“Do materials we put out into recycling carts and dumpsters REALLY get recycled?“
At the Missouri Botanical Garden’s Green Resources Answer Service, we hear this often! For those wanting to do the most they can to be sustainable, it’s a legitimate concern.
How material is handled varies by place and time and at key points is beyond an individual’s control.
But what we can do is understand how the whole recycling system operates, and act from this knowledge. We hope this behind-the-scenes look at the recycling process in St. Louis is useful to you.
Please note that this process is similar to recycling systems in cities around the United States, but systems in rural areas and other countries are likely to differ. We encourage readers to check with their city or county to clarify what recycling responsibly means in their community or region.
Recycling Collection and the Transfer Station
There are two stages to recycling collection or hauling, but only the first is visible to the public. The refuse trucks that run routes on our streets and alleys are the first step of the recycling process.
On every collection day, these familiar trucks run short pickup routes around St. Louis. Between some pickups, the trucks will drop off some material at a site called a Transfer Station.
The second hauling stage starts at the Transfer Station. Here materials collected by street trucks become co-mingled and loaded into large tipper trucks with a hauling capacity equal to 4-5 street trucks.
Although the Transfer Station’s function is not well known to the general public, this is a vital point in waste material movement.
It is important to note that the Transfer Station is a facility that only deals with loading and unloading materials. No sorting happens at this stage, but loads that have visible contamination will be flagged.
A contaminated truck will go directly to the landfill.
Tipper trucks efficiently make longer runs to the recycling sorting plant, called a Material Recovery Facility.
Sorting at the Material Recovery Facility
A generally clean load of recycling will go on to the Material Recovery Facility. Here co-mingled material streams are separated from one another through mostly mechanical and some manual sorting.
This process pulls out small amounts of contamination. We’re not talking squeaky-clean here; this is “waste” material at this stage, after all. Visible contamination could be:
- A load with a lot of plastic trash bags in it. Plastic bags are the #1 contaminant in recycling material streams. They literally lock up the mechanisms and stop work in recycling sorting plants.
- A load with visible food waste or other glop on material.
- A load with dumped furniture, tires, plastic toys, scrap metal or other kinds of material that should not go into recycling bins. This is why recycling correctly is so important.
In the Material Recovery Facility’s highly automated industrial equipment, the co-mingled material is sorted out into its component streams: cardboard, paper, aluminum, steel cans, glass, and plastics sorted by type of resin.
Material is then baled for shipment by truck or rail to manufacturers who incorporate it into recycled-content products.
Doing your part to Make Recycling Work
Now that you’ve had an inside look at how recycling works in St. Louis, you may have a better understanding of why recycling correctly is so important.
Like the ingredients for successfully cooking your favorite recipes, the facility can only use what the operating company has markets for. In the St. Louis region, there are six kinds of materials our Material Recovery Facility can accept and broker to end-users (more on that later).
Other kinds of items and materials are contaminants that endanger recycling viability.
Our regional recycling message, “Recycle Responsibly – Stick with the Six!”, specifies the accepted materials for the Material Recovery Facility.
We also emphasize that the wrong item can put a whole load of recycling at risk of being wasted. “Not on the List? Not in the Bin!” and “When in Doubt, Throw it Out” are good reminders for respecting the limits to our blue bin system.
Discover More: Recycling Made Easy
The Optional Drop-Off Center
Choosing to view responsibility as our ability to respond – which fluctuates throughout life circumstances – can help ease frustration for those of us committed to recycling as a basic good practice.
Committed recyclers can ensure their material gets to the the Material Recovery Facility by taking it to a local drop-off site. These sites are a good resource if there are issues in your neighborhood with use of recycling dumpsters.
Concerned residents can also bring this information to neighborhood association meetings, share it on social media, and have conversations with neighbors.
more Recycling and Waste Reduction options
Beyond what our fundamental system can handle, there are many more options to circulate material that is “waste” for you.
RecycleResponsibly.org includes links to a terrific database of options to recycle, donate or repurpose many kind of items and materials not accepted in our single-stream recycling collection systems.
Too Good To Waste offers facts and resources to reduce food waste from regional partners, led by EarthDay-365.
Beyond the Blue Bin is a database of options to donate, repurpose, recycle, and circulate many kinds of items, curated by Brightside St. Louis.
Recycle Coach is the St. Louis County Department of Public Health lets you type in items and find out how to manage them sustainably.
The Garden’s Green Resources Info Service is at your service, to answer any question about living sustainably! Email us at greenresources@mobot.org or call 314-577-0246.
Discover More: Sustainability FAQ
Jean Ponzi | Green Resource Manager for the Missouri Botanical Garden’s Sustainability Division
Thanks to contributing experts.
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