Recycling: Doing Our Best
Be sure to read the companion piece, Plastic: Recycler, Beware!
Recycling is often thought of as a universal win-win. It seems like a straightforwardly positive action individuals can take that’s good for both the environment and the economy. However, there has been a great deal of debate and controversy in the recycling arena recently. For example, China announced in 2018 that it would no longer buy highly contaminated plastic waste (among other materials), and, in the U.S., many have come to realize that some plastics intended for recycling are being mishandled, either at home or abroad.
Both the Swarthmore Environmental Advisory Council and Swarthmore Borough make efforts to ensure that the materials they send for recycling are, in fact, recycled. Community members can help them tremendously in achieving that goal by following best recycling practices. Specifically: keep plastic bags and other contaminants out of the recycling, clean any recyclable plastics, and stay abreast of recommendations about recycling. (Recyclingsimplified.com is a great resource.)
Swarthmore residents are also encouraged to take cardboard, newspaper, office paper, and aluminum to the recycling center on Dartmouth Avenue, where there are separate receptacles for each category, instead of putting them together into curbside collection bins. Source-separated materials typically have better rates of reuse. They also fetch a higher price on the local recyclables market, so the borough can benefit financially from their sale.
Environmental policy can be complex and nuanced. Importantly, well-intentioned people can disagree. However, we think we can all agree on the following:
Reducing and reusing are much more powerful actions than recycling.
We all need to hold policymakers and companies accountable.
We must keep contaminants out of our recycling.
To be good environmental stewards, we must stay informed, update our practices as situations change and knowledge increases, and create space for respectful disagreements.
It is important to care about both the local and the remote impacts of our actions. The Environmental Advisory Council believes that environmental justice matters at home and abroad. Plastics should not be burned either here or in distant impoverished communities. We also shouldn’t forget that we incinerate our trash in Chester, an economically depressed and historically segregated Black community. Many Chester residents are quite clear about the negative impact the Covanta incinerator has on their community.
The borough’s recent Zero Waste Resolution asks Delaware County to find ways to more responsibly dispose of waste, and to do a zero-waste audit that can yield ideas for how to reduce household trash overall (e.g., through better recycling education and infrastructure, composting programs, etc.). There aren’t easy answers, but eventually we hope that recycling can indeed become a straightforward win-win.
Recycling Tips
What to recycle: paper, cardboard, plastic (#1, #2, #4, #5, and #7), glass, and metal cans.
Make sure that recycled materials are clean, empty, and dry.
No more than a teaspoon of liquid should be inside any container.
Keep your recycling bins covered when they’re outside.
Use the “poke test.”
If you can push your finger through it, then the plastic is too soft to be put in regular recycling bins.
Plastic bags, plastic packaging material, Ziploc bags, etc. can instead usually be recycled at local big-box stores.
Nothing smaller than a credit card should go into the recycling.
This helps prevent problems with the recycling plant’s machinery.
Lids are okay as long as they’re attached to a bottle, forming a single large item.
Items must be loose in order to be processed.
Don’t let any recyclables get inside of other recyclables. Close up lids when you can.
Separate out mixed materials that are part of the same product, or, when in doubt, throw it out. For example, if you are recycling packaging that consists of a plastic shell on a cardboard backing, separate the plastic from the cardboard.
If you’re not sure whether the material can be separated, or if you don’t think it can be recycled, throw it away so as not to contaminate the other recyclable materials.
Safely recycle battery-powered electronic toys and other e-waste.
Use Retrievr (formerly Curb My Clutter), a home pick-up option for e-waste (and for clothes or textiles, if you’re doing some spring cleaning!). This is a partnership that was established for Swarthmore residents by the borough and the Environmental Advisory Council.
Check out recyclingsimplified.com for more information.
Annie Fox is the chair of the Swarthmore Environmental Advisory Council. Elizabeth Jenkins is a member of the council.
