So I'm not sure how it is in the rest of the country, but here in Oregon there has been a monumental ground shift in how recycling is done, and it's changing the way we do things around the house here.
For a couple of months when we were just getting adjusted to living here, we did absolutely no recycling here, and felt awful about it. Milk jugs, peanut butter jars, cardboard boxes...all went into the dumpster on the "farm" end of the property. As the area we live in is not considered a residential area, there simply was no recycling pick-up, just industrial trash, which we were allowed to put our trash bags in.
But about that time, Oregon trash pick-up companies also started notifying their customers that recycling rules were changing, due to the fact that China was no longer accepting mixed recycling. This was a shock for many, including ourselves, as we had no idea all that recycling waste we all created was being put on massive container ships and sent overseas. Talk about having a huge carbon footprint! And for garbage, to boot.
So the new rules here are that you can ONLY recycle plastic containers marked #1 or #2 (milk or large water bottles), and only if they are 12 or more ounces, and only if they are washed thoroughly and dried before being put into the bin. Clean paper and cardboard is OK. Shredded paper, egg cartons, styrofoam, dirty pizza boxes, and clam shell packaging are not recyclable at all. Cans and bottles are.
The biggest thing for us is that all those "other" plastic containers, either with other numbers or that are small, will no longer be acceptable. Everything from the orange extract bottle you have in your cupboard to your yogurt carton, your "cardboard" milk carton, to the big plastic container of pretzels you got at Costco last month. Into the dumpster they go, for all eternity or however many thousands of years it takes them to break down.
Were we foolish to imagine there was someone at the recycling center sorting our #1 gallon water jugs from our #5 single serve yogurt cartons? I guess it's financially unrealistic to think of someone either here or in China doing so.
Anyway, on a brighter note, we've managed to find a waste transfer station close by that accepts recycling, and we've started up again with what we can recycle, separating everything, washing it, and then running it down to the center to be put into separate bins. But while I feel better about the things we are once again recycling, I feel pretty disappointed about all the things we can't recycle, especially since most have the circle with the number at the bottom, meaning it is, in fact, possible to recycle it in some theoretical universe.
So how are things in the blue can in your town? Have the rules changed, or is it business as usual? One of the basic tenants of homesteading is to reduce one's carbon footprint, but I feel with these new rules our footprint just got a lot bigger, and I'm not sure what we can do about it.
I had this exact same conversation with myself, and with a few friends. Had no idea that mixed recycling was shipped overseas! Doing what we can to recycle and prevent unnecessary landfill use was actually contributing to world pollution, because the stuff was shipped for processing to countries with a cheaper workforce more relaxed pollution regulations. We are in the country, and we pay for weekly trash service. Part of that is single-stream recycling in a separate bin. No change has come, yet, in the rules for what goes into that bin, though I suspect that it's coming.
ReplyDeleteWhat I've learned from all of this is that everything has a price ... the amount of water used to clean a recyclable container, the engine exhaust created by driving to the recycling center, to the fuel and pollution needed to transport our cast-off containers across the ocean. I'm not sure that it balances.
You make excellent points, Connie. Before this, I honestly thought most recycling was done on our own shores,and finding out it is not is kind of a game changer. But is it worse being transported overseas or dumped in a local landfill? I honestly have no idea anymore.
DeleteI've known about China and also that they stopped accepting our recycling. It is the same here in SLO: making people aware of 'wishcycling' and to please stop it. MY wish is that companies would stop using such environmentally unfriendly containers!
ReplyDeleteMy GOAL is to work toward zero waste by continuing to buy in bulk: beans, grains, nuts, etc. are all stored in an assortment of saved glass containers and Mason jars. We have a water filter and use our own glass water bottles, don't buy water in plastic bottles. I'm making water kefir (so tasty, so easy, so fast!) instead of buying it, and bottling it in kombucha bottles I've saved as well as some Grolsch bottles I've bought. Bread comes in plastic bags, so I'm going to start baking my own with wild yeast (sourdough starter) after I get back from OR and WA -- it will be cool enough to bake again here, I hope!
In a nutshell, buying in bulk and cooking from scratch will make the biggest impact on our household's plastic waste. I know we will never get to zero waste but we can definitely do better.
Agreed, I think both we as individual consumers as well as the companies that produce what we buy could all do better. I just found a filling station for drinking water, which means no more buying water bottles, just re-using the ones I currently own -- I'm beyond thrilled! Glad to hear I'm not the only one concerned about this enough to change my habits. I love the idea of having a "zero waste" goal.
DeleteWe have the same issue in Ohio. It makes me ill to think of all the plastic in our landfills. Something needs to be done, but I don't know what.
ReplyDelete