Is America Over-Recycling?

American recycling practices need to change.  All-in-one recycling bins and carts are currently contaminated with material that cannot be recycled.  Contamination is simply any material that is not accepted in curbside recycling collection.  In recent decades, as the harmful effects of pollution became more evident, more and more people were willing to recycle.  But, this willingness to recycling can become a problem in itself.  Americans now “over-recycle” and toss non-recyclable items into their recycle bins.  This “over-recycling” may seem harmless, but the practice jeopardizes the success of all our recycling efforts.

Over-recycling adds garbage, food waste, and hazardous materials into the recycling stream.  As trucks deliver their mixed recyclable loads to sorting facilities, these contaminated items, destroy “good” materials and grind the progress of sorting facilities to a halt.

Problems caused by contaminated recycling include:

• If there are too many contaminants, loads of recycling become unacceptable.
• Recycling machinery and sorting lines must slow down to sort through additional waste material. This slower processing increases operating costs and puts our national recycling efforts in jeopardy.
• Recycling machinery is not made to handle all types of materials. Contaminants can ruin or damage equipment.
• Hazardous waste can cause fires and pose safety hazards for workers.

Traditionally, recycling facilities across the United States have shipped much of their raw recyclable materials to China for processing.  Plastics, paper and cardboard were gladly accepted by Chinese industries hungry to form new products from these raw materials. Recently, China is making efforts to reduce the amount, and increase the quality of raw recyclable materials entering the country. What does this mean for recycling materials Worldwide? Well, China is just not taking it.

A key solution to over-recycling is recycling education. Just because an item has a recycling symbol on it does not mean that it belongs in your recycling bin.  For example, although plastic bags have a recycling symbol, they are not accepted in curbside recycling programs.  Many grocery stores have plastic bag collection bins, so they can be sorted alone, kept clean and dry, then taken to a proper facility.