2005-07-26_PWETC_AgendaPacket - Laserfiche WebLink

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Materials Recovered and Contamination An important part of the recycling loop is that material set out by residents is made into new products. There are hundreds of Minnesota manufacturers who use recycled material to make new items. Those companies rely on a steady, reliable stream of quality recycled material (Brian Larsen, Bedford Technologies; Tom Troskey, Rock Tenn - Presentation at 2005 Minnesota Air, Water & Waste Conference, February 16,2005). Manufacturers routinely have to remove some contaminants from their bales of recycled material. Each industry has its own standards for how much contamination is acceptable, but it is only a small percent of the bale weight. There are two main sources of contaminants in finished bales: other recyclable materials that were not properly separated at the materials recovery facility, and non-recyclable material collected with recyclable material that is not properly separated at the recovery facility.. Examples of the later are non- targeted plastics such as margarine tubs and cardboard boxes for froz~l1 fQods. Those contaminants increase costs to manufacturers because thepOll1panies hay~to pay to dispose of the contaminants (usually in the trash) and to buy more recycled material to compensat~ for the loss. If manufacturers have to pay more for their raw materials t~~(may have to increaseth@jJfice of their finished product. Increasing prices can put manufacturers who use recycled material at a comp~titive disadvantage compared to manufacturers who use virgin material becauseIIlatly SOl1sumers base their buying choices primarily on price. As mentioned earlier, this study wanted to look ate<.l~c~tional material~tl1at would help residents put more of the wanted materials out for collection and mor9 ofthelJl].'Nanted materials in the garbage. This study also wanted to examine if collection methods mightinfluel1cethe .amount of unwanted material put out for collection. An issue raised with commingW<.l dual-str~<llll and single-stream collection is the degree to which they result in material being collected thati~not ultimately made intQamanufactured product. Such contamination or residuals falls into three categories: . Non-targetedrnaterials, at the(:llIb: Material{that are defined by the municipality as not acceptable but are frequently inclugeg by resig~nts in their curbside bins, such as film plastic and beer/pop/water boxes. . ProcessirigTe~iduals, at thefaFility: ~aterials that are disposed as trash as an unwanted by-product after processing of recyclablell1aterials at MRFs, such as dirt, residue in containers, and items contaminated t()1:l1~ point ofrendering them non-marketable. . Contaminants in marketed product, at the mill: Inclusion of materials that are prohibited or which exceed specificatiorisforanend-market. For example, glass is a prohibited contaminant in most end market specifications fol'newspaper bales from recovered paper suppliers. Regarding glass, in addition to any potential contamination of recovered paper, there is an ongoing debate about glass that is broken during the collection and processing of commingled materials that cannot be separated by color for recycling back into glass bottles. Such glass pieces may instead be used for lower value uses, such as alternative daily cover at landfills, raising the question as to whether some of those uses should be treated as recycling or disposal. To measure what is in the recycling collected at the curb Roseville conducted material composition sorts as part of this pilot program. II