Changes in world recycling markets that began in January have caused Coos County to cut down contamination in its recycling by 85 percent.
“It’s unbelievable. It really is amazing … the residential side of things are totally acceptable at this point. We have a few things that are left in the bins that aren’t recyclable, but people are getting the hint,” Waste Connections site manager Bill Richardson said.
Cleaner recycling materials have opened up new market opportunities in countries like India and Vietnam. In some cases recyclables have become clean enough to be sold in domestic markets.
According to Richardson Waste Connections has started selling corrugated cardboard from Coos County as well as other areas to Georgia Pacific in Toledo, Oregon.
“They’re still trying to work on domestic markets for the papers and plastics, but that’s kind of in the works so nothing’s really happened with that at this point,” Richardson said.
China announced a few months ago that it would be regulating the amount of contamination allowed in recyclable products starting this year. The initial proposal was that loads could not be over three percent contaminated by garbage. That later fell to 0.3 percent and has since risen to 0.5 percent because China has had trouble finding material clean enough to meet their regulations.
Waste Connections notified all of its customers of the changes through filers in the mail, and began leaving behind contaminated recycling in people’s bins when they went to pick it up.
“It’s unbelievable. It really is amazing … the residential side of things are totally acceptable at this point. We have a few things that are left in the bins that aren’t recyclable, but people are getting the hint,” Waste Connections site manager Bill Richardson said.
Cleaner recycling materials have opened up new market opportunities in countries like India and Vietnam. In some cases recyclables have become clean enough to be sold in domestic markets.
According to Richardson Waste Connections has started selling corrugated cardboard from Coos County as well as other areas to Georgia Pacific in Toledo, Oregon.
“They’re still trying to work on domestic markets for the papers and plastics, but that’s kind of in the works so nothing’s really happened with that at this point,” Richardson said.
China announced a few months ago that it would be regulating the amount of contamination allowed in recyclable products starting this year. The initial proposal was that loads could not be over three percent contaminated by garbage. That later fell to 0.3 percent and has since risen to 0.5 percent because China has had trouble finding material clean enough to meet their regulations.
Waste Connections notified all of its customers of the changes through filers in the mail, and began leaving behind contaminated recycling in people’s bins when they went to pick it up.
To read the full story, visit http://theworldlink.com/news/local/cleaner-recycling-opens-domestic-market/article_c4b980fa-e550-5d96-95ae-216cca56db0d.html.