Single-stream recycling gaining converts in Mass.

When the trash-hauling firm Waste Management opened its new recycling facility in Avon, Mass., earlier this month, Chris DeSantis saw it as another step toward the end of landfills.
That would be good news in Rhode Island, where the state’s only landfill, in Johnston, is planning a $70 million expansion that still will only extend its life until 2020.
Waste Management, the nation’s largest hauling firm, is in the process of converting all its recycling facilities to single-stream systems, which allow residents and businesses to throw all their recyclables into one bin – meaning no more sorting paper from plastic. The company’s Avon location is company’s first location in New England to switch.
Consumers and companies understand the environmental benefits of recycling, says DeSantis, who is Waste Management’s general manager for Rhode Island and southern Massachusetts. But “it needs to be something that’s easy and practical, and that’s where single-stream [sorting] comes in.”
Few states offer more of an opportunity for increased recycling than Rhode Island, where only about 15 percent of residential waste and 4 percent of commercial waste are recycled – far below the national average of more than 30 percent.
The cost of trash disposal in Rhode Island is “vastly lower” than in other states, DeSantis said, and thus residents and businesses “don’t feel the same level of economic motivation that stakeholders in Massachusetts do.”
The speed with which states switch from throwing away to recycling their waste is “is dependent on how progressive state regulators become,” he added.
No hauler in Rhode Island, including Waste Management, currently offers single-stream recycling to their customers in the state, according to the R.I. Resource Recovery Corporation (RIRRC).
Waste Management’s New England district manager, Larry Speigel, said the company would consider transporting single-stream recyclables out of state if it proved to be cost effective. The new Avon facility is the one closest to Rhode Island at present, although the company is planning to build two more in Massachusetts.
So far, Spiegel said, municipalities have been the most eager to switch to the single-stream method. This month, Mansfield residents will get a second 64-gallon wheeled barrel, similar to the one they already use for trash, for disposing of their recyclable items.
Lee Azinheira, Mansfield’s public works director, said he expects to see a significant increase in residents’ recycling after the switchover takes place.
“We definitely see a trend” in increased recycling due to single-stream sorting, Speigel said. Nationwide, local recycling rates increase by 20 to 30 percent when communities switch to single stream, he said.
Waste Management has also begun marketing single-stream to businesses, including Ocean State Job Lots and shopping malls owned by the Simon Property Group, which operates Emerald Square mall in North Attleboro.
“Businesses are gravitating toward this,” DeSantis said. It’s also a financial opportunity for Waste Management, which can sell the processed recyclables on the sky-high commodities markets.
However, the single-stream system also raises concerns for the vendors who purchase recyclables, according to Sarah Kite, recycling manager for the RIRRC.
“Vendors are finding the quality of materials coming from single-stream facilities is not as high as the quality coming from dual-stream” sites or separated recycling systems, she said.
Fiber vendors, who buy recycled cardboard and other paper products, are particularly concerned about contamination from glass and liquids, which “is a big, big problem for paper mills,” Kite said.
“However, having said all that, the technology has vastly improved over the past three years for sorting,” she continued, particularly for “blue-bin recyclables,” such as cans and bottles.
Although recycling has been mandatory for Rhode Island firms since 1996, many businesses are hesitant to take on the added cost of hiring a recycling hauler. That, combined with lax enforcement, has kept participation rates low.
“Recycling isn’t free,” Kite noted, “and that is a misperception.”
Some communities are trying to make it easier and less expensive for businesses to recycle. In Warren, for example, small businesses can now join the town’s municipal curbside recycling system. The RIRRC also offers free waste assessments to businesses and has developed a new Web site – greenzoneri.org – offering information and tips.
Single-stream recycling won’t be coming to Rhode Island anytime soon, unless the RIRRC converts the Johnston landfill to a single-stream system. Kite said that is unlikely as long as the current facility remains in use.
But, she said, “We’re open to anything that’s going to increase efficiency and make it easier for customers.” &#8226