Ethical E-waste Recycling

The proliferation of obsolete electronic equipment and gadgets has become the largest toxic waste problem of our time. E-waste contains very toxic substances such as the heavy metals mercury, lead, cadmium, arsenic, and beryllium; as well as brominated flame retardants and more. Up to fifty million tons of e-waste are generated worldwide each year according to the United Nations Environment Program. This is enough to fill a line of garbage collection trucks stretching halfway around the world, and this line is expanding by eight percent per year.


When our televisions, computers, cell phones, and wide assortment of personal electronic gizmos rapidly become outdated and are replaced it is time to think about what will happen to these items in the next phase of their lives. California law restricts disposal of e-waste in landfills and requires that these materials be recycled. But how do you know a television you recycle in Humboldt County is not being transported to a landfill in Arkansas or a burn pile stoked by children in China? To answer this question the Basel Action Network (BAN) has developed a standard for the ethical recycling of e-waste: The e-Stewards Certification (www.e-stewards.org ). BAN has designed and developed a system by which recyclers, refurbishers, and processors may obtain independent third-party certification of their conformance with the e-Stewards Standard and therefore combat unscrupulous e-waste handlers who may be undercutting the market. The e-Stewards Certification is the only electronics recycler certification that has the backing of the global environmental community. In the US that backing includes an endorsement from Greenpeace USA, the Natural Resources Defense Council and the Sierra Club.

The Arcata Community Recycling Center (ACRC) is the only e-waste recycler within 200 miles of Humboldt County qualified by BAN under the Electronic Recyclers Pledge of True Stewardship Program. Pledged e-Stewards recyclers track the path of toxic e-waste materials and keep it out of developing countries, prisons, landfills and incinerators. E-waste is accepted at ACRC’s Center for Hard to Recycle Materials (CHaRM) at Tenth and “N” Street, 10:00 a.m. to 3:30 p.m., Monday through Saturday. For a list of accepted materials and applicable fees visit www.arcatarecycling.org or call (707) 445-4321.

The Story of a Plastic Bag

This is a must watch film -- inspiring, depressing, thought provoking. Free to view in its entirety (just under 20 minutes long).

The synopsis:
"This short film by American director Ramin Bahrani traces the epic, existential journey of a plastic bag (voiced by Werner Herzog) searching for its lost maker, the woman who took it home from the store and eventually discarded it. Along the way, it encounters strange creatures, experiences love in the sky, grieves the loss of its beloved maker, and tries to grasp its purpose in the world.

In the end, the wayward plastic bag wafts its way to the ocean, into the tides, and out into the Pacific Ocean trash vortex — a promised nirvana where it will settle among its own kind and gradually let the memories of its maker slip away."

Is ACRC closing?

Is ACRC closing?
This seems to be a common question these days among conscientious and casual recyclers alike. The answer is, well, No.

Here are the facts:

On April 30th Arcata Community Recycling Center (ACRC) will remove the recycling dumpsters for mixed papers and containers from Arcata’s 9th & N St. drop off yard. Unless additional funding is secured, the drop off of these “everyday recyclables” will no longer be an option at this site.

Why?
On February 1st ACRC received notice from the City of Arcata that our contract to provide this service would be terminated in 90 days. Contracts with the City of Arcata have paid for the operation of this service since 1994. Without funding, this drop off recycling service is not sustainable for ACRC.

Why did the City of Arcata terminate the contract?
Arcata Environmental Services staff anticipate that by April 30th the rollout of the new curbside recycling program for Arcata residents will be complete. Once this is the case Arcatans will be able to recycle their “everyday recyclables” conveniently at their curb and will not need the drop off option.

How will I recycle if I don’t have curbside?
I’ve heard from many people who live just outside the city limits of Arcata (as well as Blue Lake and Eureka for that matter) who are concerned that they still need to use the drop off for their everyday recyclables. If this is your situation do not fret. Instead call your service provider for garbage collection and ask if collection of recyclables is available in your area. If service is unavailable at your address, let your waste hauler know you want curb collection of recyclables at your residence. Requirements for recycling are being discussed by the County and waste haulers serving the unincorporated areas of Humboldt County – contact your County Supervisor’s office as well and let them know that you want this service.

Over time bundled refuse and curbside recycling service may continue to expand beyond the official city limits of Arcata, Eureka and Blue Lake. Recycology (formerly City Garbage of Eureka) has already expanded curbside recycling service into areas surrounding Eureka (including Myrtletown, Cutten, Humboldt Hill, and other neighborhoods) and is looking at further expansion of service from Ryan Slough through the Freshwater area.

For 39 years ACRC (in partnership with countless community members) has strived to bring an ever growing list of recycling and reuse opportunities to North Coast residents. With the increasingly widespread use of curbside recycling to handle everyday recyclables, ACRC is necessarily changing with the times. Please bear with us in the interim and know that we are still here for you.

What is the plan for ACRC once the drop off bins for papers and containers are removed?
This change will actually provide the Resusables Depot Thrift Store with much needed space to expand. In particular, freed up space will allow for the variety and supply of building materials to be greatly improved. Other services ACRC provides at this site, such as the Buyback for CRV materials, will continue. The CHaRM (Center for Hard to Recycle Materials) will continue to serve as the compliment to curbside recycling by offering recycling and safe disposal for items requiring special handling and therefore not accepted in curbside collection bins. This includes electronic waste, motor oil and antifreeze, medical sharps, CFLs, batteries, and appliances. Please visit www.arcatarecycling.org for a complete list of materials accepted at the CHaRM.

Needles Are a No No

Frightening quantities of medical sharps (needles and syringes) continue to be found in recyclables picked up through curbside collection in Arcata and Eureka. Not only are these items banned from disposal in the trash or recycling, they are also a hazard for our community members who haul and process these materials.

At ACRC's Somoa Processing Facility strict handling procedures are in place to protect employees who sort recyclables. When a hazard, such as a medical sharp, is spotted materials traveling on multiple conveyor belts through the sort lines screech to a halt. The hazardous item is safely removed and processing continues. There are two problems with this situations:

1) To work this procedure requires that an employee visually locates the needle to stop the sort line. The phrase "needle in a haystack" comes to mind here. Amazingly most needles are spotted -- but not all. This hidden hazard can understandably be anxiety inducing for sort line staff.

And 2) Each instance when the sort line stops adds to the amount of time needed to process a ton of recyclables. At times the sort line could be stopped for up to 20% of the work day to handle hazards. This inefficiency directly increases the cost of processing recyclables. A cost that is ultimately passed on to rate payers in our community.

So how does one properly dispose of medical sharps? There are several collection locations throughout Humboldt County. Just be sure to collect your sharps in a designated container available at your pharmacy.

Good Questions From a Conscientious Recycler

This question came to us recently from a Eureka resident. I think these same questions are on the mind of many conscientious recyclers.

“Just curious; I've noticed, checking the home recycling bins in Eureka, that a lot of people are throwing stuff in with the paper and plastic that isn't recyclable. For example, after the earthquake I saw where one lady threw broken window glass in with the containers. I also see a lot of packaging used for frozen foods routinely thrown in along with milk cartons and such.

I also notice one household routinely throws in food containers like peanut butter jars and salad dressing containers without washing them out first.

How bad a problem is the trash mixed in with recyclables? Would you be able to give a percentage of trash received vs. recyclables?

How much a problem are the dirty food containers?

Just wondering, [I figure] that if it gets too out of hand you're also gonna have to charge more for recycling because you'll be having to get rid of so much trash.”

Thank you conscientious recycler… here are detailed answers for you:

Thank You for paying attention, and being concerned about proper recycling. You are absolutely right, items such as tempered glass (window pane), frozen food containers (which have a wet strength coating that inhibits recyclability), and milk cartons (which have a wax coating which also inhibits recyclability) are not recyclable and therefore are considered trash in Eureka’s system. The appropriate placement for these items once discarded is the trash can – where the ultimate destination is the landfill not the recycling factory. The reality is not all containers and packagings are recyclable. It can be very confusing for people because certain labels on packaging can be misleading. For example, most people have come to recognize the triangular chasing arrows symbol to be equated with recyclability. There are several variations on the chasing arrows that actually have many meanings depending on the way it is depicted. The plastic industry uses the chasing arrows with a resin identifier code (usually a number) in the center of the loop; it does not mean the item is recyclable. Styrofoam is an excellent example of this. It can often be found marked with the resin ID code (the chasing arrows) and the #6 in the center; as a consequence the community is lead to believe Styrofoam is recyclable, unfortunately in our region it is not.

With that, let me answer your question about the problem of trash contamination in the recyclable stream. There are two major considerations, people and money. All of the recyclable material picked up at Eureka curb-side is brought to our processing facility in Samoa for sorting, baling and shipping. The recyclable material is sorted by machinery and people. With the dual stream system the material is spread onto two separate conveyor belts, paper and containers. The paper fibers are sorted by material (cardboard, newspaper/magazines, office pack) entirely by hand. It takes additional time for the sort line personnel to have to constantly pull non-recyclable papers (trash) from this line such as milk cartons and wet strength cardboard packaging. I realize this may be hard to visualize. The conveyor belt is moving at a fairly fast clip; anytime attention is pulled away to remove trash there is the potential to miss quality recyclables. We have begun to market an additional paper grade – a super mixed paper – to help mitigate this situation. Because of the substantial mixed content we have to sell it at a much reduced cost. The situation on the container line is a bit different. It contains tumblers and magnets that assist with the sorting but ultimately it requires people to sort plastic by type and glass by color. It is on the container side that we find the majority of the trash. We have three staff positions dedicated to trash removal before the material is sent through the mechanical system, one at the bottom of the conveyor belt and two at the top in an area affectionately referred to as the “Trash Shack”. This is where the Styrofoam is pulled out… big wheels, Christmas lights… I think you get the idea. The final stage of the container system also supports a receptacle for missed trash. So far I have only mentioned material that residents may have misunderstood to be recyclable. Unfortunately, we also receive items that are banned by law for disposal in either the trash or recycling: sharps (needles), biohazard materials, toxic chemicals (pesticides, corrosive cleaners). These materials pose a significant hazard to sort line staff and therefore we have strict protocols in place for safely removing and containing these hazards. Each time a hazardous material is spotted the sort line shuts down. On some days this down time can be up to 20% of the work day – this represents a huge additional cost through loss of productivity and added fees for safe disposal of the hazardous materials.

On to the numbers…. For the last quarter of 2009, we had an average residual rate (percentage of tonnage processed that was not recycled) of 3.78% (85.52 out of 2,264.68 tons). December was a particularly high month with 37.99 tons of residual trash representing 5.1% of our processed volume. At the Humboldt Waste Management Authority’s tip rate of $155.56/ton, this translates to an additional cost of $5909.72 for ACRC to dispose of trash in December alone. Pretty appalling.
You also asked about dirty food containers. Washing a container before it is recycled through ACRC is not necessary. However, thoroughly scraping it of any food debris is. As I mentioned above containers are sorted partially by machinery where heavy items are separated from lighter ones. For this step in the process to work plastics need to behave like lightweight material. If, for example, a plastic jar with a few tablespoons of peanut butter left inside is sent through the container sort line it will behave more like glass, be segregated to the glass line where, because it is not glass, it will be fed to the “trash” conveyor belt and ultimately landfilled. The same effect is seen with water bottles that have not been emptied and so on. Naturally, we are also interested in not attracting vermin, either to the processing facility or residents’ recycling carts.

We anticipate a certain amount of trash to come through the system. It would be unrealistic not to. However, we need to continue to educate the community to keep trash contamination out of the recycling stream. I appreciate your help with this! I would like to invite you to come see the process in Samoa.

"Garbage Dreams" at the Morris Graves Museum

Eureka's Morris Graves Museum of Art partners with KEET TV for First Thursday Film Night. Each month they offer a FREE screening of a film from the Emmy Award-winning PBS series Independent Lens.

This Thursday (1/7) from 6:00 to 7:30 come see "Garbage Dreams":

"Welcome to the world’s largest garbage village located on the outskirts of Cairo, Egypt. The Zaballeen (Arabic for garbage people) recycle 80 percent of the trash they collect—far more than other recycling initiatives. But now a multi-national corporation threatens their livelihood. Follow three teenage boys born into the business who are forced to make choices that will impact the survival of their community."

Hope to see you there!

Reuse for Recycling Bins

Arcata Garbage Company has recently distributed brand new dual-stream recycling toters for curbside recycling collection to Arcata households. Until this time curbside customers have been using a hodgepodge of bins for containing their recyclables at the curb. It is anticipated that the distribution of new toters will leave behind a wake of now obsolete plastic totes and crates, many of which bear the Arcata Garbage Company logo.

Curbside recycling customers are encouraged to find a new use for their old plastic bins. However if unwanted, the Arcata Community Recycling Center’s (ACRC) 9th and N Street drop-off yard is poised to accept these bins for repurposing.

This winter the rollout of Arcata’s curbside recycling program will continue to include multifamily housing establishments. Space for recycling storage may be minimal in these residential arrangements. ACRC will make clean, repurposed recycling bins available to Arcata residents in such a situation free of charge at the Reusable’s Depot Thrift Store to help alleviate storage issues. Please call 445-4321 for more information about this reuse opportunity.