Wastecon 2016: Winning recycling

Municipalities, recycling companies and product manufacturers all play key roles in the success of recycling. During Wastecon 2016 in Indianapolis, representatives from each segment shared ways in which they have been successful at recycling, ultimately showing how working together leads to success.

The session moderated by Cody Marshall of The Recycling Partnership included Cathy DeShambo, environmental services administrator for the city of East Lansing, Michigan; Benjamin Pedigo, corporate recycling sales manager, Rumpke Recycling, Cincinnati; and Steve Sikra of Cincinnati-based consumer goods company Proctor & Gamble (P&G). Each panelist shared how their organizations have been successful at recycling.

Marshall set the stage by talking about how different stakeholders can work together toward the same goal of improving recycling. Having quality material coming through material recovery facilities (MRFs) allows recycling to be profitable.

He noted much work has yet to be done. Half of packaging materials are not recovered. He said 53 percent of the population in the U.S. does not have curbside recyclable collection while another 44 percent have inefficient curbside collection. MRFs, meanwhile, average 15-20 percent contamination in their streams.

DeShambo shared some of the unique aspects of E. Lansing, which is home to Michigan State University. Because of the large student population, the median age of the city is 21, while housing is 34 percent owner occupied and 66 percent renter occupied. The rentals turn over about every 6 months. Because of such a high short-term housing situation, she said of recycling, “We are in a constant state of education.” She also noted that Michigan State is one the most sustainable campuses in the country.

As a “Big 10” town, she said, “We like to win,” adding, “We weren’t wining at single stream.”
When single stream was initially rolled out, residents were given open-top bins. The collection trucks, which Deshambo said “were state of the art when we purchased them” were not equipped to handle single stream. Residents would call and ask why the city wouldn’t take their cardboard and boxboard, which didn’t fit in the bin.

“There was no way to make that transition without the infrastructure,” said DeShambo. “We weren’t collecting a lot of material. We were collecting less than 50 tons per month from the residential program.”

But the city had the political will and resident will to improve recycling. “It is a good scenario, except when you don’t have the money to follow through, and you have a lot of infrastructure to put in place,” said DeShambo. “There was no other way than to look for partners. It was the only way we could get this done.”

East Lancing received a Recycling Partnership Grant, which DeShambo said, “Opened up doors, opportunities and eyes.”

As a municipality she said, “We get caught up in day to day struggles. It is really key reach out to partners to get that help.”

The city bought first hybrid recycling truck in the state of Michigan.

“There is no shortcut to this,” said DeShambo. “There is no way to save time or energy and be successful.”

It has been about a year since East Lansing rolled out its 7,000 carts to residents, which took about 6 months to accomplish. DeShambo said the city is now averaging 110 tons of curbside material per month. “Residents love it,” she said.

The program received so much attention, DeShambo said students really began to notice and have been pushing for multifamily service. They even started a petition, receiving 900 signatures.

This has resulted in the city taking a close look at how it can offer multifamily recycling. City officials also have been working with other communities in the region on studies for way to increase volumes of clean material and possibly support a local MRF as one does not currently operate in the region.

The city recently partnered with Amcor to put in some pedestrian bins for plastic bottle recycling and is in the first phase of that project.

DeShambo talked about partners in commitment. “Once you start down this road, you want to stay on it, you want to keep going.”

Rumpke’s Pedigo discussed the history of the privately owned recycling firm, which began during the Great Depression by the family trying to survive. “It’s a rags to riches story, now in its fourth generation. I am proud to be involved in this business of the Rumpke family,” he said.  

The company is receiving approximately 700 tons per day of throughput at its Cincinnati MRF and 35 to 40 tons in Columbus.

“We are working with the plastics end users, they are telling us what they want,” Pedigo said. He said newer generations of MRFs are 70 tons per hour. Though Pedigro lives in a rural area of Ohio, he said, “We are able to recycle a large variety of materials. We are taking it to one large regional MRF for processing.”

He said Rumpke’s message is, “We want to recycle as much as possible.”
Pre-Green Fence, Pedigo said, “We were moving material that did not have any business going through there. Recyclability of that material was in question.”

As a result of the Green Fence, he said, “We have had some change in dynamics as that has come out.”

It changed how Rumpke processed materials and it looked more to the U.S. plastics consumers to handle them.

P&G’s Sikra discussed the company’s four roles in the recycling supply chain. The company employs 110,000 people and he said 5 billion people per day touch one of P&G’s products. The four roles he o outlined are:

1. design packages that work in recycling system;
2. inspire our customers to recycle;
3. expand the recycling infrastructure; and
4. provide consistent demand for postconsumer resin (PCR).

“A big company comes with a huge responsibility to do the right thing,” said Sikra.
He said P&G wants to have as little impact on the environment as possible. It set a vision of 100 percent renewable energy and recyclable material usage.

“We want to get to the point where zero products go to landfills,” he said.

To achieve this, the company has set 18 different goals with its vision.

For its packaging, it wants to use 20 percent less material, double use of recycled resin in plastic packaging and have all of its packaging be recyclable. It is aiming to be at 90 percent recyclable by 2020.

When consumers are asked what is important to them, Sikra said a package that is recyclable is at the top of the list.

Part of that is the recycling value chain which involves access to collection, participation, separation and end markets.

“We need companies to drive forward PCR,” Sikra said. P&G, he said, has been using PCR for the last 25 years. He said working together and partnering to improve is important to achieving these goals.

Wastecon 2016, an annual conference hosted by the Solid Waste Association of North America was Aug. 22-25 in Indianapolis.