Does single-source recycling work? Well it turns out not really. While the old days of carefully curating five distinct bags of garbage er recycling produced lower participation and increased hassle, it turns out it was better at actually making sure the items were recyclable.
Nowadays, after two decades of single-source programs which seemed heavenly in comparison, it turns out it does not really produce more recyclable material. The reason is simple.
Items which don’t recycle well frequently get thrown together thus making the whole batch of material below standards.
It also has to do with the story I covered last year about China raising the standards of foreign objects in recyclable material. It also turned out that China didn’t want to be the waste dump of the world anymore. Prices by the ton plunged while costs went up, a fact that the recycling industry is still working it’s way out.
A decade ago, large trash companies could sell the unprocessed recycling at a price which actually subsidized the pickup experience for the end-user. That’s right, you were actually getting paid (through your HOA or landlord) to recycle.
It turns our that single-stream recycling schemes do increase participation in recycling progams, in fact drastically, but doesn’t actually produce more recyclable material.
But that has all changed and many communities are needing to raise prices on single-source recycling or do away with it altogether.
Has your community changed it’s recycling policies this year? Is the era of easy reycling over?