still lots of work to do)
Myth #3: Recycling is too inconvenient
http://youtu.be/HLJYQaoLgag?t=28s
Convenience of Recycling Recycling: more popular than voting!
Voting: 83.9% Recycling: 91%
Source: Eagan Patch, Eagan 2012 Residential Survey
All Burnsville residents have access to recycling as per City ordinance 433 (7-7-4, 12-2-1991)
Dakota County Recycling Center (The Recycling Zone) in Eagan acts as a drop-off site for residents
Single sort recycling (where all recyclables go into one bin) means less sorting: easier than ever!
More materials recyclable—can be confusing Solution: go online to
www.DakotaValleyRecycling.org/curbside to see a poster of everything your hauler accepts
Myth 4: Recyclables just get thrown away State Statute 115A.95: Haulers are not
allowed to take materials that were collected as recycling to landfills or incinerators for disposal; nor are those places legally allowed to accept them
Haulers bring recyclables to a MRF (materials recovery facility) to be sorted
Twin Cities MRFs Allied Waste (Republic) - Inver Grove Heights Waste Management – Northeast Minneapolis Dem-Con – Shakopee
Recyclables go through a series of conveyors, screens, magnets and manual sorting
Let’s see how it works
At the end of the process, baled material is sold for reprocessing
Glass is sold for secondary sorting to be separated by color
Myth #5: Single-sort leads to contamination of recyclables “Commingled” or “Single-Sort” recycling
means putting all your recyclables in one receptacle How can bits of glass be separated the
other recyclables? Do paper envelopes get mixed in with
plastic bottles? How do things of similar shapes, like cans
and bottles, get separated?
Sorting at the MRF Sorting process for commingled
recyclables: http://youtu.be/5YaTpL8nl7c?t=1m19s Order of separation:
Cardboard (cardboard screen) “fines” (fines screen) Paper from containers (double-deck paper
screen and banana screen) Steel from containers (magnet) Aluminum from containers (Eddy current) Plastics left over Glass from “fines”
After the MRF: Glass sorting Glass must be sorted by color
Brown (Amber) Green Clear
New technology: optical sorting! Developed for sorting agricultural
products
After the MRF: Optical Sorting, Technology in Action ! http://youtu.be/V54iBP2CU6c?t=2m14s
After the MRF: Plastics Sorting How do caps, lids and labels get
removed? If all colors are mixed together, why
isn’t all recycled plastic an ugly gray color?
After the MRF: Plastics Sorting How do caps, lids and labels get
removed? Shredded into “flake” Fed into a giant water bath http://youtu.be/zyF9MxlcItw?t=1m (to 1:39)
PET (#1 plastic, e.g. pop bottles) sinks Bottle caps (#5), labels, contaminant
float Bath 1: skim off bottle caps Bath 2: skim off labels
Plastics Sorting If all colors are mixed
together, why isn’t all recycled plastic an ugly gray color?
Answer: optical sorting!
www.youtube.com/watch?v=EAOg9AaxGWI
Sort as feedstock for pellet-ization
Product: Companies can manufacture plastic
pellets into millions of colors to, in turn, be manufactured into “new” plastic bottles
Myth 6: Recyclables aren’t worth anything Recycling is a business: investment Market values vary (for both virgin and
recycled materials)
Recyclables Worth Something Aluminum: a pop can returns to the grocery
store shelf as a “new” can in as few as 60 days
Steel: scrap is the largest source of raw material in the steel industry because it is so economically advantageous over virgin
Glass: recycled glass extends the life of glass furnaces. Energy costs drop by 0.5% for every 1% of recycled glass used
Paper: more than 80% of US paper manufacturers use recycled fiber
Sources: Aluminum Association, Steel Recycling Institute, Glass Packaging Institute
Myth 7: Recycling causes more pollution than it prevents A national recycling rate of 30% reduces
greenhouse gas emissions equal to taking 25 million cars off the road
Source: U.S. Environmental Protection Agency
Throwing away an aluminum can wastes as much energy as pouring out 6 ounces of gasoline
Making a can from recycled aluminum takes 95% less energy than making a can from virgin ore
Source: Keep America Beautiful
In the U.S., processing minerals creates 1.5 million tons of air and water pollution each year
Recycling can significantly reduce these emissions
Source: World Watch Institute
Myth 8: Recycling costs too much/should pay for itself
MN State Statute 297H: Solid Waste Management tax
MN State Statute 400.08: financial incentive to recycle (volume-based rates)
Collection cost + disposal cost + waste tax = Garbage service costCollection cost – sale of recyclables =
Recycling service cost
Households and businesses can save money by reducing trash volume
Financial, economic and environmental benefits
37,000 jobs in MN directly/indirectly supported by recycling industry
Recycling creates 4 jobs for every 1 job in waste disposal and management industries
In 2010, 2.5 million tons of recyclables collected: est. worth $690 million
Not recycling costs money: 1.2 million tons of recyclables (worth est. $285 million) were thrown into landfills, which cost MN $200 million
NRC Recycling Economic Information Study
Recycling paying for itself Thousands of US companies save money
by having voluntary recycling programs Automotive companies: toward zero waste
GM: 92%, Toyota: 96%, Honda: 10 plants @ 100%
ARROW program: businesses in Burnsville, Eagan and Apple Valley that recycle http://
www.dakotavalleyrecycling.org/current-members
Myth 9: Your recyclables are all shipped out of state/country Many factories in MN use recycled
materials Anchor Glass: Shakopee, MN RockTenn (Paper): St. Paul, MN Liberty Paper: Becker, MN Bedford Technologies (HDPE):
Worthington, MN Choice Plastics: Mound, MN Many more
Recycled Glass in MN Anchor Glass (Shakopee)
Video (3:58)
Source: Recycling Association of Minnesota, KARE11
Recycled Plastic in MN Bedford Technologies (Worthington):
HDPE 5,000 tons of #2 plastic per year turned
into plastic lumber products Ladtech Systems: (Lino Lakes): HDPE
1,000 tons of #2 plastic per year to make sewer adjustment rings for manholes
Master Mark (Albany, Paynesville): HDPE Over 500,000 tons of #2 plastic per year
for lawn, garden and building supplies
Source: Recycling Association of Minnesota
Recycled Plastic in MN Choice Plastics (Mound): multiple
types of plastics Clean pellets for manufacturing
Gopher Resource (Eagan): Polypropylene (car battery cases) Turned into:
Battery cases/covers Shovels Floor mats Car Components
Source: Recycling Association of Minnesota
Recycled Metal in MN Alter Corp. (Anoka, Hayfield, Marshall,
Mankato, St. Paul): Steel and aluminum Processor and broker of multiple types of
material Kirschbaum & Krupp (Minneapolis):
Steel & non-ferrous scrap metal
Source: Recycling Association of Minnesota, MPCA
Recycled Paper in MN RockTenn (St. Paul): Paper
100 tons per day 50% of the paper recycled in MN
Liberty Paper (Becker): Cardboard 200,000 tons of materials diverted from
the landfill each year Turned into paper
International Paper (Roseville): Paper 21 facilities in N. America 10% of all paper recovered in the US goes
to an Int’l Paper facility
Source: Recycling Association of Minnesota
Myth 10: One person cannot make a difference The average American generates 4.38
pounds of waste per day 34.5 % of that is composted 61,061 people live in Burnsville, creating
roughly 267,477 pounds (133 tons) of waste per year
Source: U.S. Environmental Protection Agency
If every person in Burnsville threw away just one plastic bottle each day, that would add up to 22.3 million bottles in the landfill every year
There are 7 billion people in the world – what if they all decided not to recycle?
“Nobody made a greater mistake than he who did nothing because he could do only a little.” – Edmund Burke
Plastics, the “new” packaging http://youtu.be/s5p6Nk3SzcU?t=14s