8380/2018 Your Recycling Gets Recycled, Right? Maybe, or Maybe Not - The New York Times
Waste traveling along a conveyor belt to be sorted. Wiqan Ang for The New York Times
Mr. Bell, the Waste Management executive, said he had seen everything from Christmas lights to
animal carcasses to artillery shells come through the company’s recycling facilities. “Most of our
facilities get a bowling ball every day or two,” he said.
Some materials can ruin a load, he said, while others pose fire or health hazards and can force
facilities to slow their operations and in some cases temporarily shut down. (And a bowling ball
could do serious damage to the equipment.) Approximately 25 percent of all recycling picked up
by Waste Management is contaminated to the point that it is sent to landfills, Mr. Bell said.
Recyclers have always disposed of some of their materials. But the percentage has climbed as
China and other buyers of recyclable material have ratcheted up quality standards.
Most contamination, Mr. Bell said, happens when people try to recycle materials they shouldn’t.
Disposable coffee cups — which are usually lined with a thin film that makes them liquid-proof
but challenging and expensive to reprocess — are an example. Unwashed plastics can also cause
contamination.
“If we don’t get it clean, we’re not going to be able to market it, and if we can’t market it
unfortunately it’s going to go to the landfill,” said Mr. Penning, the Rogue spokesman. In March,
Rogue told customers to put everything in the trash except for corrugated cardboard, milk jugs,
newspapers and tin and aluminum cans, which the company is finding domestic markets for, Mr.
Penning said.
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