Gretchen Carey, president of MassRecycle, tells WBUR, “In the Greater Boston area, 80 to 90 percent of our material had gone to China.” Since the new standard took effect, prices for recycled materials have plummeted. For example, the price of mixed paper has fallen from $75 per ton to less than $5. This shift impacts how MassRecycle conducts business, which affects local municipalities.

WBUR notes that local municipal budgets have been thrown out of order, “Massachusetts cities and towns, which are required to recycle household materials, are now scrambling to pay for something that used to turn a profit.” The cost of increased recycling and processing is substantial. According to Gunther Wellenstein, recycling coordinator for Lowell, the city’s new contract for recycling and processing may cost nearly $500,000 per year.

Coordinators like Wellenstein cover these costs by finding money elsewhere in the budget. Wellenstein says, “Half a million can come out of public safety, public education, economic development.” While some may see this as a waste of municipal funds or as unfair to other public service programs, Wellenstein adds, “You have to pay for the increase in trash.”

Single-stream recycling is another factor that has made China’s new policy so disruptive. Single-stream recycling is the system familiar to most people, in which all recyclable materials are deposited into the same bin and collected for processing. Massachusetts has eight Municipal Recovery Facilities (MRF) that process recycled materials.

According to WBUR, nearly 25 percent of waste collected by the Charlestown MRF cannot be recycled because of contamination or because the material is nonrecyclable. The remaining 75 percent is distributed into a waste stream and sorted into mixed paper, plastics, glass, and metals. Massachusetts’ MRFs are designed to reduce contamination to 3 percent, but they now must work to meet the new 0.5 percent standard.

When China first declined to purchase U.S. recycled materials due to contamination, commodity dealers shipped to new markets in Thailand, in India, and in Vietnam. However, these countries now also refuse to purchase recycled materials from the U.S. This means that much of the waste we recycle ends up in landfills.

Each year Massachusetts produces upward of 5.5 million tons of solid waste, 25 to 35 percent of which is recycled. The rest is deposited across 12 landfills in the state. As those sites reach capacity, up to one-third of the waste tonnage is shipped to Ohio, Pennsylvania, and New York for processing and disposal.

Two relatively easy ways for communities to help the problem are to be mindful of what gets recycled and to make sure that materials are indeed recyclable. Wash plastic containers, such as yogurt cups and peanut butter jars. Pizza boxes with grease stains are okay. Bowling balls and other Marie Kondoed household items are not.

On a macro-level, new markets need to be created for recycled materials. Massachusetts has started to offer “grants to cities and local companies so they can buy grinders to turn … recycled glass into an aggregate to use for building sidewalks and roads and filling potholes.” Although no one solution can address every aspect of the problem that the recycling industry faces, smaller cumulative steps go a long way to help.

What other solutions have your community or municipality considered or implemented to help solve the recycling problem? Leave a comment to let us know!

Source:

Gellerman, Bruce, “How a New Policy in China Has Led to a Recycling Crisis in Mass.,” WBUR, accessed March 20, 2019.

Break out the good champagne!

According to Bloomberg, Disney is the latest company to join a growing list of corporations that have decided to stop the use of single-use plastic straws. Earlier this month, The Washington Post reported that Seattle became “the first major city in the United States to ban drinking straws,” and Starbucks announced that it would remove single-use plastic straws from its 28,000 stores by 2020. To round out this plastic-free parade, in June BBC News reported that McDonald’s will replace plastic straws with paper ones in all of its UK and Ireland locations, starting in September.

For those of you on the front lines of the single-use plastic straw movement, we hope that these recent moves in corporate America will encourage you to keep fighting the good fight. These huge shifts signify not only that your efforts are having an effect, but that the removal of single-use plastic straws is becoming the new norm in our society. At a time when it feels like so much in the world is going wrong, it is refreshing to learn that some things are going right.

To learn more about plastic pollution and an inspiring global effort to reduce plastic waste, read our blog post from last July, Plastic Waste & The Ocean Cleanup.

Sources:

Golum, Rob, “Disney Joins Cast of Companies Abandoning Plastic Straws,” Bloomberg, 2018.
Wootson, Jr., Cleve R., “Seattle becomes first major U.S. city to ban straws,” The Washington Post, 2018.
“Disney Expands Environmental Commitment by Reducing Plastic Waste,” The Walt Disney Company, 2018.
“McDonald’s to ditch plastic straws,” BBC News, 2018.
“Starbucks to Eliminate Plastic Straws Globally by 2020,” Starbucks, 2018.

With a New Year on the horizon, there is no shortage of New Year Resolution articles and blog posts popping up. From exercising and eating right, to giving up smoking, recycling or spending more time with family – the intention is always there, but not always the follow through.

It’s important to set yourself up for success when creating your New Year’s resolution list, (that is if you’re creating a list at all). How you ask? By remembering the 66-day rule.

On average, it takes more than 2 months before a new behavior becomes automatic — 66 days to be exact. And how long it takes a new habit to form can vary widely depending on the behavior, the person, and the circumstances.

Take recycling for example; to be successful, it will be important to recycle diligently for about two months. Once you make it past this milestone, you are well on your way to achieving your goal for the remainder of the year.

It’s always easier to break new goals up into smaller more attainable pieces. If you start off by saying that you will recycle everyday for the whole year, the likelihood of that happening is slim. Now, by breaking it down into weeks and giving yourself a more tangible timeline your recycling goal is much more attainable.

Remember, 66 is the magic number. Focus on making it to March 7th and the rest of the year should be a cakewalk… that is if you’re still eating cake by then. Whatever your goals are for 2016, we hope this post helps you achieve them! Leave us your thoughts and New Year’s resolutions below.

We wish everyone a Happy and Safe New Year’s Eve!

Tom Cherry, CEO and Founder of Remyndr