The "DIRTY DOZEN"

This is a brief update on recycling in the St Louis and St Charles Market. Many people are not aware that China has recently decreased the amount of acceptable contamination from 10% to .5%.  What, you didn't know that our recycling went to China ?  Well, don't feel bad; You're one of thousands that didn't.  Unfortunately, too many items are being thrown into recycle bins/toters that are not appropriate for a single stream recycling process.  Some of the inappropriate items include plastic grocery bags, pizza boxes with either grease or pizza still in the box, jars- bottles-cans still filled with liquid.  The liquid left in these containers will contaminate the other material when it is compacted in the recycle vehicle.

Currently, there are two local recycle facilities; Republic Services and Resource Management. Two weeks ago Resource Management announced they will no longer accept residential single stream recycling as of October 31, 2018.  Single Stream Recycling is the type of recycling that St. John has.  This means Cities that have their own recycling services, and all of Republic's competition,  will have to find a new home for their material.  If it all goes to Republic, they will end up having to purchase a new facility, install Single Stream lines and try to reach the 99.5% efficiencies.  

Presently they are running at 97% and this is because they have slowed down their lines by some 30% and added more pickers to sort at the end of the line.

It costs approximately $98 to process a ton of recycling material.  They are presently getting about $20 a ton for the material; but the price fluctuates weekly.  As you can see it would be easier to just put it in the landfill.  BUT that is not the right thing to do.  We, as the public,  need to be better educated so we can help clean up the single stream process.

Many people don't realize just exactly what you should or shouldn't put in the recycling bin.  So with this article, and future ones to come, we'll try to enlighten everyone so that we can continue with the single stream process far into the future.  Today, we'll  start with the "Dirty Dozen". These are items that you should NEVER  put in a recycling cart or bin. 

Be sure to keep a watch out for more upcoming information in the near future.