What is recycling contamination?
Have you ever heard anyone say that recycling is broken or that nothing actually gets recycled? What does this even mean, and more importantly: is it true? To understand why recycling is broken or breaking, you need to first understand recycling contamination. That’s because when people talk about recycling being “broken,” the main thing they’re referring to are the many problems caused by widespread contamination in today’s recycling system. The predicament of modern recycling is that within the “broken” system there are actually many systems working well that are only breaking because of an onslaught of contamination they were never designed to handle. So what is contamination and why is it so prevalent despite our best intentions?
What is recycling contamination?
Recycling contamination is when you give a recycler something that is difficult or impossible to recycle. This could mean sending a recycler a material that cannot be recycled, like a disposable diaper, or sending them something that can be recycled in a condition that makes it hard to recycle, like paper that’s oily. What’s tricky is that since most recyclers are only able to recycle certain materials, things like plastic clamshell containers are considered a contaminant in facilities that aren’t designed to handle them, even though they are recyclable elsewhere.
Why is recycling contamination such a big deal?
Recycling can and does work, but not when we continuously contaminate the materials we’re trying to recycle. As we discussed in our must-read post on “wishcycling,” sending a recycler something they can’t handle (a contaminant), makes the hard work of recycling everything else even harder. At best, someone has to take time to sort your contaminants out. At worst, it can actually compromise a whole load of otherwise recyclable materials and undermine the good habits & intentions of your neighbors. Recycling contamination is the definition of a lose-lose situation. Putting a contaminant in your bin doesn’t actually keep it out of the landfill and it ends up making the overall process of recycling more difficult, expensive, and inefficient for everyone, making recycling less sustainable in the long run.
What are some common types of recycling contamination?
Plastic film and plastic bags. While plastic film and thin plastic bags can be recycled by specialized facilities, when these materials are mixed together with other recyclables, they literally tangle up the sorting machinery at recycling facilities, causing major delays. They can also cause entire loads of other materials to be contaminated, and, in some cases, landfilled.
Dirty or oily paper. When paper is stained with food or oil, this damages the paper. This is a problem because dirty paper fibers won’t be strong enough to make a new paper product. This makes them no good for recycling. Wet paper additionally runs the risk of getting moldy before it can be recycled. When you put wet or dirty paper in your bin, it’s not just hard to recycle, it also runs the risk of contaminating the paper around it, too.
Clothing and textiles. While some clothing can be reused or recycled, curbside recycling facilities cannot do so, so sending it to them only slows down the recycler’s work as they pull out the clothes….to send them to the landfill.
Hard-to-recycle plastics. As we covered in our plastic numbers overview, some plastics are relatively easy to recycle curbside, while numbers 3-7 are much harder to recycle in practice. This is why many curbside recycling programs only accept some of these items. Putting them in your bin indiscriminately ends up contaminating your recycling and drives up costs for the entire system without keeping anything out of the landfill.
Electronics, lightbulbs, and batteries. Many of our modern gadgets and their accessories contain dangerous metals like lead, cadmium, and mercury, which means they pose contamination risks to the soil and water if handled improperly. Lithium ion batteries in particular are a big fire hazard when damaged or exposed to pressure and heat. Batteries have caused serious issues when mixed in with flammable paper recycling.
How can I avoid contaminating my recycling?
Learn what your local recycling service can accept. The first step to avoiding contaminating your recycling is getting wise on what your local service accepts and doesn’t accept. Find out who handles recycling where you live and then visit their website to see what their guidelines are. That way you can avoid accidentally wishcycling materials they’ll just have to sort out or throw away.
Keep your materials clean. Keep your recyclable paper dry and free of food and make sure your glass and aluminum are clean and dry as well.
Use Ridwell. We help make all of this easier and simpler, getting your reusable and hard-to-recycle materials to one of our trusted partners. We handle the research and legwork for you, so no more driving across town to a speciality facility!
How does Ridwell help prevent recycling contamination?
We’re doing our part by helping households with common contaminants like plastic film, batteries, and clothing get them to our partners so they find their way to the correct recycling or reuse stream. We offer regular pickup opportunities for core categories like plastic film, as well as featured categories that include potential contaminants like e-waste. In some markets we also offer add-on pickups for other contaminants like Styrofoam and plastic clamshells.
While recycling contamination can seem like a heavy and overwhelming topic, it’s also a huge opportunity for all of us to do better. Real change is needed on the collective and individual level, upstream as well as downstream. Truly solving our waste problem will require systemic policy solutions to change how goods are manufactured and packaged, but reducing contamination is one of the best ways all of us individually can help recycling as a whole work better. This means that all of us can start making a difference right now, in our homes!