Paper a Big Chunk of What Makes Up

Rhode Island’s Collected Recyclables

Editor’s note: This is the fifth story in an ongoing series that takes a look at what happens to improperly disposed of recyclables and what happens to the stuff that is placed correctly in those blue and green bins.
Part 1: Small businesses are not required to recycle.
Part 2: Glass collected in the state is crushed and used as landfill cover.
Part 3: Metals represent a small fraction of what is collected.
Part 4: Plastics. What happens to Nos. 3-7?
This week: Paper/cardboard.
Next week: Where does all that e-waste and construction and home refurbishment debris end up?

By DAVID FISHER/ecoRI staff

Paper and cardboard represent a little more than half of the 91,000 to 96,000 tons of recyclables collected annually and sent to the Central Landfill in Johnston.Paper is one of the oldest manufactured materials in the world. The word is derived from the ancient Greek papyrus, which was used to describe the Egyptian process of beating papyrus leaves on rocks to create scrolls.

The first pulp paper was produced in China around 2 A.D., and was made from discarded rags. The first paper mills using discarded fabric arose in the Middle East, and were widespread in Europe by the 12th century.

In 1844, the advent of wood pulp paper allowed for mass production and proliferation of the paper industry; paper, for the most part, is made in much the same way today.

Cellulosic pulp is broken down, pressed or rolled into sheets and dried. Cardboard, with the exception of the corrugated stuff, is just really thick paper.

There are two types of pulping. Chemical pulping — which utilizes wood chips, or any other plant material — uses reactive liquids to break down the pulp’s lignin, the primary component of secondary cell walls in plants. The lignin is then washed away, leaving the long fibers of cellulose behind. This process creates a strong paper because of the length of the fibers produced, but chemical pulp paper costs more due to the low yield — 40 percent to 50 percent loss by weight.

The most common of the chemical pulps is called the Kraft process, which creates a strong, unbleached paper used to make bags and boxes, and can be further processed into corrugated cardboard. One advantage to chemical pulps is that the released lignin can be burned to create the large amounts of heat and electricity required in the process.

Mechanical pulping falls into two categories: thermo-mechanical pulping, where wood chips are steamed, compressed and fiberized between steel discs; and ground wood, where debarked logs are ground and pressed by rotating stones.

Even though mechanical pulping requires a great deal of energy, it is still more economical because the lignin is not removed in the process, increasing yield — more than 95 percent of the original weight is retained. Mechanical pulping creates paper that is weak, because of the short fiber lengths, and will yellow and crumble over time.

Paper and cardboard are recycled in much the same way that they are manufactured, through a chemical or mechanical pulp, and by simply substituting the plant or wood fibers with de-inked paper and cardboard. Paper loses some of its strength and brightness in the recycling process and usually some virgin material is thrown in to address those issues.

There are three types of recycled paper:
    • Mill broke. This is the substandard or grade-change paper that is never sold, and is therefore not considered true recycled paper. Most paper mills have been recycling their waste fiber for many years.
     • Pre-consumer waste. This consists of the off-cuts, trim and processing waste from paper product manufacturers. It is produced outside the paper mill, and is considered recycled paper. Some examples are printer waste, and unsold publications.
    • Post-consumer waste. This is waste paper that has been sold and used as intended — office waste, magazines and newsprint, for example.

There is some contention over the energy savings in paper recycling. Depending on the source, anywhere from 40 percent to 64 percent less energy is used in recycling paper, than in manufacturing it. The Environmental Protection Agency also has published reports that claim that recycling paper creates 35 percent less water pollution and 74 percent less air pollution than virgin paper production.

In Rhode Island, paper and cardboard represent a little more than half of the 91,000 to 96,000 tons of recyclables collected annually. The only paper products not accepted in the state’s municipal recycling program are paper towels, napkins, tissues, cigarette packages, candy wrappers, waxed or plastic-coated paper, tissue paper and foiled wrapping paper.

The only cardboards not collected are take-out boxes, detergent boxes, boxes with foil lining, pizza boxes and any greasy or dirty cardboard, corrugated or otherwise.

The paper products are separated and baled onsite at the Central Landfill in Johnston, and shipped to whichever paper recycler will pay the most for the material.

When asked how much improperly disposed of paper and cardboard make their way into the landfill, Sarah Kite, director of recycling services for the Rhode Island Resource Recovery Corporation, which runs the state landfill, said, “Very little. There is a negligible amount of residue from the paper side. It’s very clean. The main contaminants are plastic bags and the stray beverage container.”

Plastic, Plastic Everywhere, but Much of it Isn’t Recycled

Editor’s note: This is the fourth story in an ongoing series that takes a look at what happens to improperly disposed of recyclables and what happens to the stuff that is placed correctly in those blue and green bins.
Part 1: Small businesses are not required to recycle.
Part 2: Glass collected in the state is crushed and used as landfill cover.
Part 3: Metals represent a small fraction of what is collected.
This week: Plastics. What happens to Nos. 3-7?
Next week: Paper. Did you know that 80 percent of the newsprint in the United States is recycled? At least the print media is doing something right.

By DAVID FISHER/ecoRI staff

Plastics Nos.1-2 have the most value and are baled and shipped to recyclers. Finding a market for plastics Nos. 3-7 is more difficult.In 1855, a man named Alexander Parkes, who was trying to create a substance resembling ivory, invented the first plastic. He found that mixing cellulose and nitric acid, then dissolving that mixture in alcohol, created a durable substance that could be heated, molded and pigmented to look like the dental protrusions of pachyderms.

His creation, Parkesine, which later became known as celluloid, won him a bronze medal at the 1862 London World’s Fair, and since then, plastic has become a most ubiquitous material in our modern life.

Today, plastics are produced in much the same way. The process is called polymerization, and it is achieved by combining carbon and hydrogen atoms, or monomers, usually from petroleum, with oxygen, nitrogen, chlorine, sulfur or silicon. The polymers are then finished by pressing, casting or extruding them into films, fibers, plates, tubes, bottles, boxes and much more.

Plastics can be separated into two groups. Thermoplastics, which will soften and melt repeatedly if enough heat is applied, and thermosetting polymers, which can only be melted and take shape once. After they solidify, they remain solid and cannot be re-melted.

Historical advances in plastic production include the invention of Bakelite — phenolic plastic, still used in some circuit boards — by Leo Baekeland in 1909, the perfecting of polystyrene (Styrofoam) and PVC in post-World War I America, and the introduction of nylon, the first totally synthetic fiber, by the DuPont Corp. at the 1939 New York World’s Fair.

Although plastics have low toxicity in their finished state, and will pass through most animals’ digestive systems without harm, aside from mechanical damage or obstruction, some of the additives — adiphates and phthalates — used to increase plasticity in brittle plastics are toxic, and can leach out when in contact with food or when heated.

In response to these concerns, the European Union has, in recent years, banned phthalates — the most common additive to PVC — in toys. In 2009, the United States banned the use of phthalates in plastics altogether.

The reuse and recycling of plastics is preferable to disposal — plastics may take thousands of years to break down — or incineration — burning plastics creates toxic fumes, most notably dioxin from the incineration of PVC.

The United States has 87 incinerators in operation, including seven in Massachusetts and six in Connecticut, that burn plastic.

That option isn’t available in Rhode Island, as the Ocean State, for the past 15 years, has banned trash incineration because it’s dirty, dangerous and it burns resources that otherwise could be recycled.

Last year, Rhode Island’s residential recycling program took in 38,417 tons of mixed recyclables, according to the Rhode Island Resource Recovery Corporation, which runs Central Landfill in Johnston. There is no way of knowing how much of that was plastic because all of the blue-bin materials are mixed together when they go over the scales.

Of those mixed recyclables collected, 26,773 tons could be processed. Of that material, 4,741 tons of plastics were shipped to market. Plastic recycling, much like glass recycling, has a lot to do with market value.

Plastics represent nearly 18 percent of the total amount of mixed-recyclable material sold by the state landfill, and these sold plastics represent 12 percent of what is collected.

In Rhode Island, only plastics numbered 1 and 2 are collected municipally for recycling. These two plastics can be recycled into thread for synthetic fabrics, new bottles, pipes, plastic lumber, tables, chairs, benches, trash bins, truck bed liners and hula hoops.

Both these types of plastics are baled at the landfill and then shipped to recyclers in Canada, China and to one in East Providence.

Currently, state law only requires the Resource Recovery Corporation to accept recyclables that it can market. The market for plastics Nos. 3-7 is considerably weak.

“There are several reasons three through seven are not currently recycled,” said Sarah Kite, director of recycling services for the Resource Recovery Corporation. (The landfill’s recycling facility) is configured to process one and two bottles and jugs, glass, aluminum and tin. To process additional items will require a reconfiguration of our sorting, storage and baling system. The reason we took one and two in the program and not three through seven is because there are strong markets for one and two. The markets for three through seven are small or nonexistent.

“Number five is the most likely to emerge from (that) group as a viable market. The programs that accept one through seven often do not recycle the three through seven at all. They are either landfilled or incinerated.”

Legislation has been enacted by the state requiring the Resource Recovery Corporation to begin collection of plastics Nos. 3-7 by Jan. 1, 2011, but that date will likely be pushed back, according to Kite, to give the agency time to find a way to finance the necessary improvements to its recycling facility.

Aluminum is the King of Collected Metals in Rhode Island

Editor’s note: This is the third story in an ongoing series that takes a look at what happens to improperly disposed of recyclables and what happens to the stuff that is placed correctly in those blue and green bins.
Part 1: Small businesses are not required to recycle.
Part 2: Glass collected in the state is crushed and used as landfill cover.
This week: Metals represent a small fraction of what is collected.
Next week: Plastics. What happens to Nos. 3-7?

By DAVID FISHER/ecoRI staff

Aluminum represents almost all of the metals collected in Rhode Island, but is still only about 1 percent of the total recyclables collected. Many cans end up buried in the Central Landfill.Recyclable metals have more subcategories than the “Metal” section at the local Newbury Comics. But the only metal collected by the state in any significant amount is aluminum, in the form of used beverage containers — or UBCs, to use the waste-management parlance.

Aluminum represents almost all of the metals collected in Rhode Island, but is still only about 1 percent of the total recyclables collected — 961 tons in fiscal 2009, according to the Rhode Island Resource Recovery Corporation, which runs the Central Landfill in Johnston.

A big reason why that percentage is so low is that many small-businesses, especially bars and restaurants, only recycle a small percentage of their solid waste. Businesses that employ less than 50 people, unlike larger employers, are not required to report on the management of their waste, which leads to plenty of recyclables being buried in the state landfill.

“Very little bottle and can recycling is happening in the business community,” said Sarah Kite, Resource Recovery Corporation’s director of recycling services.

Most recyclable steel is garnered from industrial interests. The automotive business and the construction business are the two major recyclers of steel in the United States, and up to 84 percent of all scrap steel is recycled, according to the Steel Recycling Institute.

In fact, steel is the most recycled material in the world, and has been recycled for 150 years because of the high cost and energy consumption involved in its production.

Steel and other non-aluminum metals collected residentially statewide make up less than half a percent of the total collected material — about 480 tons in fiscal ’09, according to the Resource Recovery Corporation.

All metals are made from ores that must be mined, refined and usually combined with another metal to make an alloy, as is the case with steel. Most aluminum is refined from an ore called bauxite, and most iron is found in an ore called hematite. Hematite is pelletized and smelted with coke and limestone producing what is called “pig iron” and is the starting point for steel, and many other essential alloys.

Aluminum is a highly versatile metal used not only for soda and beer cans, but also for airplane fuselages, automobile bodies, heat sinks and street light poles, and aluminum oxide (alumina) is one of the many additives used in the glass-making process. It is 100 percent recyclable. That is, aluminum that has been recycled has the same chemical structure as aluminum produced from bauxite.

An ashy oxide called dross is produced during the recycling of aluminum, which accounts for a 15 percent or so volume loss during the process. Aluminum can be extracted from dross, but the process produces a waste material that is complex, volatile and hard to manage.Recycling aluminum only uses 5 percent of the energy that is needed to produce aluminum from ore. One drawback to recycling aluminum is a possible 15 percent volume loss during the process. This loss comes in the form of an ashy oxide called dross, which also is produced in new aluminum production, but to a lesser degree.

Aluminum can be extracted from dross, and is done so industrially, but the process produces a waste material that is complex, volatile and hard to manage.

There are few restrictions on what types of metal can placed in the blue bin. Tin, aluminum, iron, copper and alloys made from any of these, in varying proportions, are acceptable for recycling. In fact, the Resource Recovery Corporation would like to see more metal collected because the market value of scrap metals is extremely high.

So high, in fact, that a Google search of “metal+theft” will produce numerous stories from around the world of homes, churches and construction sites having metal, especially copper, stolen from them. (It also will produce a Swedish deathcore band called MetalTheft; apparently, even thieves follow this lucrative market.)

The only restrictions the Resource Recovery Corporation puts on collected metals are:
    • Scrap metal must be no longer than 3 feet and weigh no more than 35 pounds.
    • No oil-based paint and stain cans.
    • No hypodermic needles.

So where do these metals go after the one-armed truck picks them up?

The collected aluminum is baled at the Central Landfill and shipped to one of the largest users and recyclers of aluminum in the world, Anheuser-Busch. All other scrap, including steel, tin, copper, cast iron and brass, is bought by either Mid-City Scrap out of Westport, Mass., or Schnitzer Northeast, which has a plant in Johnston.

Broken Glass Provides Cheap Cover at State Landfill

Editor’s note: This is the second story in an ongoing series that will look at what happens to improperly disposed of recyclables and what happens to the stuff that is placed correctly in those blue and green bins. Next week: Metals.

By DAVID FISHER/ecoRI staff

In Rhode Island, municipal recycling programs collect 17,000 tons of glass annually.All Rhode Island residents are required to recycle, and most of them fill their green and blue bins weekly, put them out at the curb and bring them in when they are empty, without a second thought as to how these thrown-out materials are made, or what happens to them after they are collected.

When the blue bins, for example, are hauled to the curbside, the trip often includes a symphony of clicking glass.

From mayonnaise jars to windowpanes, glass is an ever-present part of our lives. Though more plastic containers now are being used, glass still represents a significant percentage of collected recyclables nationwide.

In Rhode Island, municipal recycling programs collect 17,000 tons of glass annually — or about 17 percent of the recyclables collected statewide, according to the Rhode Island Resource Recovery Corporation (RIRRC), which runs the Central Landfill in Johnston.

Most of the glass that makes its way into the blue bins is called soda-lime glass. This glass is made from three basic ingredients: silica, sodium bicarbonate (soda) and limestone (lime). These components are then heated to 3,047 degrees Fahrenheit. This molten glass is then blown and pressed for container glass, or poured onto a pool of molten metal — usually tin — for float glass, which is used to make windows.

These glasses only differ in the ratio of components. While soda and lime are added to light rum to make a refreshing drink, they are added to the glass-making process for a very different reason. Without them, glass would be water-soluble. That would make it difficult to bottle any liquid, including rum.

The biggest environmental problem glass presents is that it never decomposes. Glass thrown out today will still be glass in a thousand years. Because of this, recycling and reusing glass is an essential part of the planet’s stewardship.

Recycling glass uses less energy than manufacturing it. Every ton of waste glass recycled prevents nearly 700 pounds of carbon dioxide from being released into the atmosphere. Glass that is crushed can be melted and turned into “glassphalt” — asphalt made with up to 20 percent crushed glass, fiberglass and tiles, among other things.

For colored glass to have any market value to a recycler, it must be separated by color, which, according to Sarah Kite, the Resource Recovery Corporation’s director of recycling services, “… is an expensive process, and is best accomplished in states with a container deposit system, where the glass is presorted by hand (by the consumer) …”

The durability of glass makes the reuse of such containers preferable to recycling. Refillable bottles are used extensively in many European countries, Canada and, until relatively recently, in the United States. In Denmark, 98 percent of bottles are refillable and 98 percent of those are returned by consumers.

In some developing nations such as India and Brazil, the high cost of new bottles often forces manufacturers to collect and refill old glass bottles.

Unfortunately, in Rhode Island, neither recycling nor this kind of reuse is practiced. So what happens to all that glass diligently placed in the blue bins? Where does that 17,000 tons of glass go every year?

“Recycled” Rhode Island glass ends up in the state landfill.

“The only glass processor in New England is in northern Massachusetts,” Kite said. “There is another processor in central New York. The transportation costs are far more than the monetary value of the glass. We would gladly ship the glass to a recycler if we could break even on it or make a small profit. We can’t afford to ship it at a loss, and then have to purchase inert material for cover.”

The state’s collected glass is crushed onsite, to reduce its volume, and added to the daily 6- to 8-inch layer of material used to cover the Central Landfill. That cover material is a mixture of organic, inorganic, and inert components, and the RIRRC is authorized, by the state Department of Environmental Management, to use glass as the inert component. If the glass wasn’t crushed and reused in this way, the RIRRC would have to buy a substitute material. Its use as a cover material is a net savings for the state, and a volume savings for the ever-shrinking landfill.

“Our enabling legislation states that we are only required to accept those materials that we can then market,” Kite said. “Depending on where you are in the United States, different colors of glass have different value. In California, the green glass is more valuable because the glass is recycled locally into new wine bottles. On the East Coast, clear glass is the only glass with any value.”

Recyclable Waste From Small Restaurants

Flows Unchecked into State Landfill

Editor's note: This is the first story in an ongoing series that will look at what happens to improperly disposed of recyclables and what happens to the stuff that is placed correctly in those blue and green bins. Next week: What happens to all that discarded glass placed in the blue bins?

By DAVID FISHER/ecoRI staff

The amount of waste material that is produced in the hospitality trade and not recycled is staggering.In November, the city of Providence implemented a new municipal waste collection policy intended to increase the percentage of recyclable material sorted and separated by residents.

A month later, there were homes in Providence with weeks’ worth of garbage on the sidewalk in front of them. These residents either did not produce any recyclable waste, or, more likely, did not separate and sort the recyclables into the proper color-coded bins, provided by the city.

Aside from people who personally recycle for profit, every household in Rhode Island should have recyclable material put out for weekly curbside pickup. “No bin, no barrel” has become policy for residents of Providence and some other Rhode Island cities and towns, but what about businesses in our state? Are they held to these same requirements?

The state Department of Environmental Management (DEM) mandates that small businesses recycle, but, unlike businesses with 50 or more employees, they are not required to report on the management of their waste. These larger businesses must submit an annual recycling report and information about their waste streams to the DEM by March 1.

Most privately owned restaurants in Rhode Island, for example, fall into the small-business category.

This smacks as a serious lack of accountability, but the DEM has a plan. It has designed a “penalty matrix” and, although the state is now urging voluntary compliance with mandatory recycling ordinances, soon businesses, small and large, will face stiff and progressive penalties for not properly handling their recyclable waste.

Many small-business owners balk at the idea of having to pay a waste hauler to pick up recyclables, so most of them don’t contract to have their recyclables properly disposed. Those small businesses that do recycle, usually give their plastic, glass and metal to an individual who recycles for personal profit — some even bring their recyclables home to their own residential recycling bins.

According to the Rhode Island Resource Recovery Corporation, which operates the state landfill in Johnston, if businesses contract for refuse only, then they are free to contract with anyone for recyclables collection. There is nothing in the law that prohibits a business from utilizing local recycling collection as long as it is agreeable to the municipality. Each city and town determines its refuse and recycling program parameters, meaning the decision on which entities within a community to include in the municipal refuse and recycling collection is made by city or town officials.

Some communities are catching on. The town of Warren collects recyclables from all the businesses on Main Street. According to Kristin Littlefield, director of Newport’s Clean City Program, 30 Newport businesses have inquired about a municipal commercial recycling program, and although such a program has not been instituted, it is in the works.

The DEM’s 2007 report on commercial recycling percentages determined that 95 percent of restaurants in the state recycle 13 percent of their solid waste. However, Sarah Kite, Resource Recovery Corporation’s director of recycling services, said, “… the 13 percent may be accurate, because if any recycling is being done, it’s on the cardboard side, and cardboard may very well be 13 percent of a restaurant’s waste. Very little bottle and can recycling is happening in the business community.”

Keep in mind that these numbers are only for restaurants with more than 50 employees. Think of how many beer, wine and soda bottles/cans and milk containers are thrown away daily in small restaurants and bars that employ less than 50 people. Small restaurants are the overwhelming majority in the state. The amount of waste glass and plastic that is produced in the hospitality trade is staggering.

As with most people, businesses are highly resistant to change, and also resistant to spending money today that they didn’t have to spend yesterday. The sad truth is, most will not spend that money until forced to do so. Residents, landlords and businesses that do not recycle, probably will not until they are faced with a fine for not doing so.

The bottom line is, we all need to do our part, residents and commercial interests alike, so the next time you visit your favorite local eatery, ask if they recycle. If they say no, direct them to the Resource Recovery Corporation. It offers free consultations on waste management to all Rhode Island businesses.