Single stream recycling, in practice with our collection company, means that paper, cardboard, cans, bottles, metals, and a few other things are all just mixed together in the same can. How does it work at the other end? How do they process it?
Maybe they grind it all up, and use various chemical engineering unit ops like elutriation and flocculation and magnet conveyor belts and so forth. In that case, the smallest bits of paper and aluminum foil should go into our can, as well as those horrible packages that combine plastic and thin cardboard, sort of welded together.
On the other hand, maybe there are people sitting there grabbing things and tossing them into various bins as this stream of stuff goes by. In that case, paper an inch in size shouldn’t go in there, and maybe nothing smaller than a standard sheet. And, if I can’t easily separate the paper and plastic and metal parts myself, I shouldn’t put it into the recycling either.
There are three possibilitis, given that your location shows as “Midwest, USA”
1). They are using sorting machines. Back at the Expo in Hannover, I saw a video (really an ad) on the sophisticated sorting machinery available already.
They are using people sitting at conveyor belts. Still used in many places for specific stuff, and depending on the price of the material then sold again to a manufacturer, might be worth it despite the wage.
Variant a) Ship everything to China or Africa and let them sort it. This often ends up on landfills in China when the importers take shortcuts to save money.
They are lying and instead of recycling are just dumping or burning everything.
Is recycling laid down in laws in your area? Is a communal company doing the recycling, or a private company with ties to the Mafia or similar? (See the regular troubles in Italian cities where the Mafia owns the trash collection companies vs. other countries where the garbage collection is owned by the community and does everything correctly.).
You mean the cartons milk or juices come in? They’re called Tetrapack and are a problem: on the one hand, sturdy and lightweight and hygienic, so good for the industry and because less weight, less pollution during transport than glass. On the other hand, the fused/ melded together parts are hard to seperate afterwards, and both plastic and aluminium are precious raw materials.
Wikipedia claims that at least the paper fibres of Tetrapacks can be extracted with a bath.
My local communal trash collector says that they cut Tetrapacks up and use them as base for some objects (downcycling, but still better than burning).
I’m glad someone asked this because I frequently wonder the same thing myself. In my community it costs $1/bag (city-provided special bags) to throw away garbage, but there is unlimited recycling and they recycle almost everything (all plastics of any number as long as they have a recyling logo on them, for example) but it all goes into the same bin. I’ve tried imagining people going through my recycling, sorting it all out, but I can’t quite picture it realistically. I’d like to think they actually ARE recycling rather than just putting it in a landfill, but I don’t know how.
Hoperfully someone with some experience will chime in and help us out.
Perhaps there is pre-sorting with magnets, but I have seen photos of people wearing heavy gloves, sitting at a conveyor belt and hand sorting.
They originally asked us to separate paper from cans/bottles, but I think people were so unreliable about it that they gave up. Now a big green truck with a pair of giant arma drives up and empties the blue recycling bin. (And–I kid you not–a big blue truck with a pair of giant arms drives up and empties our green garden waste bin).
Just before the Beijin Olympics, there was a piece on PBS about recycles sent to China from the US. They used lots of people to separate stuff. Lots of it was burned, cooled, then people went through it to pull out recyclabes. They shut the plant down for the Olympics because it dumped so much crap into the air.
Sorry, I couldn’t find a link.
Are each of the numbers for plastic recycling totally separate? That is, can some of them be recycled together, or are there nine (or however many) different piles/bins/whatever that they need to be sorted into before they can be recycled? It seems like a lot of work to sort every little plastic thing into its own number. Plus, what do they do with plastic that isn’t labeled (people who aren’t as conscientious about sorting)–does it get put in the regular trash?
When I lived in Ann Arbor, if you were convicted of a minor crime and given community service, most of the time you’d be sorting recycling. I wonder if they still do that.
Sort of on-topic, can anyone recommend a book that lays the SD down on recycling? Don’t know if it is possible to get the straight of it on such a politicised topic, but something that at least tries to take a sober stab at it would be very interesting.
Incidentally, magnets can be used for separating out all metals, not just ferrous ones (though it’s a lot easier for ferrous metals). Aluminum, say, won’t respond to a static field, but it will respond to a rapidly-changing one: If you suddenly turn on a strong electromagnet, the rapid change will cause eddy currents to be induced in the metal, which in turn creates its own magnetic field.
I used to keep up on recycling better. There have been high tech sorting systems for a long time. I think they can even sort out different types of plastic.
Can you briefly summarize your opinions? It sounds like you don’t like recycling–am I right? If so, what is wrong with it? I’ve just never heard anyone say recycling is bad before. Apologies if I’ve misunderstood you.
my city only allows #1 and #7 plastics and I’ve been wondering for a long time how they separate out the wrong plastics. I might make a field trip out of it someday. According to this site they use mechanical and chemical methods to: separate out the different types, remove the cap ring, and remove the labels.
Probably one of the better videos of how it can be done. Looks exactly as has been discussed in this thread. The ferrous unit attracted cans and the aluminum one ejected them. God I love the internet.
I didn’t think he was, just mentioned in case some people got the wrong impression. This made me think: at what frequency does it begin to repel? Can I launch aluminium pans with my induction cooker?