Sorry if this is the second time you
recieve this, but Susan wanted to make sure you recieved it and her contact
information. Check out her organization's website for the full report! -
Chrsitine McCoy
Dave,
Christine, Jeremy and others,
My organization just completed a 14 month study of
collection methods – including single stream. We worked with our subcontractor
WMI on this study. We also spoke to many owners/operators of single stream
programs and not surprisingly found they were enthusiastic about their
facilities. We talked to folks in the paper industry and found that they were
less than enthusiastic about some of the paper coming out of single stream
facilities. The recent paper conference in
New Orleans confirms
that the paper industry is very concerned about the impacts of single
stream.
We found many interesting things in our
analysis.
We found that single stream means many different
things – For example, the best single stream programs are usually two streams
– paper and metals and plastics in one stream and glass in another. Which begs
the question…how many streams can be single stream?
We found that recycled glass meant many different
things to different programs. For example, we heard that covering a landfill
with glass was different than putting it in the landfill. We found that our
residents felt okay about some different aspects of glass recovery but
recognized true glass recycling and didn’t think that glass as a landfill
cover was recycling at all.
We found that residents participated more in the two
stream (containers & fiber) method when given carts or when given bins and
picked up weekly. They liked it (participated) even better than single stream.
As long assumed and proclaimed - sorting materials was not the defining factor
in participation. Storage capacity played a much larger
role.
We found that less material was thrown out at the end
of the day as separation at the source increased and that folks preferred to
separate more rather than see what they put out at the curb put in or
on a landfill. (Or burnt.)
Most importantly we found out that single stream saves
the collector money but doesn’t translate into cost savings for the consumer
and that those who reap the most cost savings like single stream the
best.
The key finding that we would pass on for other
communities was not that single stream is good or bad. It was this - better to
fully analyzing recycling programs that had been on auto-drive for years -
than to simply jump to the next technology. While there is a 50/50 chance this
trend setting/following will work for a community – it is likely to be a
better use of funds to fully analyze the potential benefits (and not
necessarily just to the collector – but benefits to the community and their
environment) than to take the toss of the coin.
Sincerely,
Susan Hubbard
Susan
Hubbard
President/CEO
Eureka
Recycling
624
Selby Ave.
Saint
Paul,
MN
55104
651/222-7678
ext 116
Fax: 651/221-9831
Eureka
Recycling, a nonprofit organization created by the
Saint Paul Neighborhood
Energy Consortium, specializes
in recycling and waste reduction services,
programs, education
and advocacy. Our mission is to reduce waste today
through
innovative resource management and to reach a waste-free
tomorrow by demonstrating that waste is preventable not
inevitable.