What actually happens to the stuff you put in the recycling bin?
I’ve always been curious,
so I decided to collect the recycling from our office and
bring it to a recycling plant to find out.
Follow me. We’re going to find out the life of our recyclables
as they go to a recycling plant.
[upbeat music]
When I got to Sims recycling plant in Brooklyn,
I found a huge warehouse
where 800 tons of recyclables from all over New York
are dropped off by barge and truck every day.
The plant was built in 2013,
and it is state-of-the-art.
It handles materials like: metals, glass, and hard plastics.
And after those materials are dropped off, they’re sorted.
So we take all of those unsorted recyclables
and push it through our processing system, nearly all automatic.
It's about two and a half miles worth of conveyor belts, magnets,
cameras all sorts of other machines
dedicated to just sorting out different materials.
The sorting machine is very high-tech
and sorts 14 kinds of materials,
like glass, aluminum, cartons, and different types of plastic.
Once enough of a material is collected,
it's compressed into a 1,000 to 1,500 pound
block called a bale.
After the bales are sorted, they’re sold
to 3rd party companies.
For example, a bale
of aluminum might sell for $800.
Buyers then take the raw material, clean and process it,
and turn it into something new.
This process saves way more energy
than mining for virgin materials.
With the same amount of energy it takes
to make a new can of aluminum, you can make
20 cans from recycled aluminum.
And using one ton of recycled plastic
saves 16 barrels of oil.
You have to think about all this stuff as coming from the earth, right?
There’s natural resources, oil in all of these plastics,
and once you put it in the trash, it goes to a landfill
or it’s going to an incinerator.
You’re never going to use that material again.
So it’s important we’ve got limited resources on this planet,
to use these kinds of materials
as much as we can in the best way as possible.
Despite the great set-up at Sims,
there´s still many issues with recycling.
First of all, Americans kind of suck at it.
According to the EPA, about 75%
of all our waste is actually recyclable.
Yet, our recycling rates hang around 34%, nationally.
It basically means that only a third
of every single thing we use and throw out every day
is making it to the recycling bin.
And don’t get me started with New Yorkers.
We only recycle 17% of our waste.
This is a garbage can outside of our office
and you can see there’s paper and there’s some cans in there, cups.
All of these thing are recyclable and they’re in the trash,
right when there’s a recycling bin right next door.
Only about 50% of recyclables in New York City
are getting recycled right now.
And I think that's largely a result of
maybe a lack of public education.
The fact that the rules have changed over time.
Maybe some people don't care enough or don't know why they should.
And I think those kind of issues can be addressed through education.
For their part, Sims offers daily educational tours of their plant,
in an effort to boost our low-recycling rates.
Low rates aren’t the only issue though.
Sam also told me about another problem called 'wish-cycling'.
That’s when people put trash into the recycling bin,
hoping it can be recycled when, in fact, it can not.
I would say it’s about 10%-13% of what we get
is not something we want to receive.
Those kinds of materials are extra plastic bags,
plastic film, maybe little bits of food scraps
mixed in those containers.
Wish-cycling wastes a lot of energy and fuel
because items are shipped to a plant like Sims,
sorted, and then eventually just sent to the dump.
I wanted to see if my coworkers and I were guilty of any wish-cycling
so I convinced Sam to go through our bag with me.
We’re not wearing gloves because...
Is that okay with you?
We do this every day, this is fine.
Looking through our bag, I learned we made some mistakes.
Like putting paper towels in the recycling bin.
They’re actually compostable.
He also told me important tips,
like cutting down on plastic straws.
A lot of sort of single use disposables that are really small,
it's better to use less of these then to even try to recycle them
because a lot of small plastics fall through the cracks in the system.
- Reduce. - Exactely.
Sam told me that another huge misconception about recycling
are plastic bags.
We get about 18 tons of plastic bags here every day,
ideally we would be getting nothing.
Plastic bags are a low-quality kind of plastic,
which makes them really hard to resell.
For example, in Sims´ case,
they have to pay another company to come, pick up the bags
and recycle them elsewhere.
On top of that, the bags get stuck in the machine and can break it.
If you want to recycle your plastic shopping bags,
go to a plastic bag drop-off at a retailer like Whole Foods.
Or better, skip the plastic bag and bring a reusable bag.
It’s important to note that every city is different,
so look up what your city’s recycling plant accepts.
Sims is one of the most inclusive recycling plants
on the East coast and it accepts more materials
than many recycling plants.
But Sam told me to abide by the general rule,
'If it’s a hard plastic, put it in the recycling bin'.
Seeing the 800 tons of recyclables at Sims was insane.
But that’s nothing compared to the 12,000 tons of trash
residents of New York City throw out every day.
I know seeing that made me more conscious of what I use every day
and inspired me to cut down on single-use plastics.
But let’s be real, plastic is still a part of our everyday lives
and it’s hard to avoid it completely.
However, I’ve realized we can have a say in where it ends up.
And while we’re at it, help our environment
and create a more sustainable future.