Residents feel good because they are helping reduce our reliance on landfills, but current recycling programs have flaws that keep recycling rates lower than they could be.

By Steven Schilling

Curbside recycling is now the norm in most suburban communities. Every week, residents carry their recycling bins to the curb, where the recycling truck picks up the cleaned and sorted recyclables. However, bins can be too heavy for some people to take to the curb. Sorting requirements can be confusing. Wind and animals scatter and create litter out of the recyclables. Rain soaks paper, turning it into a heavy mush that must be disposed of. Overflowing bins compound the problems and make our communities unsightly on collection day.

Given these problems, it is not difficult to see why recycling participation and collection rates have started to decline. The recycling bin itself can be implicated as a factor in causing these problems.

To test this theory, the Solid Waste Agency of Northern Cook County (SWANCC), IL, conducted a yearlong pilot program to determine whether a larger recycling cart would have a positive impact on recycling rates. As we'll see, a recycling cart can indeed solve the problems plaguing our recyclable collection programs.

History

SWANCC is a group of 23 communities located in the northern Chicago suburbs. The agency is responsible for managing its members' MSW. Part of this responsibility involves helping member communities initiate and sustain curbside recycling programs. Since 1991, all of the SWANCC communities have offered curbside recycling to their residents.

A typical curbside recycling program consists of an 18-gal. recycling bin that is collected once a week. Some communities require residents to put paper in a paper grocery bag and place it next to the recycling bin. Most communities will provide additional bins to residents if requested. Given the structure of these programs, the recycling rate for the SWANCC region has reached an equilibrium.

Recycling Rates

Recycling rates in the SWANCC region peaked at 41.2% in 1996. The mandated recycling goal for the State of Illinois is 25%. Illinois includes landscape waste composting as recycling in its mandate. Since 1996, overall recycling rates have slipped gradually to 38.6% in 2000. Looking only at the curbside recycling portion (excluding landscape waste), SWANCC residents recycled 794 lb. per household in 1996 compared to 750 lb. per household in 2000. This is a 5.5% overall reduction or a 1.4% reduction per year.

SWANCC speculated that the reduction in recycling rates was caused by decreased participation and the finite space available in recycling bins. The finite volume of the bins creates an upper limit on the total volume of recyclables collected.

This limit was reached in 1996 in the SWANCC region. If recycling could be made easier and larger containers provided, the downward trend in recycling rates could be reversed. SWANCC decided to devise a pilot program that would give residents a replacement for their current recycling bins. The pilot program would run for at least a year and include a survey of residents regarding various aspects of it.

Bins

The standard recycling container issued to residents in the SWANCC region is an 18-gal. recycling bin. Some residents use two bins to handle larger volumes of recyclables.

In the pilot area, 22% of households used two bins. Other programs in the SWANCC region encourage residents to deposit paper in paper bags that are placed next to the bins on recycling day. During the development of the pilot project, a number of flaws with bin-based collections were identified and include the following:

• Overflowing materials contribute to litter.

• A lack of a lid exposes recyclables to weather conditions reducing their value.
• A loaded bin might be difficult for some residents to carry to the curb.
• Excess recyclables might be thrown away in the garbage.

During the pilot program, residents were surveyed and asked what they did with excess recyclables when using their recycling bins. While a majority of the residents placed them adjacent to the recycling bin or saved them for the next week's collection, 28.3% of the respondents indicated they placed the excess recyclables in their garbage. The table shows how residents handled excess recyclables.

It appeared to SWANCC staff that the current recycling bins created a bottleneck that inhibited the flow of recyclables from the resident to the processor. The other flaws with the bin programs hurt participation and resident satisfaction with recycling programs.

Carts

To overcome the problems identified with the recycling bins used in all of the region's recycling programs, SWANCC decided to use 65-gal. carts for the pilot program. The advantages of these carts were the increased capacity, a lid to prevent exposure to the elements and reduce blowing litter, and wheels to facilitate setting the cart at the curb. The table shows how residents reacted to the size of the cart. A large majority, 87.8%, of the survey respondents indicated that the cart is a convenient size.

Carts were issued to 450 residents in the Village of Skokie, IL, who have curbside recycling service. Residents were educated about the details and goals of the program. They were instructed to put their carts out at the curb only when the cart was at least half full.

The thinking was that the total number of setouts would be reduced, thus increasing the efficiency of the collection and possibly allowing collection every other week. In the end, 82.7% of the respondents still set out the cart on a weekly basis. It was clear early on that weekly collections would still be required.

Initially the pilot program required a split cart to accommodate the two-sort collection system that is used in the region. Each cart had a divider that separated rigid containers from fiber-based materials. Residents were instructed on how to separate their materials so the recycling truck could tip the cart and the materials would end up in the correct bin on the truck. Unfortunately, the divider caused material to become jammed in the cart, requiring the driver to manually pull the material out of the cart. This caused significant increases in the collection time.

Single-Sort

The solution to the increased collection times was to remove the cart's divider and convert the collection to a single-sort system. With this system, residents are able to commingle all of their recyclables in an undivided cart. It was fortunate that the recycling company involved in the pilot, Groot Recycling and Waste Services, had been in the process of developing the systems needed to provide single-sort collection service.

Single-sort has two main benefits. The first is increased efficiency. Once the single-sort collection was implemented, the collection times were reduced to times comparable with bin collections. Second, the collection company was freed from using expensive multicompartment recycling trucks; standard rear-load or front-load refuse trucks could be used for recyclables. This provided the hauler with greater flexibility and utilization of the truck fleet.

Not only does this drastically reduce collection time over the split cart, it also makes recycling easier for the residents. Residents no longer have to sort their recyclables and place them in the bins in prescribed configuration (e.g., paper on bottom, containers on top). All recyclables are commingled in the cart. While a few residents expressed concern about the lack of sorting, most residents welcomed the ease and convenience of the single-sort system.

Resident Reaction

At the conclusion of the pilot project, SWANCC surveyed the 450 households participating in the project. Of the 450 surveys mailed, 277 responses (61.6% response rate) were received. In general, the residents' reactions to the program were overwhelmingly positive.

When asked how convenient the recycling cart was to use, 91.4% said it was very convenient.

Comments expressed on the survey emphasized the satisfaction with the program; for example:

"I love this way of recycling–everything fits in the cart. It's easy to roll to the street, and I do not have to sort things. I hope you expand this program."

"I really, really hope that we'll be allowed to continue using the cart."

"Please continue and expand the recycling program. I have seen how much less garbage we have and how much more we have been recycling each week. Some weeks we have more recycling than garbage."

Increased Recycling

Prior to starting the pilot project, recycling volumes were carefully tracked in the pilot area. This provided a baseline to compare the effect the cart has on recycling rates.

Before the pilot, residents recycled 15.47 lb. of paper per household per week and 3.87 lb. of containers per household per week. During the pilot, residents recycled 16.43 lb. of paper (up 6.2%) and 4.46 lb. of containers (up 15.2%). Overall, the pilot resulted in an increase of 8% of the curbside collected recyclables.

Since curbside recycling accounts for approximately 50% of the overall recycling rate (landscape waste accounts for the other 50%), the use of a cart has resulted in an approximate increase of 4% in the overall recycling rate.

Financial Impact

Unfortunately, increased recycling does not come without a cost. A 65-gal. cart can cost between $40 and $50. Prices might be slightly lower if significant quantities are involved. Eighteen-gallon recycling bins cost approximately $6 each. A resident with two bins will have $12 invested in collection containers.

Over the life of a five-year municipal recycling contract, bins cost $0.20 per household per month. A 65-gal. recycling cart will cost between $0.67 and $0.83 per household per month.

The price differential might be decreased as the cost to pick up litter in the community decreases. Reduced landfill tipping fees due to higher recycling rates will also lessen the impact of purchasing recycling carts. Given the pilot program's popularity with residents, the additional costs may be justified to provide better recycling programs in our communities.

Conclusion

When asked how they would rate the pilot project using recycling carts, 85.1% of the respondents rated the program a "huge success." An additional 13.4% rated it a "moderate success." Overall, that's a 98.5% approval rating for the program.

Given the overwhelming approval from the residents and the successful increase in recycling, SWANCC is recommending to its member communities that they consider moving to a cart-based recycling program as they renew their municipal recycling contracts.

Guest author Steven Schilling, P.E., is assistant executive director with the Solid Waste Agency of Northern Cook County.

MSW - July/August 2002