"Bad Apples" Trash Paper Recycling

Most Saskatchewanians who take the time to use their local recycling depot care about doing it right. They sort according to directions and prepare materials as requested. Unfortunately, as happens in many situations, a few uncaring people can threaten programs that benefit everyone.

Case in point: Swift Current. The City had set up paper recycling bins in six convenient locations. Paper collected in the bins was delivered directly to the local recycler. The system worked well: it was relatively inexpensive and collected lots of paper — good for the recycler, good for the residents, good for the City.

A few careless folks scuttled it all, dumping car parts, metal and cement into the paper recycling bins. The presence of these hazards in the bins caused the local recycler to refuse to accept any more paper from the City. The paper bins were removed. One of the hazards of offering the convenience of a 24-hour recycling depot is that it operates on the honour system.

Thanks to a few bad apples, Swift Current citizens now have one location for paper recycling that is staffed and open at specific times. The new system costs the city around $60,000 a year more than the old one. It works okay for the recycler as they are getting clean paper again (of course, there is no recycling program without someone willing to recycle the materials). It’s a big reduction in convenience for the residents and a considerable increase in cost for the City.

The bad apples are at work in other areas of the province as well. Recently, the Red Coat Waste Resource Authority ran into similar issues with some of their paper recycling bins (see photos). The Authority faces the cost of sorting out all the contamination from the bins or of having their loads rejected by the recycler and having to pay to landfill them.

Contamination of materials in recycling bins is not a new problem. A certain amount is unintentional — small things fall into our household collection system and aren’t noticed — and recyclers are prepared to handle small amounts of inappropriate materials. We can only guess at the motivations for the blatant misuse of recycling bins: laziness, trying to avoid tipping fees, frustration over the lack of other recycling options … In any case, “bad apple” behaviour either results in fewer programs or increased costs, situations that are worse for everyone.

Robert Fulghum’s classic essay Everything I need to know I learned in kindergarten includes: “Put things back where you found them. Clean up your own mess” There are some folks out there that need to go back to kindergarten.

(Source: Feb. 2008 WasteWatch)

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