What Happens to Your Recycling After It's Collected? | NowThis

♪ (music) ♪

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, which is almost 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 that 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 one can of new 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's going 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.

♪ (upbeat music) ♪

Despite the great set-up at Sims,
there are a lot of 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.

That 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% to13% 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.

By 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.

So if you want to recycle
your plastic shopping bags,

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

Or better yet, skip the plastic bags
altogether 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.

♪ (upbeat music) ♪