SWAG agenda 032818 - Laserfiche WebLink

Browse Search

3120/2018 Chine's limits on recycling being felt in Triangle, North Carolina I News a Observer To make it easier for residents and the city, Raleigh went to larger, closed- topped blue recycling bins that a city employee can empty with a mechanical arm controlled from the cab of the truck. "Go-mingled" recycling is now the industry standard and is what gave rise to places like the Sonoco plant. But there was a tradeoff. where a city worker emptying a bin by hand might leave behind a shoe or a pair of pants, it all now goes into the truck. At Sonoco, the first people who see it are five men who stand on either side of the conveyor belt, pulling out the obvious offenders before the stream flows into machines that separate glass and corrugated cardboard. "People now have the opportunity to do more recycling, which is a good thing," McDonald said of the larger blue bins. "However, now there is no visibility on the material until these five gentlemen here see it, and by then it's too late. At that point, if it's residue, it's now our problem because it's already here." China changes course China apparently felt the same way. The country relied on recycling from around the world as raw materials for its factories, but came to find that too much of what it received was contaminated with garbage or even hazardous waste. Last year, the country announced new restrictions on the amount of contamination allowed in bales of corrugated cardboard and other materials - numbers so low that many American companies such as Sonoco have stopped sending cardboard to China for fear of it being rejected. Then last summer, China told the World Trade Organization that it would stop importing 24 types of waste, including different types of plastic and mixed paper, starting Jan. 1. "The big picture is that China is trying to clean up their own environment," said Taylor, the former state recycling program director. "And they're trying to grow domestic recycling in China and turn to their own waste stream instead of ours." China's restrictions are felt less keenly in the Southeast because the region is less dependent on exports for its recycling, said Will Sagar, executive director of the Southeast Recycling Development Council, a trade group that represents companies and governments in 11 states from Louisiana to Virginia. There are 360 manufacturing plants in that region that use recycled materials to make new products, according to the council, including 60 in North Carolina. Some like Envision Plastics in Reidsville turn detergent and shampoo bottles into resins to make new bottles, while others, such as Clear Path Recycling of Fayetteville, take plastics bottles and use them in new products, such as flooring or fibers. Sager says the Chinese crackdown on contamination will ultimately be good for the U.S. recycling industry, if it results in tighter controls on what goes out the door. "Our domestic markets don't like all the contamination either," he said. For that to happen, industry officials say, residents will need to be encouraged to do a better job at the front end. The people who run government recycling programs around the country are looking for ways to encourage people to do the right thing, said Scott Mouw of The Recycling Partnership, a national non -profit funded by companies such as Coke, Pepsi and Target. "What it boils down to if you're a homeowner and you've put the wrong stuff in your cart, the city should be giving you feedback on that," Mouw said. Mouw cited campaigns that urge residents not to put their recycling into plastic bags, which the recycling processors sometimes discard because they don't know what's inside. Two years ago, Cary surveyed people's recycling bins and screened for unwanted items, including bagged recyclables. Town workers left behind notes explaining why some items were left in the bin and reminding residents to "keep it loose in the cart' and not use bags. hftp: /Aw .newsobs Nerwm/ newslbusiness /arUole2O5296704.htmi 6110