The recycling enigma.
Most households and businesses stuff their recycling bins with all kinds of items – glass, cardboard, aluminum, paper, and lots (and LOTS) of plastic - from yogurt containers & clam shells (those light weight containers used to package berries etc) to plastic toothpaste tubes & laundry jugs. Even stretchy plastic bags for food storage, bags from shipping clothing & many plastic bubble mailers have the “chasing arrows” recycling symbol on them…so into the bin they go. It’s no wonder people are confused about what they can actually recycle & many of us question if these materials will ever actually get recycled, but we throw them in anyway - this is referred to as “wishcycling”.
Technically, many materials can be recycled. But whether or not it’s actually recycled depends on the material as well as economics - is the cost to collect and process it lower than the profit from the resulting material? If yes, then it might be recycled; if no, it’s dumped or incinerated. Up until recently, our recycling bin here in Orange County had a sign on it that showed our hauler accepted all kinds of plastics, plus shoes & clothing! Once we downgraded to a smaller bin, the sign was suddenly updated to “plastic bottles & jugs” with no mention of shoes & clothing (and yes, aluminum is always accepted as well as cardboard and often glass). It turned out it’s been years since those other items were eligible in our curbside recycling, especially since countries like China and Turkey stopped taking our waste after 2018.
Below are some options to consider to keep plastics as well as clothing/fabrics (especially soiled and torn pieces that can’t be donated) out of our landfills. We know these options are far from perfect since it’s not really doing anything to solve the labeling or plastic manufacturing issue. Plus it requires energy to mail all this stuff or collect/drop off at bins inside of stores (“store drop off”). Again, the best thing you can do is refuse single use plastics and avoid using hard to recycle plastics.
Retail store drop-off and paid recycling services - a hoax or a solution?
Bagandfilmrecycling.org, which lists locations that accept clean and dry plastic bags, plastic wrap, air pillows, bubble wrap, bread bags etc), was shut down years ago due to lack of funding and results. Recycling plastic film and bags has been proven to be a failure. Refuse plastic bags whenever you can and, if you end up with them, reuse your bags for garbage or pet waste and throw them away.
Pact Collective is a non-profit who claims to drive sustainability in the beauty industry by recycling beauty packaging, most of which is “mixed use” materials that local recyclers will not accept. Once again, we say the focus needs to be on the beauty/personal care industry who need to take responsibility and create sustainable packaging.
For Days is a upcycling company accepting all kinds of clothing-related materials, they prmote their “Take back bag” as Trashie. For Days claims to sell donated materials to manufacturers who turn it into insulation, rugs or cleaning materials. They also claim to use almost half of what they receive to make their own upcycled clothing. We have requested but have yet to receive any audited data on what % of materials received are actually reprocessed. An air tracker we sewed into a perfectly good dress ended up pinging from a landfill in New Mexico. No comment from the company.
Terracycle is company accepting a plethora of very hard to recycle items which are not accepted by curbside recycling companies. They also claim to work with manufacturers to encourage the use of recycled content. Terracycle has an interesting business model and primarily makes money from the well-known brands they service. Many brands contract with Terracycle to provide, upon consumer request, a free envelope or label for customers to place their clean, dry empty packaging. The brands pay Terracycle to manage and “recycle” their waste and, in exchange, they can use the Terracycle infinity logo on their products. The other way Terracycle makes money is by selling waste boxes directly to consumers and businesses.
This business model clearly shifts the responsibility for the waste from the brand designing hard to recycle packaging directly to the consumer, who has to figure out what to do with it. By showcasing the Terracycle logo, the brand appears to be “recycling” its waste and this is what customers want to see. Brands have essentially said they rely on Terracycle to manage the waste on their behalf. For its part, Terracycle collects the waste and sends it off to contracted 3rd parties for processing. Since Terracycle doesn’t process the waste and report back to its customers, it’s NOT a closed loop, circular recycling solution. We have requested audited reports on collected waste vs how much of these are actually processed/downcycled into raw materials for new items. Even if some of this hard to recycle plastic is made into new materials like decking and bricks, these materials contain chemicals that are flammable and break up into microplastics. Contact us for more information on our where our trackers ended up!
