Red wigglers do an excellent job of composting food scraps.KINGSTON — Sejal Lanterman has kept worms under her kitchen sink, and currently has some in the basement and at the office. She believes every classroom should feature a bin of worms, and she spends the occasional Sunday relaxing by separating home and/or office worms from their castings.

“Worms are great for classrooms,” said Lanterman, the composting and recycling program manager for the University of Rhode Island’s College of the Environment and Life Sciences. “They’re a great learning tool, and they get kids to eat healthier. The kid who comes in with a bag of Doritos can’t feed the worms anything because all he has is garbage. The kid who comes in with a banana has the peel to feed to the worms.”

Lanterman keeps and feeds red wigglers because these small worms generate vermicompost, a heterogeneous mixture of decomposing food waste, worm castings (worm manure) and bedding materials — damp shredded newspaper and coconut coir work best. This nutrient-rich mixture reduces the need for fertilizer and is an excellent plant food.

This worm-based composting set-up also reduces the amount of waste that is unnecessarily buried at the Central Landfill in Johnston, since red wigglers enjoy dining on a variety of food scraps. Except for citrus, worms will eat all kinds of fresh fruits and vegetables. They’ll also feed on pet hair, coffee grinds, tea bags and eggshells.

A pound of red wigglers will eat between 1.5 and 2 pounds of food scraps a week.

The Kathleen M. Mallon Outreach Center keeps a blue bin of them, and the worm castings produced are used to feed the center’s many indoor plants. Interns do most of the separating of the worms from their castings, unless of course, Lanterman needs to relax.

An open compost pile needs the right balance between green (nitrogen) and brown (carbon) materials to keep the microorganisms healthy and hungry.Worms, however, are just one way of composting household and/or office food scraps. A compost pile is a good way to keep organic waste out of the state landfill. The key to managing such a pile, Lanterman said, is making sure you get the recipe right. She recommends sticking to a ratio of three parts brown (carbon) — leaves, straw, corn and tomato stalks, newspaper and cardboard, wood chips and pine needles — to one part green (nitrogen) — fruit and vegetable scraps, non-diseased expired plants, manure, coffee grinds, tea bags and chemical-free grass clippings.

Don’t compost meat, bones, fat, grease, oils, peanut butter, dairy products, cooked foods with sauces and butter, dog and cat feces, cat litter, diseased plants and weeds.

“A lot of people compost but not in the right way,” Lanterman said. “That’s still good, but it just takes longer to create good compost — two to three years instead of nine to twelve months.”

The right balance also helps neutralize unwanted odors and keeps curious animals, such as skunks and raccoons, away.

If, for example, your compost pile has too much nitrogen-rich green material, it will become sludgy, stinky — a rotten eggs-like smell — and the microorganisms that break down the waste will lack an energy source, which is provided by carbon-rich debris. An excellent brown source is shredded or torn-up newspaper, which features soy-based ink.

To avoid this problem, Lanterman recommends keeping a bin of brown material next to your compost pile, to provide coverage anytime green material is added. She also said composters should infuse their piles with oxygen up to three times a week, with a pitchfork, shovel, metal bar or compost aerator.

“Learning to blend materials together is the art of composting,” said Lanterman, who likes to experiment more than most. She routinely maintains four or five compost piles — each contained in a three-sided structure made of wood pallets — in her backyard. She said two works best for most people, though.

Compost bins come in all shapes and sizes.For those who live in more urban settings, an enclosed bin is a better option. You can compost in almost anything, from a specially designed contraptions to a trash barrel poked with holes.

And for those without access to a yard and not interested in sharing inside space with worms, indoor composters are available. URI’s Kathleen M. Mallon Outreach Center uses a NatureMill compost bin. They cost about $200 and use 50 cents of energy a month, according to Lanterman.

“We throw our leftover Chinese food and moldy stuff we find in the refrigerator right into it,” said Lanterman, who advises against throwing leftover take-out food into an outdoor compost pile or bin. “It can compost almost anything, except peach and avocado pits.”

Sejal Lanterman is conducting a free composting workshop Tuesday, June 15, from 6-8 p.m. at the Roger Williams Park Botanical Center in Providence. URI’s College of the Environment and Life Sciences Outreach Center and the Rhode Island Resource Recovery Corporation also offer a “Master Composter & Recycler Program.” For more information, send an e-mail to sejal@uri.edu or visit www.uri.edu/cels/ceoc.

Latex-based paint cans are recyclable; oil-based paint cans are not. (Frank Carini/ecoRI staff)JOHNSTON — Rhode Island’s 39 cities and towns are required to bring their trash to the Central Landfill. Municipalities pay $32 per ton of garbage buried in the 210-acre landfill, but pay nothing for recyclables.

Improperly discarded items cost taxpayers money, unnecessarily take up dwindling space in the ever-shrinking landfill — it could reach its full capacity within 20 years — and taint the value of what is recyclable.

To help clear up confusion regarding what can be recycled and where, ecoRI sat down with Sarah Kite, director of recycling services for the Rhode Island Resource Recovery Corporation (RIRRC), which runs the state landfill, to discuss issues that generate the most questions and items that cause the biggest problems.

Green bin: For recyclable paper and cardboard products, such as cereal boxes, newspapers, telephone books, magazines, shopping bags and egg cartons. Items that don’t belong in this bin end up buried in the landfill.

Blue bin: For recyclable bottles and cans, aluminum pie plates, metal clothes hangers, orange juice cartons, soup cans and metal bottle caps. Items that don’t belong in this bin end up buried in the landfill.

Plastic numbers: The digits (1-7) listed on all plastics designate the type, instead of using their “insane” chemical names. There is virtually no market for plastics Nos. 3-7, which is the main reason why RIRRC doesn’t recycle those items.

The triangle: Is just a frame for the number, to make it standout. It doesn’t mean that piece of plastic is recyclable.

Plastics Nos. 1 & 2: All plastic bottles and jugs that have smaller necks than bodies are recyclable. They need to be placed in the blue recycling bin. No. 1 and No. 2 plastics that are not recyclable include Dunkin’ Donuts Coolatte cups and deli containers.

Plastics Nos. 3-7: State law only requires the Resource Recovery Corporation to accept recyclables that it can market. These five types of plastics, at the moment, have little to no market value. PVC, a No. 6 plastic, for example, has no market since it is difficult to remanufacture. By June 30, 2013, at the latest, the Resource Recovery Corporation will begin recycling some of these plastics.

Yogurt, Cool Whip and sour cream containers: They are No. 5 plastics, and are not accepted as recyclables by the Resource Recovery Corporation. They can be brought to Whole Foods Markets, which has them recycled.

Plastics bags: They are recyclable, but they must be brought to chain supermarkets and drug stores, such as Stop & Shop, Whole Foods, CVS and Walgreens, and placed in the blue box at the entrance. They don’t have to be returned to the store from which they came. Many of them will be used to make a wood/plastic mix for decking. Rhode Island was the first state to adopt an in-store recycling program for plastic bags. Ziplock bags and plastic that wraps meat are not accepted.

Wine bottles: All wine bottles, no matter their color, are recyclable and need to be placed in the blue recycling bin.

Glass jars: Recyclable and must be placed in the blue recycling bill. Lightly rinse out the jar and throw the lid in the trash. There’s no local market for glass bottles and jars, which are on the state Department of Environmental Management’s list of mandatory recyclables, so the Resource Recovery Corporation grins these items up and includes them in a mix of organic, inorganic and inert — such as glass cullet — material that is used daily to cover the landfill.

Tempered glass, broken glass and light bulbs: Not recyclable and should be placed in the trash bin.

Plastic bottle caps: Are a different kind of plastic than the recyclable bottles they cover. Throw them in the trash; if they are left on the bottle, they contaminate the recyclable plastic and lower its value.

Labels: Unlike the inaugural days of recycling, labels on recyclable items do not need to be peeled off.

Laundry detergent bottles: Are recyclable and need to be placed in the blue recycling bin.

Junk mail: Recyclable and needs to be placed in the green recycling bin.

Shredded paper: Recyclable and needs to be placed in the green recycling bin.

Hypodermic needles: Need to be placed in an empty plastic container or jug, such as a bleach or detergent bottle. When full, close the bottle with the cap, then seal the cap to the bottle with strong tape, such as duct tape. Place the full, sealed jug in the trash; never in a recycling bin.

Hazardous household and electronic waste: The Resource Recovery Corporation holds various Eco-Depot events throughout the year. It is a free service for Rhode Island residents who wish to dispose of their household hazardous waste properly. These items include car batteries, oil-based paints, fluorescent light bulbs, pool chemicals, propane tanks, lawn chemicals, turpentine, bug sprays, antifreeze, paint thinners, varnishes, stains, driveway sealer, computers, TVs, printers and microwaves. This service is available by appointment only. Do not throw such items in your trash or recycling bins.

By DAVID FISHER/ecoRI staff

Concerns have been raised about the possible toxicity of pharmaceuticals in the solid-waste stream.The state Department of Environmental Management (DEM) recently proposed several amended regulations concerning what, in waste management parlance, is considered universal waste.

The term universal is rather misleading. Universal, in the case of waste, refers not to all waste, as one might assume, but to potentially hazardous wastes that could end up in the solid-waste stream.

The line between universal and hazardous is a thin one. Universal waste crosses that line when it is improperly disposed of, handled, stored, labeled and/or processed.

The current regulations already classify many potentially hazardous wastes as universal wastes, including all types of batteries, pesticides, mercury containing devices — thermostats, thermometers, barometers, sphygmomanometers, more commonly known as blood-pressure cuffs, electric switches and relays — and mercury containing lamps, such as fluorescent, neon, high-intensity discharge and metal halide lights.

The DEM seeks to expand the definition of universal waste to include e-waste — basically, anything with a circuit board in it — medical waste — anything that is used in the treatment of humans and animals, such as syringes — tattoo needles and silver containing photo-fixing solutions.

By reclassifying these wastes as universal, rather than hazardous, the producers have up to one year to store them, rather than the 90-day storage limit on hazardous waste. This would allow producers to collect them in larger quantities, and handlers to pick them up less frequently. The reclassification also would allow handlers to use a bill of lading for disposal, rather than procuring a hazardous waste handler license, which requires more state oversight and more money. By loosening regulations on handlers and producers of these wastes, the DEM hopes to lessen the financial impact of handling and increase the proper disposal of said substances and products.

Some concern has been raised about the possible toxicity of pharmaceuticals in the solid-waste stream. Drugs present a particularly difficult problem to the waste industry. In most cases, waste handlers and governmental organizations do not have the technical expertise to assess the risks that these substances pose, or proper disposal methods and techniques. Drug and medical waste also present a problem in the case of mandated quarantine.

Let’s say a local poultry producer has an outbreak of avian flu. The farm reports this outbreak, and is then quarantined by the DEM. It’s certainly less hazardous to process and dispose of possibly contaminated medical waste and animals on site, rather than to transport those wastes and animals to another location for disposal. The DEM has made provisions in the amended regulations to allow the director to bypass regulations in just such a case.

In the case of unused or out-of-date pharmaceuticals, there has been some federal and state discussion of mandated producer take back, whereas, a producer, such as Pfizer or Merck, would be required to take back expired or unused drugs for disposal. The idea here is the producers of these drugs know the potential environmental and human health hazards posed by these substances, and have the financial ability and infrastructure to dispose of them properly. This has become the norm in the European Union, as it changes their approach to hazardous waste to a precautionary, rather than a reactionary model.

Chemotherapy drugs and waste are good examples. These drugs are, by design, hazardous to humans. They are engineered to kill human cells.

The proposed amendments are written, and then offered to the public for comments and input. The DEM has received hundreds of comments and concerns about these proposed amendments. Some believe the amended definitions are too broad, especially in the case of e-waste. One local veterinarian offered six pages of comments, concerns and suggestions.

The proposed regulations also are being designed to eliminate loopholes, and to act in concert with current state and federal legislation and guidelines. In some cases, Rhode Island waste regulation is more stringent than federal regulations. A copy of the proposed amendments can be found here.

The DEM expects the new regulations to be in effect by late June or early July. Municipal waste transfer stations expect e-waste, but check with your local transfer station to see if it takes other forms of universal waste. The Rhode Island Resource Recovery Corporation’s Eco-Depot also accepts computers and monitors, and your local Home Depot will accept fluorescent bulbs for disposal. Contact the Eco-Depot at 401-942- 1430.

Anyone who sees or knows of questionable hazardous waste disposal techniques should report them to the DEM by calling 401-222-1360. Then e-mail me at dave@ecoRI.org.

For more information, visit dem.ri.gov/pubs.

By FRANK CARINI/ecoRI staff

Compost created in a 30-gallon plastic trash barrel, with holes punched in the lid and bottom, sits in a tiny Providence backyard. (Frank Carini/ecoRI staff)PROVIDENCE — Time makes good compost, according to at least one local land steward, who recommends disregarding the hype of impatient gardeners who say otherwise.

“Quick compost is a fallacy,” Rich Pederson, the steward of the Southside Community Land Trust’s City Farm, recently told an audience of compost enthusiasts who had gathered at AS220 on Empire Street to listen to the longtime farmer and his composting colleague Greg Gerritt talk about the art of turning food/yard waste into nutrient-rich natural fertilizer. “Don’t buy it. Don’t believe it. It’s crap.”

One suspects Pederson meant both the myth and unaged compost were worthless. He said it takes at least a year to make what many gardeners and farmers call “black gold.”

Pederson uses food waste, yard debris, horse manure from the Roger Williams University stables and coffee grounds he collects twice a week from the coffee shop White Electric to create the compost spread on City Farm’s soil, which he called the “soul” of the three-quarter-acre farm.

He’s less than thrilled that about 25 percent of the material buried at the Central Landfill in Johnston is food scraps and yard waste that could be used to grow food.

“During World War Two 40 percent of the food grown in this country was grown in Victory Gardens,” Pederson said. “Good gardens start with good compost.”

Gerritt is spearheading a movement to remove food waste from the Ocean State’s trash stream and use it to create organic soil rich in nutrients. To do that Gerritt is working with various stakeholders in developing a statewide curbside composting program, especially one that collects food waste from restaurants and universities.

Such a system likely would require developing various, and expensive, compost facilities around the state. “We don’t want to be creating transportation pollution by trucking this waste all across the state,” said Gerritt, a member of the Environment Council of Rhode Island. “We’ll need many compost facilities in order to keep it local to grow local food.”

Gerritt said the various organizations involved in developing a municipal and/or statewide composting system should have a complete business plan done in the next six months. He predicted that in the next year and a half “things will happen.”

“Composting is an idea whose time as come,” he said. “We need to rebuild our soil and keep our food waste out of the landfill. We have to have compost if we want to continue feeding people.”

Recommended readings: "Pay Dirt," by J. I. Rodale and "Rats," by Robert Sullivan.

Placing the wrong stuff in the blue and green bins slows that flow

Editor’s note: This is the eighth and final story in a series that looked 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?
Part 5: Paper/cardboard.
Part 6: Where does all that e-waste and construction/home remodeling debris end up?
Part 7: The Central Landfill in Johnston is a misunderstood place.
This week: A visit to the Central Landfill’s recycling facility.

By DAVID FISHER/ecoRI staff

A Materials Recycling Facility employee, with what looks like a gaff hook, stands next to the belt removing all of the unacceptable materials from the paper stream. (David Fisher/ecoRI staff photos)JOHNSTON — The Materials Recycling Facility (MRF) at the Central Landfill isn’t a recycling facility at all. Rhode Island Resource Recovery Corporation staff only sorts the recyclables brought to the state landfill, and then these materials are sold to recyclers and remanufactures, or as is the case with glass, used in some capacity at the landfill.

The MRF is a dual-stream sorting operation. The two streams are paper fiber — think office paper and cardboard — and commingled recyclables — think bottles and cans. Residents are required to perform the initial separation of materials into the appropriate blue or green bin. Once onsite, recycling trucks have to weigh in three times — once on the way in, once after unloading their paper and once after unloading their mixed materials, when they are empty.

All mixed materials — the blue-bin stuff — including plastic, glass, aluminum and steel, enter the sorting stream from a hopper that feeds into a series of conveyor belts, where they are sorted first by employees and then with some help from machines.

The first part of the system is the removal of glass, by hand, from the stream. The glass is then sent to a machine that crushes it into cullet, which is mostly used in the cover material for the landfill.

The next part of the separation is the removal of metals, with the exception of aluminum cans, from the waste stream. A large electromagnet removes any metals containing iron, such as tin and steel cans, and sends these metals to a steel cage for bailing.

The next part of the process is the most labor intensive in the mixed-recyclable stream. Removing the correct plastics from the stream involves learning what plastics are acceptable, along with the mental and physical toughness to stand in one place and make repetitive motions all day long. The plastics are removed from the belts and separated into the proper bins by hand, and the belts are not moving slowly.

The final step in the separation process is the removal of aluminum cans. This is achieved by using an ingenious device called an eddy current separator. This machine consists of an electromagnet placed under a rotating metal disk. This apparatus is then placed under the conveyor belt. The rotation of the disk allows for the introduction of a small electrical charge into conductive metals such as aluminum. That charge causes the metal to be repelled from the magnetic source.

The aluminum cans literally jump off the end of the conveyor belt into a chute about 2 feet away, and the lighter materials, such as unacceptable plastics and paper, fall into a chute placed directly at the end of the belt.

All of the materials from this stream, with the exception of glass, are baled and shipped to recyclers.

The Materials Recycling Facility sorts the recyclables brought to the Central Landfill.The second waste stream is the paper stream. This process is extremely frustrating for Resource Recovery Corporation employees because, even after 20 years of residential recycling in Rhode Island, people still don’t seem to know what paper products are acceptable for recycling.

All of the pre-separated paper and cardboard is loaded into a rotating drum feeder and moved onto a conveyor belt. One man, with what looks like a gaff hook, stands next to the belt removing all of the unacceptable materials from the paper stream. The materials he pulls from the belt are sent down a chute to a Dumpster. The lack of proper separation by residents is glaringly evident at this point in the process, as the Dumpster may be emptied up to five times a day.

At this point, the paper stream picks up speed and is separated into newsprint, cardboard and all other paper. It is then baled and shipped across the world. Here is a 30-second video that shows how quickly the streams are moving.

Plastic bags also present problems for MRF workers. These bags are the No. 1 cause of contamination in the paper stream, and when combined with cables, wires and fabric cause jams in the separation belts and machinery.

Another problem for the Resource Recovery Corporation is petroleum prices. Under the current system, all sorted materials are shipped to recyclers. There likely comes a point when the cost of shipping exceeds the value of the shipped goods. Our glass isn’t recycled for this reason.

When the Resource Recovery Corporation built out the industrial park on which the recycling facility sits, the vision was to reduce shipping costs by having companies that could process the sorted materials move into the park. This would greatly reduce shipping costs, and increase profits.

Unfortunately, despite efforts by Resource Recovery Corporation to attract these types of businesses, this vision has witnessed little success. The state could go a long way to woo recyclers to Johnston with tax credits and the like, but has yet to do so.

As this eight-part series has shown, we’ve made a lot of progress as a state in increasing the percentage of recyclable materials sent to the Central Landfill. But we still have a long way to go. Space is finite at the landfill. The Resource Recovery Corporation has recently begun construction of the sixth landfill phase, and when that one is capped, we’ll have to find a new place for our garbage.

Editor’s note: This is the seventh 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?
Part 5: Paper/cardboard.
Part 6: Where does all that e-waste and construction/home remodeling debris end up?
Part 7: The Central Landfill in Johnston is a misunderstood place.
Next week: A visit to the Central Landfill’s recycling facility.

By DAVID FISHER/ecoRI staff

The Central Landfill in Johnston. (ecoRI file photo)JOHNSTON — The Central Landfill is one of the most misunderstood places in Rhode Island. It was operated by the state until 1974, when the General Assembly formed the quasi-public agency known then as the Rhode Island Solid Waste Management Corporation. The name was changed in 1996 to the Rhode Island Resource Recovery Corporation.

Although not a department of Rhode Island government, the agency is a public corporation and a component of the state for financial reporting purposes. The Resource Recovery Corporation owns 1,100 acres of land, and the landfill proper covers 220 of those acres.

In 1980, Resource Recovery bought the current location from the Silvestre brothers, and all of the smaller dumps around the state — except Tiverton — ceased operation, were capped and some zoned for reuse.The site of the former dump in Woonsocket is now a park with a three-hole pitch-and-putt golf course, and the Blackstone Valley Bike Path runs adjacent to it.

Resource Recovery operates a sanitary landfill that is laid out and filled in a grid pattern that is highly flexible and highly engineered. The system’s flexibility is necessary to address issues such as uneven settling. All solid waste is compacted and covered daily with a mixture of organic, inorganic and inert material. Most of this cover material is created at the landfill, and comes in the form of aggregated glass and ground-up construction debris, wood chips and compost. This cover prevents erosion, allows for the collection of the methane that is produced in the process of biodegradation and controls most of the foul odors associated with rotting waste.

There are six sites at the landfill. The first three phases are capped, and will never be filled again, phases four and five currently are in use, and phase six is under construction. The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has designated phase one a Superfund site, and all of the other sites, capped or in use, are closely monitored and heavily regulated by the EPA and the state Department of Environmental Management. Resource Recovery works hand in hand with DEM, and has resolved all of its outstanding violations, which dated back several years.

In addition to collecting the state’s solid waste and recyclable materials, residents have access to the Eco-Depot, where hazardous waste is collected, and the small-vehicle area, where small loads of trash and debris can be sorted and shipped to the proper recyclers and manufacturers. The small-vehicle area is staffed daily, but the Eco-Depot is open by appointment only. Drop-off for recyclables is free, but there are some fees for trash and other small-business wastes.

Resource Recovery is funded by the recyclable materials it brings to market, methane gas royalties and fees for its disposal services. Large container loads of recyclables are tipped at the transfer station, called the Tip Facility, where landfill staff sort the materials into cardboard, clean wood, wallboard and metals. No state tax revenue is diverted to Resource Recovery, and most construction at the landfill and road building is performed by corporation staff.

The methane that is collected is burned, creating enough electricity to power 25,000 homes. The current methane-to-electricity plant uses about 60 percent of the methane collected, and the rest is burned off by flares scattered around the landfill. There is an agreement with Ridgewood Renewable Energy to build and operate a new energy plant that will use nearly 100 percent of the collected gas. This new facility also will create steam, by burning methane, which will then be used to create more electricity. This type of plant is called a cogeneration plant and, when completed, will be the second largest on the East Coast.

Resource Recovery also creates compost, some of which is used onsite for landfill construction projects, some of which is sold to a wholesaler and, starting this spring, a portion of the compost will be made available to residents, at $30 per cubic yard. Cities and towns that bring their leaf and yard debris to the landfill also can take back finished compost for local use.

The one item that, when landfilled, that is hard to get a handle on is plastic shopping bags. They are carried by the wind to seemingly every corner of the landfill. To counter the spread of these small plastic parachutes, a fence made of netting surrounds much of the landfill sites, and smaller portable fences are placed at the top of the landfill and moved around depending on the direction of the wind.

The restore plastic bag recycling program Resource Recovery instituted in conjunction with local retailers has noticeably reduced the amount of plastic bags making their way into the landfill, but these blowing-around plastic bags are still a problem.

For more information, visit rirrc.org.

Growing Amounts of Toxic Waste

Editor’s note: This is the sixth 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?
Part 5: Paper/cardboard.
This week: Where does all that e-waste and construction/home remodeling debris end up?
Next week: What goes on at the Central Landfill in Johnston.

By DAVID FISHER/ecoRI staff

Computers, televisions and other electronic equipment — often referred to as e-waste — are one of the fastest growing portions of Rhode Island’s solid waste stream.Two of the biggest problems facing the waste and recycling industry today are electronics and construction debris. These materials present a number of difficulties to haulers, processors and recyclers because of the presence of toxic chemicals and substances.

Electronic waste — more commonly referred to as e-waste — includes computers, monitors, TVs, cell phones, refrigerators and just about any other electronic device that is thrown away. These items contain chemicals and heavy metals such as lead, cadmium, beryllium and brominated flame retardants, especially in the case of old computer monitors, which feature cathode ray tubes (CRTs).

Most of these items can be broken down into their component parts, but this is normally achieved through active disassembly by hand, which allows for the recognition and removal of useful components such as modems and RAM chips. However, this hands-on process is labor intensive and not economically viable.

This, in most cases, leads to these unwanted electronic products being shipped to poorer countries, with generally lax worker safety and health standards. Some of the materials recovered are gold, lead, copper, many types of plastics and glass. But among the side effects of this processing includes tainted groundwater, and increased cancer and birth defect rates.

An estimated 70 percent of all heavy metal contamination in U.S. landfills comes from discarded electronics, according to the Environmental Protection Agency.

Low initial cost, planned obsolescence and technological evolution are the main contributing factors to the increase in e-waste during the past 10 years. Most people would rather buy a new laptop when theirs breaks, malfunctions or becomes unable to support updated software, than ship that laptop out for repair or an upgrade. This attitude of electronic disposability has also led to the virtual death of industries such as television and appliance repair.

The Rhode Island Resource Recovery Corporation, which operates the Central Landfill in Johnston, accepts, free of charge for Rhode Island residents, computers, monitors, hard drives, modems, scanners, laptops, printers and TVs for recycling.

Unacceptable items include cell phones, printer cartridges, small appliances, servers and stereo equipment. Businesses with fewer than 15 complete computer systems can drop them off at Resource Recovery. The agency charges 20 cents per pound to dispose of these items.

There also are several recyclers of computers and CRTs in southern New England, and many manufacturers have trade in programs for electronics, and retailers, such as Best Buy, accept products they have sold, free of charge, for recycling.

Construction and demolition debris poses other problems for the waste/recycling industry. Materials taken from older buildings often contain lead and asbestos, newer buildings have drywall that, when landfilled, releases a toxin called hydrogen sulfide, and fluorescent lighting contains mercury.

At the Rhode Island Resource Recovery Corporation, this debris is processed into a mulch-like material that is used as a part of the daily landfill cover. Bricks, clean wood, drywall, shingles, furniture and rubber are used to make this landfill cover. Grinding these and other materials, such as glass, produces a nonporous cover that restricts airflow, reduces odors and saves valuable space.

Many construction companies practice reclamation — carefully disassembling buildings with an eye for saving materials that can be used on other projects or sold. This process is especially fruitful, financially, when the materials can be reused on the same job.

Some alternatives to disposal of construction and demolition waste are: sorting scrap metal and wire for resale through independent recyclers; sorting large or whole pieces of drywall for recycling at the state landfill; donating salvaged materials to Habitat for Humanity or other community construction organizations; and listing reusable items such as fixtures on Freecycle, Craigslist or other similar Web sites.

While e-waste is a growing problem at landfills across the country, construction and demolition debris, especially from larger projects, is usually sorted and recycled. Small to midsized projects taken on by homeowners, however, create a vast amount of possibly hazardous waste.

The key to handling debris from home improvement projects is to have a plan. Before you begin your project, try to think of what kinds of waste materials will be created, then find out how and where to dispose of them properly.

Any questions or concerns about disposal of waste of any kind can be addressed by contacting the Rhode Island Resource Recovery Corporation at rirrc.org.

For more information, visit dem.ri.gov/ewaste.

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.”

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.

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.