“If contamination rates aren’t improved, recycling companies will eventually need to displace their higher operating costs onto their clients – which government contracts will be unlikely able to absorb.“
– Andrea Palmer
Net Impact Amsterdam
‘Thinking Out Loud’
This post is about one of my lifelong fascinations, the gold mine we each create on a daily basis: trash.
News coverage of the Philippines sending 1500 tonnes of contaminated recycling back to Canada, has prompted me to reflect on a trip I took about two years ago to Waste Management’s South Side Chicago materials recycling facility (MRF). I expected an engineering marvel, but instead left with a mind-expanding lesson in economics and social stratification.
The subtle art of ‘bail dressing’
Across the globe, recycling companies face difficult challenges to remain financially viable. Impossible margin pressures, commodity price volatilities, and strict international regulations have put the material recovery industry into a tight situation. Countries like China and the Philippines are finally speaking up, and major rejection of recycled raw materials due to contamination is one of the biggest challenges for continuity of the industry. Not only does contamination intensify operational challenges by increasing machine downtime and occupational hazards, it also forced the world’s largest recycled commodity buyer almost entirely out of the market due to quality concerns (in their defense, we were to some degree just sending them dressed-up garbage, through a process known to industry insiders as ‘bail dressing’).
What are our options
Recycling has always been an expensive business. Waste management companies earn significantly higher margins through their landfill and incineration divisions, so inefficient and insufficiently scaled recycling operations, combined with record low demand for recycled commodities, will lead to non-existent profits and, thereby, dried up business cases. If contamination rates aren’t improved, recycling companies will eventually need to displace their higher operating costs onto their clients – which government contracts will be unlikely able to absorb.
The West’s entire recycling industry will eventually be pushed into reform by (1) eliminating the intake of the most expensive to process, or the cheapest to re-sell materials, (2) switching completely away from single stream processing, which would likely reduce overall consumer participation in many countries, or (3) closing operations all together and, instead, disposing through landfill or incineration.
Have a look in the trash
WM’s South Side Chicago MRF receives its raw recyclables with some of the highest contamination rates in the industry, and it can’t be a coincidence that this area also has some of the highest poverty and crime rates in the entire country. Two hours north, the next facility up processes the recyclables of the affluent Chicago North Side community – no real surprise, this facility has some of the lowest contamination rates. This facility has a designated community education center, while the South Side facility admitted we were their first ever visitors.
The North Side community has more than enough financial and mental budget to mobilize for sustainability, while many families in the South Side barely make ends meet. To me, this indicates that environmental challenges are not just environmental. For us to solve our global sustainability challenges, we need to consider all pieces of the puzzle, and this starts with ensuring that all people are empowered to contribute.
If we as a society allow groups of people, such as those in the South Side of Chicago and beyond, to experience stress on a daily basis about their physical safety, meal security, and access to basic needs, the environmental sustainability agenda will never reach its full potential. The UN Sustainable Development Goals recognise that we must eliminate poverty to enable a safe and clean planet, and that the overlaps between social and environmental sustainability are profound. If you’d ask me where the intersection between social inclusion, planetary health, and economics is, I’d say have a look in the trash.
