Global changes force recycling programs to police loads, weed out 'dirty' trash
Global changes in the handling of recyclable material are causing some communities in the United States to abandon or cut back their programs, sending more plastic bottles, paper and cans into landfills.
Wisconsin cities show no signs of jettisoning their programs — state law would forbid that. But the changes are having a significant economic effect and causing waste companies to get stricter about what they will accept.
The tipping point was a decision by China to severely limit how much contamination is acceptable in recyclables. China is the world's largest purchaser of recyclables, so its decision had a domino effect across global scrap markets.
Today, Wisconsin cities and private recyclers are having to pay more to get their recyclables sorted to meet the higher standards. They are earning less for the scrap that ultimately makes it through to buyers. And they are sending more to landfills than they expected.
“The recycling picture has changed,” said Jennifer Semrau, who oversees recycling for the Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources. “Our buyers can afford to be more selective today.”
In Milwaukee, Waste Management — the largest trash and recycling company nationally — is inspecting loads, sometimes using cameras, and charging extra when crews spot items such as Christmas trees lights and bowling balls (yes, bowling balls) that can’t be recycled.
Also, the City of Milwaukee and 27 communities in Waukesha County expect to pay more this year to the operator of their jointly owned sorting facility in the Menomonee Valley to cover escalating costs in weeding out unwanted material. The higher payments must be approved by the Common Council and Waukesha County.
In Milwaukee, fixed costs for operating the plant are expected to increase from $800,000 to $1.2 million a year, according to Rick Meyers, sanitation services supervisor for the city. There is really no other option.
“We don’t want to lose our place at the mills that have been happy to buy from us,” Meyers said.
Further, City Hall depends on recycling proceeds to help foot Milwaukee's garbage bill, which includes $10.6 million this year for landfilling, budget figures show.
But revenue is declining. In 2017, Milwaukee earned $1.6 million from selling recycled items. It fell to about $1.3 million last year and is likely to decline again this year, according to Meyers.
Market prices plunge
The driving force is China’s directive in January 2018 that sharply limited how much contamination in recycled waste was acceptable. That sent market prices plunging as the scrap industry scurried to find new buyers to accept an unending tide of waste.
Before China’s edict, in the third quarter of 2017, Waste Management was selling mixed paper from its Germantown sorting facility for about $90 per ton.
“Right now, we are actually having to pay to get rid of mixed paper,” said Troy Hanson, market area general manager for the company.
Corrugated paper is experiencing a steep slide as well. Milwaukee and Waukesha County were getting paid $162 per ton in mid-2017. That’s dropped to about $50 a ton, according to Meyers.
The price of other grades of paper are falling too, although some plastics are holding their own, according to experts.
In some parts of the country, local governments and private processors are sending more paper and plastic to landfills, or taking other actions.
Philadelphia is incinerating recyclables to generate electricity. The Philadelphia Inquirer reported in January that at least half of recycled goods are being churned into power.
In Memphis, Tennessee, major institutions, including Memphis International Airport, are giving the appearance of recycling. People still can deposit bottles and other items in recycling containers. But with no ready market, it’s trucked to landfills.
“We fully intend to resume recycling if and when an alternative solution emerges — and that’s why we have kept our recycling bins,” said Glen Thomas, airport spokesman, in an email.
“Should that solution not emerge soon, we will consider removing the recycling containers.”
'They will put anything in that bin'
Wisconsin cities cannot just abandon recycling. The state’s first recycling law passed in 1990. Basic items of the recycling bin — most plastic bottles, office paper and aluminum cans — are banned from landfills.
Today, the City of Milwaukee says about 25 percent of residential waste is recycled and the rest is shipped to landfills. That's on par with national figures reported by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency.
Recycle Across America, a national nonprofit group that supports standardized labels on bins, thinks too much material is getting thrown out because consumers are not sure what can be recycled.
"If consumers are confused, apathetic or skeptical, they will put anything in that bin," said Mitch Hedlund, executive director of the group.
Another problem, according to Hedlund, is the disincentive for big players like Waste Management to recycle because they also operate landfills and earn money either way.
"It's the reason why recycling doesn't work," Hedlund said.
Lynn Morgan, spokeswoman for Waste Management, said the company has invested $80 million locally in recycling infrastructure, including a robotic sorter that went into operation in December in Germantown.
“I think that speaks to our faith that recycling is here to stay,” Morgan said. "It’s part of what people expect. It's the right thing to do. And it’s part of our business now.”
'The Amazon effect'
Meleesa D. Johnson, president of Associated Recyclers of Wisconsin, said Wisconsin has benefited by selling its recycled goods domestically, including the state’s paper industry.
“Yeah, we took a big hit,” said Johnson, who runs Marathon County’s solid waste program in central Wisconsin. “But we had that on our side.”
In Green Bay, Koch Industries-owned Georgia-Pacific takes in about 80 semi loads of a mix of paper grades daily to produce toilet paper, napkins and paper towels, according to a company spokesman.
And while Wisconsin’s paper industry has been contracting for years, online shopping has sharpened demand for cardboard, which recyclers call “the Amazon effect.”
A case in point is the revived fortunes of an aging mill in Combined Locks in the Fox Valley.
It closed in September 2017, leaving 600 workers without jobs. But the new owner, Midwest Paper Group, shifted strategies and moved from producing white paper to recycling old cardboard into new boxes.
The workforce stands at about 320, according to the company.
Additional charges to customers
To keep unwanted material out of recycling bins, communities last year began a series of marketing campaigns to emphasize that products like No. 1, No. 2 and No. 5 plastics, newspapers, wastepaper, plastic and glass bottles, food and beverage containers, and aluminum and steel cans are acceptable.
Dirty items like pizza boxes are not. Scrap metal and bags containing otherwise suitable recyclables are not accepted at curbside.
“The human tendency, and I’ve done it myself, is ‘Oh I’ll put it in there and hopefully I’m right. And if not, they’ll deal with it,’ ” said Waste Management's Morgan.
“Well, dealing with it is extremely expensive and it makes it hard to move material.”
In Germantown, where different grades of plastic, paper and metal are sorted automatically, a crew of five or six workers typically stand guard at the front of the line picking out plastic bags. The bags have proven to be the Achilles heel of modern recycling systems, capable of bringing entire operations to a standstill by gumming up machinery.
“And we’re still not getting all of the bags,” Morgan said.
(Plastic bags can be recycled, but separately, at drop-off spots like grocery stores.)
Starting last year, Waste Management began taking a closer look at the recycling material it was hauling away and charged extra for extraneous items — what the company calls its "contamination fee strategy."
At randomly selected commercial sites, trucks outfitted with cameras photograph loads and upload the images to Waste Management’s headquarters, where employees assess the level of contamination. If there are too many unacceptable items, the customer is levied an additional charge.
Waste Management’s Hanson declined to say how many customers are required to pay higher fees. But currently, 15 percent to 25 percent of what is collected as recycling is diverted to landfills, he said.
“We’re focusing on contamination, really, to ensure that recycling continues to be a sustainable business,” he said.