Moorpark Acorn
August 31, 2024
Many residents might be surprised to learn that they may actually be contaminating their curbside recycling cart with unrecyclable items. However, if you knew that your cart might not be collected because of contamination, would you make more of an effort to find out what might be causing it?
And how would households react to recycling in general if there were audits and penalties incurred by improper recycling?
These and other questions were addressed in a paper published last year by Professor Erin McKie and Aravind Chandrasekaran, both of Ohio State University, and Sriram Venkataraman of the University of South Carolina, (fisher. osu.edu/news/paper-plasticsand-penalties how-audits-can-improve-curbside recycling).
In a summary of the study, published April 22 on the Ohio State University Fisher College of Business website, McKie summarizes the key points, based on recycling feedback and performance data from 25,359 audits across 11,899 households and 15 recycling routes:
“Households that received . . . punitive feedback reduced their contamination severity by 59% and were 75% less likely to commit a violation in the future. Additionally, we found household recycling participation behavior did not decrease after households received a punitive feedback mechanism.”
In a YouTube video, McKie shares her interviews of consumers. Showing them a red solo cup, a roll of paper towels and bubble wrap packaging, she asks, “Is this recyclable?” The consumers express uncertainty but all say “yes” to each item. As she informs them, the true answer is “no,” although the tube of the paper towels is recyclable, and plastic film can be recycled at drop off sites available in some supermarkets.
The study includes some important caveats. Punitive approaches worked best in affluent areas and mostly affected what the researchers termed “aspirational recycling.” Also called “wishcycling,” aspirational recycling refers to items consumers doubt are recyclable but include anyway in curbside recycling carts because they hope the items might be recyclable. Perhaps those engaging in wishcycling also put out some nonrecyclable items because it feels less wasteful than filling a garbage cart.
Getting recycling right is an important way to hold down the cost of residential refuse and recycling charges. Some recycling contaminants, such as film plastic, can wrap around and jam sorting equipment. McKie says that removing contaminants from curbside recyclables at sorting centers costs “millions of dollars per year in operational costs.”
She claims a moderately sized center, such as the two in Ventura County, “can lose $10,000 for every 10 minutes it is shut down due to contaminants.”
Besides causing increased labor sorting fees, contamination can spoil commodities. For example, liquid can ruin paper, and even a little non-recyclable glass—such as mirrors, Pyrex and windows— can spoil a much larger amount of otherwise easily recyclable bottle glass, due to different melting points in the remanufacturing process.
Most local curbside contamination monitoring takes an “information only” approach, affixing an “oops tag” to carts found to have contained contaminants. However, Port Hueneme sets a standard for the type of customer feedback these researchers say is most effective.
Like the trucks operating in many jurisdictions, Port Hueneme’s trucks include a camera aimed at each load as it enters the recycling truck “hopper.” When contamination is spotted, the driver sends a photo of the load and a photo of the address to a dispatch office.
The city has two levels of penalties for contamination. For loads already dumped, the fine $34.98. If a driver spots contamination before dumping the load, collection is simply refused, and the customer is emailed a notice. The customer then may remove the contaminants and reschedule collection for a fee of $17.14, according to Public Works Program Manager Rick Cervantes.
Check your refuse collector’s website to determine which items belong in your curbside recycling cart. Not all types of plastics accepted in the programs are sorted out for recycling all the time, but the lists show the items your contracted collector is prepared to sort for recycling.
David Goldstein is a Ventura County Public Works Agency Environmental Resource Analyst. Call (805) 658-4312.
https://www.mpacorn.com/articles/controlling-curbside-cart-contamination
