CRI study warns of perils of Single-Stream recycling

Archiv – The Container Recycling Institute in the United States has undertaken a study of the impacts of single-stream collection of residential recyclables, with a particular focus on the economic and environmental impacts of this collection method on the final material sent to end-markets for remanufacturing. The report finds that there are many negative downstream impacts of contaminated feedstock due to the mixing of materials through single-stream curbside collection.
United States | The Container Recycling Institute in the United States has undertaken a study of the impacts of single-stream collection of residential recyclables, with a particular focus on the economic and environmental impacts of this collection method on the final material sent to end-markets for remanufacturing. The report finds that there are many negative downstream impacts of contaminated feedstock due to the mixing of materials through single-stream curbside collection.
’Basically, the report confirms that you can’t unscramble an egg,’ explains CRI Executive Director Susan Collins. ’Once the materials are mixed together in a single-stream recycling system, there will be cross-contamination of materials and significant glass breakage. Those cross-contamination and breakage issues then result in increased costs for the secondary processors.’
CRI selected Clarissa Morawski, principal of CM Consulting, to research the issue. Ms. Morawski is a leading expert on Extended Producer Responsibility (EPR), and has authored numerous reports on beverage container recovery systems. For this study, Ms. Morawski reviewed 60 previously-published studies, reports and articles in trade magazines. Ms. Morawski was interested to find that, as a result of the struggling economy and plunging market prices for recyclables, she is seeing increased market sensitivity to quality issues. ’End markets are really starting to quantify their economic losses from poor quality of material, and from a qualitative perspective, they feel this problem is very serious indeed and could have an impact on any future investments of capital to increase capacity of secondary feedstock.’
Despite these issues, over the last decade many municipalities in the United States have shifted to single-stream recycling, in which glass, metal, plastic, and paper are collected in a single receptacle, making it easier for consumers and thereby boosting recovery rates while also reducing collection costs.
The report attempts to quantify those costs, but the study acknowledges that there is a need for more comprehensive data. ’Nor are costs calculated on an apples-to-apples basis, because the tons that are handled through various recycling systems are not necessarily the same as the tons recycled,’ Collins observed. ’If you take the contaminants out of the equation, the cost per ton recycled increases. With such high contaminant levels, some of these recycling systems are merely shifting costs to the paper mills, aluminium manufacturers, glass beneficiation facilities and glass manufacturers, and plastics recyclers.’

The report is available for download on the CRI web site: www.container-recycling.org.