2013-01-22_PWETC_AgendaPacket - Laserfiche WebLink

Home

Analysis of Processing Residuals "Contaminants in Marketed Product" - Outthrows and prohibitives as defined for specific commodities and grades by each end market (i.e., mills or other manufacturing plants that utilize processed recyclable materials). If these terms are clearly defined and reported, the recycling industry will be able to better compare research results. The actual composition, sources, and systematic causes of increased processing residuals will be better understood. Also, through improved communications and professional research, public and private management controls will become more feasible and accepted as "best practices ". Thus, standardized definitions should be a first step if reducing the amount of processing residuals is a top priority for both municipalities and private contractors regardless if the collection system is dual- stream or single- stream. Data from the City of Roseville Recycling Pilot Project A comprehensive recyclable materials composition analysis was conducted as part of the overall City pilot project. One of the key indicators of effectiveness measured for each collection method was the amount of non - targeted material collected. The non - targeted material was divided into four subcategories: • Beer, Pop & Water Boxes • Other Paper Trash • Plastic Bags and Other Film Plastic • Other Trash The composition analysis team used a simple standard for determining if a questionable item should be sorted into the non - targeted material: "If the City public education tools list the item under Don't include these items' (in your curbside recycling bin), then the sampled item was placed in one of the non - targeted material subcategories. For example "beer, pop & water boxes" were defined as non - targeted materials because the City staff instructs residents who call to exclude these coated ( "wet strength ") boxes from their recyclable materials set at the curb. The Project Team's data analysis of the City's recyclable materials composition sorts (Appendix B of this report) compared the material compositions by weight of the single- stream collection routes to the dual- stream routes during the pilot. The results showed the percentages of non - targeted materials (contaminants) in the single- stream routes were higher than the percentages of non - targeted materials found in the dual - stream routes. Summary of WM Study at its Minneapolis MRF Waste Management, Inc. (WM) conducted a composition analysis at its Twin Cities MRF located in Minneapolis. The study, titled Summary - Single -Sort Constituent B1605 A -3