Landfill’s new recycling program to go statewide

Residents in Burrillville and North Smithfield are participating in a pilot program to test the R.I. Resource Recovery Corporation’s new recycling program and equipment. The trial has allowed the corporation time to work out any difficulties before going online with the rest of the state, which is estimated to take place in mid-June.
“Rhode Island now has the most technologically advanced recycling facility in the country,” said Sarah Kite, director of recycling services for RIRRC. “We wanted the equipment that we installed to get us through the next 15-20 years.”
The corporation is responsible for sorting and processing the state’s recyclables into commodities, the profits of which are annually distributed to its municipalities.
A $16.9 million replacement of RIRRC’s materials-recycling facility completed in April now enables all recyclables to be placed in one recycling bin to be sorted at the Johnston center.
The old plastic-sorting equipment, which was done manually, was replaced, and most of the paper-sorting equipment was refurbished. The automated equipment can process 160,000 tons per year. Currently, 90,000 tons are processed.
Items from newspaper and cardboard, to aluminum and plastic containers will no longer need to be sorted by the consumer. More importantly, however, the new process allows for more plastics to be recycled. Items including wide-mouth jars, plastic, deli-style, take-out containers, plastic egg cartons, and margarine, iced coffee and yogurt cups can now be recycled.
“It’s not a ‘single-stream’ system” said Kite, “residents will still have to separate their trash from recyclables.”
Corporation officials are hopeful that since recycling will become more convenient, it will result in increased participation for industry, commercial properties, condominiums and housing associations and apartments. Towns would save money by paying fewer tipping fees for disposal of less trash. For the state, increased recycling would result in less waste delivered to trash-to-energy facilities or trucked to out-of-state landfills. So far, everything is on track. In Burrillville and North Smithfield, the trial that began in April has been a success and will continue until the entire state adopts the program.
“People have been really excited about it,” said Andrea Hall, recycling coordinator. “It makes it a lot easier to put everything in one bin, and the addition of the new plastics has made some people very happy.
“Some cities and towns offer commercial recycling programs for small businesses; we do not currently, but it is something we may be looking at in the future,” she said.
Local industry and commercial enterprises have taken notice of changes at the landfill.
“We’ve also been getting calls from many businesses,” she said. “They’ve been required by law to recycle since 1996 but it’s very expensive because of what they need to separate. Our new equipment should make it easier,” she said.
RIRRC has taken a proactive and hands-on approach to addressing the questions posed by the state’s industries. For example, each business deals with a different type of plastic and RIRRC officials have met with several to discuss what materials can be recycled, whether it be waste plastic or packaging. For the company and the RIRRC officials, the investigation is necessary to include those plastics and according to Kite, it’s time well-spent. “It’s a big opportunity,” she said. “There are potentially some big savings.” One such participant is Hasbro Inc., of Pawtucket, where great effort has been expended in waste reduction and recycling. “We are committed to shrinking our corporate environmental footprint, even as we grow our business,” said Gary Serby, vice president for global corporate communications. In April alone, the manufacturer announced plans to reduce materials used in product packaging for its highly popular global brands, yielding as much as a 20 percent improvement of its product-to-package ratio.
Late last year, Hasbro announced that it will eliminate PVC from all new toy and game packaging beginning in 2013.
“We are continuously evaluating ways to improve our processes and our efficiency,” Serby said. “To that end, recently … members of our Rhode Island-based green team visited the Johnston landfill to learn about a specific recycling program and to assess possible implementation at our facilities. The process could potentially make it easier and more effective for our employees to recycle, reduce the amount of waste that is sent to the landfill and improve our recycling rates,” he said.
RIRRC personnel have also met with officials at Rhode Island Hospital.
“The changes in recycling equipment will potentially allow Rhode Island Hospital to recycle more,” said Roger Durand, director of environmental services and central laundry at the hospital.
“The ease of comingling of the recyclables will allow us to use the same labor internally to pick up more recyclable waste categories,” he said. •