Olympia, Wash. is one of many communities implementing recycling contamination checks at the curb. | Courtesy of city of Olympia
Facing ever-increasing pressure to deliver a cleaner stream to processors, cities across North America are turning to curbside inspection of residential carts. Many are seeing positive results from the efforts.
The report from SWANA delves into how poor recycling behaviors develop and why they persist. | Scott Beck / Resource Recycling Inc.
Education campaigns may improve curbside recycling practices for residents who produce average or low amounts of contamination, but they may not impact the worst offenders, according to new research.
A judge has ruled that the Materials Innovation and Recycling Authority (MIRA) must pay $1.1 million in damages to a subsidiary of Republic Services. | BCFC/Shutterstock
A Connecticut judge last month ordered a public authority to pay Republic Services damages in a MRF operations contract dispute. Soon after, the saga took another turn, with Republic indicating it’s set to bow out of the agreement altogether.
MRFs in Florida have historically landfilled about one-quarter of the weight that comes in the door, according to a study commissioned by the Florida Recycling Partnership Foundation.
For those of us working in the recycling industry, improving quality has become a priority. The question is: How do we clean up the recycling stream and do it cost-effectively and quickly?
Researchers in Florida have noticed a gradual increase in contamination rates in recent years. | Blueee77/Shutterstock
MRFs in Florida have historically landfilled about one-quarter of the weight that comes in the door, according to a study commissioned by the Florida Recycling Partnership Foundation.
A research project in Ontario compared single-family and multi-family streams in medium-sized urban cities with single-family streams in rural programs. | Diana Parkhouse/Shutterstock
Officials in one area of Ontario dove deep into recycling stream composition data, producing results that informed a municipality’s new recycling contract. Continue Reading
Researchers collected and sorted through more than 38,000 pounds of mixed recyclables from 173 sample loads. | Rubens Alarcon/Shutterstock
Researchers have quantified contamination in the business recycling stream in the Portland, Ore. metropolitan area, providing data that can be used to make operational or outreach decisions.
California cities of 50,000 residents or more are seeing inbound contamination rates between 8% and 46%, with an average of 20%. | Oksana Shturo/Shutterstock
According to a study from The Recycling Partnership, large and mid-sized cities in California see an average contamination rate of around 20%, a finding that underscores the complications of aligning enthusiastic residents with local-program realities.
