Trash Tutorial: Please, careful what you put in the bins

December 9, 2014

Today’s guest blog is by Sarah Kite-Reeves, Director of Recycling Services at Rhode Island Resource Recovery and NERC Board of Directors Treasurer. It first appeared as a special to the Providence (RI) Journal.

Every now and then I have the opportunity in this space to speak from the heart. I’m very grateful to The Providence Journal for allowing me to do so.

With Thanksgiving approaching, I can’t think of a better time to give thanks to Rhode Islanders for participating in the statewide recycling program, and to give thanks to the many people who work at the Materials Recycling Facility in Johnston.

These men and women do back-breaking work. From 6 in the morning to 4 or 5 at night, they move, sift, pull, and sort Rhode Island’s recyclables. They pull material out of the stream that truly doesn’t belong — tires, chains, clothing and hoses. But recently, for reasons I don’t understand, the recycling loads have been covered in things that are not only messy, but can be dangerous to handle.

Every day, we deal with items that shouldn’t be in the bins. But over the past three weeks, recycling loads from all over the state have been contaminated by food scraps, leaf and yard waste, paint, chemicals, and human or animal waste.

Bags and bags of dirty diapers have found their way into recycling bins and carts. Full bags of trash are being “recycled.” Food waste — everything from half eaten hamburgers to vegetable scraps to leftover take out — is being found in recycling carts and bins. Why? And why now?

The suddenness is curious, as if a switch was flipped somewhere that made people forget which cart was which. Even communities that normally have stellar recycling records have sent us contaminated loads. I’d love to hear (anonymously is fine) from those who’ve tossed diapers and food and paint in their recycling, to better understand what the decision-making process was.

Was the trash overflowing? Was the recycling cart the first thing you saw early in the morning? When walking your dog, was recycling the first container you came across on the way home?

Or something different? Do you “make the leap” that if paper is recyclable then the wood from which it is made must also be OK for the bin? (It isn’t). Or are alternate recycling options too burdensome? You may know that there is a recycling center in town that will accept leaf and yard debris, but it’s easier to just put it in your recycling bin?

There are dozens of people who have to physically touch your recyclables to ensure that everything is sorted properly by the machines down the line. People have to pull the bags of diapers off the line, pull the engine blocks off the line, avoid the needles and syringes that explode on the conveyor belts, and try to catch the sheets and towels before they wrap around the sorting screens and cause a fire.

Propane tanks of all sizes, jugs of unknown liquids, bags of Styrofoam peanuts, paper saturated with paint are all contaminants and have the power to shut down the facility or cause our people harm.

Many things are recyclable, but not everything recyclable belongs in your cart or bin.

To watch a video about the recycling facility so that you can see the process up close, visit youtube.com/rirrc, and click on the MRF virtual tour.

So, in speaking from the heart, I ask you please at this time of year when we celebrate family to ensure that your recycling carts and bins only hold things that are actually in the Rhode Island program. If you’re not sure about something, you can write me, call us, send an email to info@rirrc.org, or look online at atoz.rirrc.org.

Trash Tutorial: Please, careful what you put in the bins was first published on November 22, 201. It is reprinted here courtesy of the Providence (RI) Journal. Sarah Kite-Reeves, director of recycling services at Rhode Island Resource Recovery, answers questions of general interest posed by Journal readers about recycling, municipal composting, hazardous household waste, waste reduction and other related matters. Send your questions to Trash Tutorial, Features Department, The Providence Journal, 75 Fountain St., Providence RI 02902. You can also email your question to features@providencejournal.com. Put Trash Tutorial in the subject field.

NERC welcomes Guest Blog submissions. To inquire about submitting articles contact Athena Lee Bradley, Projects Manager. Disclaimer: Guest blogs represent the opinion of the writers and may not reflect the policy or position of the Northeast Recycling Council, Inc.