By Sarah Hall

Editor

In Portland, Oregon, piles of plastic waste threaten to overwhelm landfills.

In Calgary, Alberta, Canada, paper waste fills storage sheds and warehouses.

The city of Boise, Idaho, is looking at getting rid of its paper recycling program because it looks like it might be too costly to continue.

But here in Onondaga County, it’s pretty much business as usual.

“We’re a little unique here in Onondaga County,” said Kristen Lawton, public information officer for the Onondaga County Resource Recovery Agency (OCRRA). “We have, no joke, one of the nation’s lowest rates of contamination in our recycling stream. I believe it’s less than 5 percent of our blue bin materials are actually things that don’t belong in there.”

The world’s wastebasket

The upheaval comes after China announced last July that it would no longer accept 24 categories of solid waste, including certain types of paper, plastic and textiles. Recyclable materials from all over the world were shipped into the country, which sorted out the unusable and often hazardous materials from the usable raw materials that could be turned back into goods. Since 1996, China has been the world’s top destination for recyclable materials and waste — according to Reuters, it imported 56 percent of the world’s plastic waste in 2016, or 7.3 million tons. The U.S. sent more than 16 million tons of scrap commodities that same year.

The new standards went into effect as of Jan. 1 as the Chinese government decided it needed to focus on cleaning up its own country.

“We found that large amounts of dirty wastes or even hazardous wastes are mixed in the solid waste that can be used as raw materials,” read Beijing’s filing with the World Trade Organization notifying them that they would stop accepting shipments of waste. “This polluted China’s environment seriously. To protect China’s environmental interests and people’s health, we urgently adjust the imported solid wastes list, and forbid the import of solid wastes that are highly polluted.”

While the move may aid in reducing China’s pollution, it has left the streets of many American and European cities teeming with trash. Without a place to send their waste for processing, municipalities and other waste collectors don’t know what to do with it. In cities like Portland, because non-recyclables end up bundled with recyclables and companies don’t have the resources to sort through everything, the bundles end up going together to the local landfill, according to NPR.

Great at going green

But in Onondaga County, you’re not likely to see piles of plastic waste or bundles of newspapers in the streets.

“Because of the outstanding job that local residents, businesses and schools do here in Onondaga County, in ensuring that the correct materials are separated for recycling, the quality of our materials is really outstanding compared to just about anyone else in the country,” said Andrew Radin, recycling manager for OCRRA. “We are very well positioned to meet those requirements and withstand any of the challenges, because of the level of recycling quality in the community.”

And once those materials are collected, they’re further sorted by Recycle America in Liverpool, a subsidiary of Waste Management, which handles all the county’s recyclables. The company has a revolutionary sorting system that allows people to toss items into their blue bins without having to sort them beforehand — it’s all done at the facility. The materials are dumped onto a conveyer belt, where workers carefully sift through and pull out any contaminants (non-recyclable materials). Then machines sort the rest into paper, plastics, metal and glass to be baled and sent out for marketing, much of which Recycling America does in the Northeastern United States rather than overseas.

Another advantage Central New York has is that paperboard facility WestRock, the former Solvay Paperboard, is located in Solvay.

“They take in cardboard, known in the industry as OCC, and they turn it into paper,” Lawton said. “They basically make raw material for new boxes, etc.”

But the Solvay location isn’t just another factory — it’s the Northeast hub for the company.

“It’s the place that all cardboard in the Northeast comes to, so it’s really sort of special that that’s right here in our county,” Lawton said.

“Almost all of the corrugated cardboard goes for recycling, not just from Onondaga County, but from areas throughout the northeast,” Radin added.

A team effort

While Onondaga County residents are stellar recyclers, there’s always room for improvement.

“One of the areas where we could continue to improve, although we’re already doing great, is to really minimize any plastic bags that are in the blue bin,” Radin said. “Plastic bags should never go into the blue bin, and plastic bags should not be used to bundle recyclables together and then be placed in the blue bin. No plastic bags in the blue bin. It just jams up the machinery.”

Lawton encouraged people to familiarize themselves with current recycling regulations.

“One thing I’ve observed over time is that people think they know recycling rules, right? Because 20 years ago, they did something a certain way,” she said. “It’s an evolving industry. There are a lot of things that are acceptable now that maybe were not previously.”

Lawton said ocrra.org is an extremely valuable resource, for everything from recycling regulations to educational materials to a list of services the agency provides. You can also find out how to dispose of items if you’re not sure if they’re recyclable or not.

“We really do offer a lot of free services to try and help the community to an even better job at recycling,” Lawton said. “Our community does a great job. We want you to keep doing a great job, because that’s why are materials are in a position to be marketed, because there’s not a lot of contamination.”

Radin said Onondaga County’s efforts are extremely successful at keeping waste out of landfills.

“With everybody doing their small part every week, by putting out their blue bin, collectively, we are recycling nearly 40,000 tons of blue bin materials annually,” he said. “This is certainly one of our community’s greatest team efforts.”