Alas, springtime is around the corner and baseball's spring training has already started. However, things that are done the same way all the time, do not necessarily remain the same forever. This holds true for recycling. At first we the consumer were asked to sort and recycle. Then townships believed more people would recycle if the consumer didn't have to sort paper from cardboard and plastic from glass. Thus, the Townships only had employees sorting at the receiving end of the line. Efficiency dropped compared to when sorting was being done on both ends.
Next we have manufacturers of items, such as plastic containers, being made more efficiently by using less plastic. Today, plastic bottles are lighter and larger plastic jugs have thinner walls. These facts has thrown two strikes against recycling!
Strike One: Thinner walls means less plastic and less aluminum with bottles and cans. This translates into less profitable operations for recyclers who need more weight to make money.
Next we have manufacturers of items, such as plastic containers, being made more efficiently by using less plastic. Today, plastic bottles are lighter and larger plastic jugs have thinner walls. These facts has thrown two strikes against recycling!
Strike One: Thinner walls means less plastic and less aluminum with bottles and cans. This translates into less profitable operations for recyclers who need more weight to make money.
Unwanted Recycled Products Strike Two: The lighter weight makes sorting much more difficult at the end of the recycling line when using compressed air to blow papers out of the pile and leave heavier plastic bottles behind. The plastic bottles are now blowing out of the pile with the paper! End result, China is no longer importing low-quality recycled plastics from the United States. That is when plastics have paper or other items mixed within. The wall went up in 2012 with Operation Green Fence, thus leaving many American recyclers in the dugout with no other deal on the table to unload all their recycled product.
Operation Green Fence is China saying NO to contamination in any recyclable scrap. So a bale a plastic with some sheets of paper within, will be rejected because that paper is a contaminant. The same holds true for food waste on aluminum and cardboard or grass clippings within anything else. Since 2012 China has demanded contamination levels to drop from 10% to 1.5 percent. China has forced America's recycling industry to rethink their entire operation of recycling. From the consumers recycling bin at the curb to the bailing of the product. The reason is because China purchased two-thirds of America's recyclable scrap in 2011 according to the Institute of Scrap Recyclers (ISRI).
Strike Three? An article in the New York Times by David Gelles presented that the market for recycled plastic is about to dry up. The reason and possible strike three is due to oil prices dropping to lows that I have not seen since I started driving. Virgin plastic produced from cheap fossil fuels means recycled plastic is only worth half of what it was last year. Townships are paying to cart away their recyclables to be incinerated or dumped in a landfill because it is cheaper!
Strike Three? An article in the New York Times by David Gelles presented that the market for recycled plastic is about to dry up. The reason and possible strike three is due to oil prices dropping to lows that I have not seen since I started driving. Virgin plastic produced from cheap fossil fuels means recycled plastic is only worth half of what it was last year. Townships are paying to cart away their recyclables to be incinerated or dumped in a landfill because it is cheaper!
Caught Looking! So springtime of 2016 looks like Strike Three is about to cross over America's Home plate with recycling. Will we just stand there and watch the ball go by? Only to hear the umpire yell, "You're Out!"
I for one, would swing for the Green Fences by stopping the "cutting corners" to make more profit in the short term, thus losing more money in the long term. Also let's not delay the innovations in plastics that are waiting to come up and bat for America. New technologies are helping to transform old plastics back into new high quality plastics. I am tired of the proverbially saying, "That will take another ten years." We went to our moon and back in less than ten years, if we know about a new innovation, lower the profit margin goals and get the technology working!
Also let us go back to multi-layer sorting. American people are not allergic to work and spending a few extra minutes to sort our stuff before putting it to the curb. If anyone is, write them up with a fine after three warnings, because three strikes you are out does not just apply to America's past time called Baseball.
Bill Lauto , GTG
Environmental Scientist
International Sustainability and Energy Consultant
Contribute your comments!
I for one, would swing for the Green Fences by stopping the "cutting corners" to make more profit in the short term, thus losing more money in the long term. Also let's not delay the innovations in plastics that are waiting to come up and bat for America. New technologies are helping to transform old plastics back into new high quality plastics. I am tired of the proverbially saying, "That will take another ten years." We went to our moon and back in less than ten years, if we know about a new innovation, lower the profit margin goals and get the technology working!
Also let us go back to multi-layer sorting. American people are not allergic to work and spending a few extra minutes to sort our stuff before putting it to the curb. If anyone is, write them up with a fine after three warnings, because three strikes you are out does not just apply to America's past time called Baseball.
Bill Lauto , GTG
Environmental Scientist
International Sustainability and Energy Consultant
Contribute your comments!
