Over and beyond: some municipal recycling programs set up systems to handle items beyond bottles, cans and paper

Recycling Today, June, 2004 by Myron Love

With curbside programs well established throughout North America, states and municipalities that are supportive of recycling have begun to move their programs beyond the cans, bottles, plastic containers and newspapers traditionally collected.

The City of Ann Arbor, Mich., for example, has had an ongoing commitment to increasing recovery of materials from its waste stream. In its most recent Solid Waste Management Plan, Tom McMurtrie of Ann Arbor's Systems Planning Unit-Public Services, says the city has committed to increasing its residential landfill diversion rate from 50 percent to 60 percent.

"There are two ways to do this," he says. "One is to get more people to increase recycling of materials currently offered. The second is to identify additional materials in the waste stream that could be recovered and broaden the program to include those."

SPREADING THE NEWS. Ann Arbor, McMurtrie points out, has chosen to both increase participation and to add materials to its program. The city is providing extensive promotional efforts to encourage as many people to recycle as possible and is broadening the number of materials offered.

Some of the items currently permitted for curbside recycling include juice boxes, small scrap metal, used motor oil and oil filters, paperbacks, phone books, ceramic dishes/ mugs and aerosol cans.

In addition, residents can recycle some specialty materials at a drop-off station. These include polystyrene, plastic bags, egg cartons, textiles, car tires, car batteries, automotive fluids and hardcover books.

Recycle Ann Arbor, the non-profit agency that coordinates recycling in the city (see "Tried & True," Recycling Today, March 2004 Municipal Recycling Supplement, p. S17), has been aggressively pursuing material reuse through its Reuse Center. These include a variety of items, such as furniture, household fixtures, sports equipment, lumber and other materials.

In some places, such as Ontario and California, the move to expand the recycling stream is being driven by state or provincial government regulations. Joel Corona, recycling market area manager in California for the Recycle America Alliance subsidiary of Waste Management Inc., Houston, notes, for example, that state law prohibits the dumping of tires and strongly discourages disposing of electronic equipment in landfills.

In Ontario, the Waste Diversion Act, which was passed by the government of the day in June, 2002, requires a waste diversion program for organic waste and used tires as well as other non-traditional items such as oil, pharmaceuticals, electronics, batteries and fluorescent lighting tubes.

How municipalities in Ontario are to go about collecting these other potential recyclables is still being determined to a large degree.

Recycling goals that may be either self-imposed or state-mandated often drive recycling program managers to look for new materials for recovery, says the city of Palm Beach (Fla.) Solid Waste Authority's Patrick Carroll. Public demand also sometimes drives the recovery of certain materials, he adds.

Joel Corona, notes, for example, the State of California prohibits the dumping of tires and CRT devices (TVs and monitors), and strongly discourages disposing of other electronic equipment and construction and demolition material in landfills. Many communities include curbside collection of used motor oil and drop-off sites for household hazardous wastes. Processors, collectors and local governments have developed programs that provide incentives that encourage recycling rather than disposing. The City of San Jose and Alameda County have been very progressive, Corona says.

HANDLING WITH CARE. Waste Management/Recycle America Alliance has invested greatly in West Coast material processing operations to reduce the amount of material that is disposed of in landfills, according to the company.

These operations include conventional material processing and post-processing operations that provide advanced optical sorting for mixed glass, plastic and electronic product recycling through the CRA (Container Recycling Alliance glass recycling operations), PREI (plastic container recycling) and e-cycling subsidiaries. Greater investment is planned for expanded residential, commercial, construction and organic recycling, Corona says.

"These services help our customers gain and maintain compliance of the diversion mandates prescribed by state law," Corona adds.

In jurisdictions where senior government is not forcing the issue, some individual municipalities, like Ann Arbor, are expanding recycling programs on their own initiative. "In addition to simply wanting to reduce the waste stream as much as practical, many municipalities, such as ours, have set specific waste reduction goals," says Van Vliet, solid waste management engineer for the city of Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada. "Enhancing or broadening programs, when practical and sustainable, works to wards achieving the goals."

"In our case, we made the decision to put together an integrated solid waste system," says Eric Hofmeister, commissioner of the Department of Environmental Control for the community of Islip (population 310,000), a suburb of New York City. "We are always looking for more ways to cut the waste stream and recycle and reuse products."