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What actually happens to the stuff you put
in the recycling bin?

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I’ve always been curious,

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so I decided to
collect the recycling from our office and

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bring it to a recycling plant to find out.

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Follow me. We’re going to
find out the life of our recyclables

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as they go to a recycling plant.

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[upbeat music]

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When I got to Sims
recycling plant in Brooklyn,

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I found a huge warehouse

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where 800 tons of recyclables
from all over New York

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are dropped off by barge
and truck every day.

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The plant was built in 2013,

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and it is state-of-the-art.

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It handles materials like:
metals, glass, and hard plastics.

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And after those materials are dropped off,
they’re sorted.

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So we take all of those
unsorted recyclables

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and push it through our processing
system, nearly all automatic.

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It's about two and a half miles worth
of conveyor belts, magnets,

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cameras all sorts of other machines

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dedicated to just sorting out
different materials.

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The sorting machine is very high-tech

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and sorts 14 kinds of materials,

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like glass, aluminum, cartons,
and different types of plastic.

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Once enough of a material is collected,

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it's compressed into
a 1,000 to 1,500 pound

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block called a bale.

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After the bales are sorted, they’re sold

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to 3rd party companies.

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For example, a bale

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of aluminum might sell for $800.

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Buyers then take the raw material,
clean and process it,

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and turn it into something new.

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This process saves way more energy

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than mining
for virgin materials.

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With the same amount of energy it takes

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to make a new can of aluminum,
you can make

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20 cans from recycled aluminum.

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And using one ton of recycled plastic

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saves 16 barrels of oil.

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You have to think about all this stuff as
coming from the earth, right?

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There’s natural resources,
oil in all of these plastics,

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and once you put it in the trash,
it goes to a landfill

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or it’s going to an incinerator.

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You’re never going to use
that material again.

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So it’s important we’ve got
limited resources on this planet,

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to use these kinds of materials

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as much as we can in the best
way as possible.

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Despite the great set-up at Sims
there are still a lot of issues with recycling.

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First of all, Americans kind of suck at it.

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According to the EPA, about 75% of all our
waste is actually recyclable.

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Yet, our recycling rates hang around 34%,
nationally.

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That basically means that only a third of
every single thing we use and throw out every

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day is making it to the recycling bin.

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And don’t get me started with New Yorkers.
We only recycle 17% of our waste.

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This is a garbage can right outside of our
office and you can see there’s paper

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and there’s some cans in there, cups.

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All of these thing are recyclable and they’re
in the trash, right when there’s a recycling

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bin right next door.

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Only about 50% of recyclables in New
York City are getting recycled right now.

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And I think that's largely a result of maybe
a lack of public education.

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The fact that the rules have changed over
time.

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Maybe some people just don't care enough or
don't know why they should care.

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And I think all of those kind of issues can
really be addressed through education.

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For their part, Sims offers daily educational
tours of their plant, in an effort to boost

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our low recycling rates.

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Low rates aren’t the only issue though.
Sam also told me about another problem called 'wish-cycling'.

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That’s when people put trash into the recycling bin,

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hoping it can be recycled when, in fact,
it can not.

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I would say it’s about 10%-13% of what we
get is not something we want to receive.

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Those kinds of materials are extra plastic
bags, plastic film, maybe little bits of food

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scraps mixed in with those containers.

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Wish-cycling wastes a lot of energy and fuel
because items are shipped to a plant like Sims

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sorted, and then eventually just sent
to the dump.

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I wanted to see if my coworkers and I were
guilty of any wish-cycling

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so I convinced Sam to go through our bag with
me.

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We’re not wearing gloves because,

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is that okay with you?

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Yeah, we do this every day, this is fine.

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By looking through our bag,
I learned we made some mistakes.

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Like putting paper towels in the recycling
bin.

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They’re actually compostable.

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He also told me important tips,
like cutting down on plastic straws.

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A lot of sort of single use disposables that
are really small,

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it's better to use less of these then to even
try to recycle them because a lot of small

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plastics sort of fall through the cracks in the system.

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Reduce.

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Exactly.

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Sam told me that another huge misconception
about recycling are plastic bags.

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We get about 18 tons of plastic bags here
every day, ideally we would be getting nothing.

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Plastic bags are a low quality kind of plastic,
which makes them really hard to resell.

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For example, in SIMS case, they actually have
to pay another company to to come

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to pick up the bags and recycle them elsewhere.

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On top of that, the bags get stuck in the
machine and can break it.

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So if you want to recycle your plastic shopping
bags,

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go to a plastic bag drop-off at a retailer
like Whole Foods.

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Or better yet, skip the plastic bag all together
and bring a reusable bag.

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It’s important to note that every city is
different so look up what your city’s recycling

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plant accepts.

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Sims is one of the most inclusive recycling
plants on the East coast and accepts more

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materials than many recycling plants.
But Sam told me to abide by the general rule,

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'If it’s a hard plastic, put it in the
recycling bin'.

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Seeing the 800 tons of recyclables at SIMs
was insane.

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But that’s nothing compared to the 12,000
tons of trash residents of New York City throw

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out every day.

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I know seeing that made me more conscious
of what I use every day and inspired me to

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cut down on single-use plastics.

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But let’s be real, plastic is still a part
of our everyday lives

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and it’s hard to avoid it completely.

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However, I’ve realized we can have a say
in where it ends up,

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and while we’re at it, help our environment and create a more
sustainable future.