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Recycling just gets easier

This from our friends at the county:

Orange County’s Drop-Off Recycling System Now Easier to Use

Beginning the week of December 8th, all cans, bottles, jugs and jars recycled at County’s ten drop off sites can be recycled together. Recyclers will no longer have to separate each color of glass bottle, metal cans and plastic bottles, jugs and jars. Instead they can all be dumped together into the large blue recycling containers.  This change, known as “commingling” will also apply to 150 bars, restaurants and other businesses that are now part of the County’s commercial recycling program.

Recycler Peter Laramore, who uses the recycling drop-off site at University Mall said “It will be super convenient to not have to separate!”  The county hopes it will increase efficiency too.

Rob Taylor, Orange County Recycling Programs Manager said, “Orange County wants to make its drop-off collection program more efficient and easier for the citizens.   When we made this change for our curbside and multifamily recycling programs we found that collection became about 25% more efficient and that the amount of material recycled increased as well. The change will reduce the number of times collection must take place from our drop-off sites. In the past, it was typical for the plastic bottles’ sections of the large blue containers at drop-off sites to fill well before the other sections; now the containers can remain on-site until the whole container is full, rather than hauling only partly full containers when one section is full.  The same is true for roll carts at businesses.  Staff and truck time saved as a result of these changes can be devoted to  expanding collection programs to more businesses.”

County staff will inspect the loads mixed cans, bottles, jugs and jars for contaminants when they are dumped and accumulated into 120 yard tractor trailer loads thus improving the materials’ quality before it is shipped out to a Materials Recovery Facility (MRF) where the material is sorted. The larger loads also reduce the number of trips to recycling processors. The County sends its mixed recyclables to a material recovery facility in Greensboro, FCR Recycling, for processing and receives varying revenues per ton for the mixed cans and bottles delivered there.  The amount of revenue received fluctuates with market value for cans and bottles as well as the cleanliness of the loads; the fewer contaminants, the higher the revenue.  So, even though recyclers no longer have to separate their recyclables, all other rules still apply such as No plastic bags, plastic bottles and jugs only, No dishes, plates, ceramics, or mirror glass, glass bottles and jars only.

After operating a source-separated program for over twenty years, Orange County is following the national trend in its shift to collecting commingled cans and bottles and selling them for processing at a central location.  In June 2005, the County converted its curbside programs to commingled cans and bottles from curbside sorting of all materials, and the multifamily program followed in July 2007.  Overall, this approach appears to be a more efficient and cost-effective than the traditional source separated approach as sorting equipment and techniques improve and labor and fuel costs for collection increase, and it increases the ease of recycling for the citizens and for the collectors.