Findings released from 2019 West Coast Contamination Initiative
Findings released from 2019 West Coast Contamination Initiative
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In April 2019, The Recycling Partnership launched its West Coast Contamination Initiative (WCCI) in order to increase the quality of recyclables collected at the curb in communities up and down the West Coast—from San Diego to Seattle. For the WCCI, The Recycling Partnership, which is based in Falls Church, Virginia, surveyed 212 cities, 98 material recovery facilities (MRFs) and about 3,000 people across the West Coast.
The organization released results from this initiative April 30 in its 2019 West Coast Contamination Initiative Research Report.
“There is very limited research on residential recycling across the country and, too often, anecdotal stats are quoted and reported,” says Cody Marshall, The Recycling Partnership’s chief community strategy officer. “We feel that doing this research, and making it public and transparent, will allow people to better inform their recycling program decision. I encourage community program managers to dig into the research in the Addendum to start uncovering the best way to inform their residents on how they might work with their neighboring communities to collaborate on solutions for better quality recyclables.”
According to the report, The Recycling Partnership states that nearly every city with more than 50,000 people has a curbside single-family recycling program. In addition, these residents have access to recycling centers to drop-off bins, collection bins at retail locations or collection events for hard-to-recycle items. In California and Oregon, there is also a redemption system for beverage containers.
The study found that in most West Coast cities, private haulers collect single-stream recyclables in carts and most residents are automatically enrolled in recycling services.
Also, at the time of the survey, 41 communities had indicated that they were considering changing their acceptable materials for recycling lists to react to the shifting market changes and to reduce contamination.
Additionally, the study reports that about 95 percent of residents in the surveyed cities on the West Coast recycle and recycling is important to 92 percent of the respondents. Also, 85 percent of respondents said they feel satisfied with their recycling services and 89 percent reported that they find it easy to recycle.
However, the report also indicates that MRFs and cities have some top contaminants in their recycling streams. In California, top contaminants at MRFs include needles, flammables, batteries, hazardous waste and plastic bags. In Oregon, top contaminants at MRFs include plastic bags, needles, clothing or bedding, glass and tanglers or garbage. And in Washington, top contaminants at MRFs include plastic bags, needles, tanglers, food or liquid and garbage.
WCCI takeaways
The Recycling Partnership reports that in this initiative, it learned that contamination issues on the West Coast are similar to the pain points many recycling programs feel across the U.S. However, these states can take advantage of existing strong recycling culture and reduce their contamination from the residential recycling steam through:
• more program-level data tracking to identify outreach needs and evaluate progress;
• better collaboration between stakeholders, such as local programs, haulers, MRFs and state agencies;
• clear, specific and consistent messaging to residents to reduce confusion; and,
• further financial and technical assistance to support community programs.
“West Coast states have built a strong recycling culture,” the report concludes. “While they are collecting more recyclables than the national average, there are materials not being captured. If we do not continue to provide clear messaging to residents, contamination will continue to be and will grow as an issue. … Plastic bags, needles and batteries are top priority contaminants that need to be addressed. The lack of program-specific data, limited resources and pervading confusion on what can and cannot be recycled are challenging but not unbeatable.”
The full report can be found here.
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Source: Recycling Today
Findings released from 2019 West Coast Contamination Initiative
<![CDATA[In April 2019, The Recycling Partnership launched its West Coast Contamination Initiative (WCCI) in order to increase the quality of recyclables collected at the curb in communities up and down the West Coast—from San Diego to Seattle. For the WCCI, The Recycling Partnership, which is based in Falls Church, Virginia, surveyed 212 cities, 98 material recovery facilities (MRFs) and about 3,000 people across the West Coast. The organization released results from this initiative April 30 in its 2019 West Coast Contamination Initiative Research Report. “There is very limited research on residential recycling across the country and, too often, anecdotal stats are quoted and reported,” says Cody Marshall, The Recycling Partnership’s chief community strategy officer. “We feel that doing this research, and making it public and transparent, will allow people to better inform their recycling program decision. I encourage community program managers to dig into the research in the Addendum to start uncovering the best way to inform their residents on how they might work with their neighboring communities to collaborate on solutions for better quality recyclables.”According to the report, The Recycling Partnership states that nearly every city with more than 50,000 people has a curbside single-family recycling program. In addition, these residents…