Greener Grove Member Amy Glawe, a chemical engineer and corporate sustainability professional, and Aleksandra Plewa, founder and CEO of EcoShip, explored the two main components of a circular economy: recycling and reuse, both aimed at reducing the amount of waste sent to landfills.
As the Village adjusts to the new waste contract and bins, Amy and Aleksandra were able to provide some insight into a question that many of us have: what actually happens to those things you toss in your bins?
Why Recycle?
Okay, okay. Most of Greener Grove’s members might not need convincing, but Amy shared some striking statistics about recycling’s impact. Did you know that…
*For every one ton of paper recycled, we save 3 tons of trees and 7,000 gallons of water? That’s enough water to run a high efficiency washing machine 500 times!
For every one ton of plastic recycled, we save 16.3 barrels of oil and 5774 kWh of energy-enough to charge a Tesla 100 times! Almost 80% of glass recycled is actually reused to make new glass containers, tiles, flooring, landscape materials, countertops, bricks, or as an additive to pavement. *Aluminum and steel are some of the best things to recycle, as they can be reused infinitely without degrading the materials, unlike paper and plastic, which are degraded each time they are used and recycled.
What Makes Something Recyclable?
In order for an item to be considered recyclable, a system to capture and reuse it has to be in place. This system has to include a method to collect, sort, and reprocess it into raw materials, and, crucially, there must be an end market for those raw materials in order for reuse to occur. Items like paper can be recycled 5-7 times before the materials are too degraded to reuse, while items like aluminum cans can be recycled an infinite number of times without degrading the material.
Source: "What Makes Something Recyclable (Source: Amy Glawe's Presentation)"
Recycling Guidelines
The collection and sortation process is crucial to get the things we put in our bins on the right path to reprocessing and reuse. We have a role to play in ensuring that what goes in our bins are actually recyclable and don’t contain contaminants. While instructions might vary by material, here are some general guidelines to follow:
* Clean it. For things like pizza boxes, scrape off food, but oil residue is fine! For cans and bottles, give them a quick rinse. For cardboard boxes, don’t worry about ripping off labels and every bit of tape but feel free to pull off large/loose chunks.
* Dry it. Make sure cans, bottles, and cardboard are dry before adding them to the bin.
* Make sure everything that goes in the bin is larger than a credit card or 2 inch cube. Anything smaller than that is too small to be sorted.
* NEVER put batteries in your recycling bin. These can explode and cause fires in the truck or in the processing facilities.
* NEVER include plastic bags or other soft plastics like bubble wrap or mailers, as they create jams and damage machinery in recycling processing facilities.
* When in doubt, throw it out. One contaminated item can devalue an entire bale, and “wish-cycled” items will be pulled out and landfilled anyway-but may cause other items to be landfilled along with them!
For material-specific guidelines, see below.
Cardboard & Paper:
*Remove bags or liners from food packaging. Soft plastics can be dropped off in grocery stores-see below!
*Flatten boxes to make space for more recyclables.
*Do recycle pizza boxes after removing food residue.
*Remove staples and paper clips where possible, but don’t worry about perfection.
*Don’t worry about removing tape from boxes or plastic windows from envelopes.
*No tissue paper or embellished wrapping paper.
*No paper towels and napkins-put these in your compost or organics cart!
*Cartons for juice/milk/stock are recyclable in Downers Grove-empty, dry, and replace the cap!
Plastics
*Downers Grove accepts all types of plastics except #6 (polystyrene, which is used to make styrofoams).
*Keep lids on bottles; they’re too small to recycle on their own.
*Empty, rinse and dry all food and drink containers.
*Make sure detergent containers are free of soapy residue.
*No soft plastics, like plastic bags, bubble wrap, or plastic wrappers from food or packaging, as these can jam and damage machines used in sortation. These can be dropped off at store pickup locations instead! Find a local pickup location at https://plasticfilmrecycling.org/
*Avoid putting black take-out food containers and other black plastic items into the bin-current sorting technologies cannot “read” these items on the conveyor belt.
Metals
*Empty, rinse and dry food and beverage cans.
*Aluminum foil is recyclable as long as it’s not soiled by food-ball it up into pieces larger than a 2-inch cube and toss it in the bin!
*Don’t include things that could be hazardous, like razors blades, needles, or sharps.
Glass
*Keep lids on bottles, since they’re too small to recycle by themselves.
*All colors of glass are acceptable!
*Pyrex or other heat-resistant glass is not recyclable as it is a different formulation.
*No broken glass… Safety first!
So Where Does it Go?
Once it’s collected curbside, recycled items are taken to a Materials Recovery Facility (MRF). Here, they are sorted by type, baled, and ultimately sent on to the end market where they will be processed and turned into something new! If you’re curious about what happens at a MRF, Amy shared this video:
Items thrown into your organics cart (like that food you scraped off your pizza box before recycling it!) are taken to commercial compost facilities like the Willow Ranch facility in Romeoville or Theland Materials in Antioch. Be sure you follow the guidelines for acceptable materials. In Downers Grove, these are helpfully printed on the lid of the organics cart provided by LRS!
The most common contaminant in organics bins are those tiny stickers on fruit-be sure you remove those before throwing peels in the bin!
What about at the State and Corporate Level?
While consumer recycling is an important component of waste reduction, the state and businesses have roles to play, too. Amy shared that Illinois currently has 5 Extended Producer Responsibility (EPR) laws in place for mercury thermometers, electronics, paint, auto switches, and electronics. New bills have been introduced to expand legislation to paper and plastic products, ban polystyrene food containers, and establish minimum post-consumer recycled material requirements for all newly manufactured plastic items sold in the state.
Many companies are already setting their own goals for using recycled contents in their products, reducing plastics, or making their products recyclable or compostable. Recycled inputs, however, often cost more than virgin materials, presenting cost challenges to businesses. Recycled materials can also present efficiency challenges, especially when used in food products, as materials must meet FDA food contact regulations if going back into food packaging.
What about Hard to Recycle Items?
Some items just aren’t possible to recycle. Our speakers shared solutions for many of these, starting with EcoShip’s work to reduce waste and strengthen communities through reuse and circular economy initiatives. Aleksandra Plewa founded EcoShip in 2021 to solve two problems: reducing the amount of packaging and shipping material sent to landfill, and to provide these materials to small businesses at affordable prices.
Since 2021, EcoShip has expanded significantly and now operates out of a 3000-foot space in Chicago’s Avondale neighborhood. They have expanded their items collected from packaging and shipping materials to include more than 60 hard-to or impossible-to recycle items! Materials are guaranteed to be reused by local businesses or partner nonprofit organizations.
Take Action: Recycling Resources
If you are holding onto items that can’t go into your recycling bin, one of the following resources shared by our speakers can likely tell you where to take it! Or, save the date for Greener Grove’s Recycling Extravaganza on September 19th, where a wide variety of hard-to-recycle items will be accepted.
Resources:
How2Recycle: Learn about the recycling symbols on product labels
Help make Downers Grove a more sustainable community! Take the Village of Downers Grove Greener Way Pledge, and check out The Greener Way Guide here. The Greener Way Guide has 200+ actions that residents can take; it also lists recycling resources and much more.
