Normally this column deals with questions from readers, amplified with extra information. This week might more accurately be titled "Our field trip to the recycling facility."Two members of Lexington's Solid Waste Action Team went to Charlestown to visit KTI, a large recycling facility. Our trash/recycling hauler, Waste Management, subcontracts to KTI to accept our recycling.
Our trash is trucked to the Wheelobrator Incinerator in North Andover, where it is burned. Therefore we are all subject to the quantity of each others’ trash, as well as its possible hazardous content!
The Wheelobrator incinerator is supposed to reject truckloads if they contain hazardous and/or recyclable content, but in fact Lexington has only been notified of two such loads in an entire year, and both loads were still accepted and incinerated. It is important for individuals to take care to sort out the recyclables to prevent unnecessary incineration like this.
The KTI recycling company accepts recycling from about 50 towns, amounting to 300 trucks per day! KTI does not actually manufacture new products. After some mechanized and some manual sorting, the recyclables are baled and shipped (sometimes worldwide) to plants that produce new items from old.
Plastic bags jam the mechanized plastic sorter at KTI, so it is important NOT to include any plastic bags in your recycle bin. Instead, drop off your plastic bags to other locations. Anton's (and some other cleaners) will take dry cleaning bags, supermarkets take back their own shopping bags, and the Star Market will also take clear plastic bags from newspaper delivery.
KTI sells the following distinct groups of recyclables: paper, corrugated cardboard, plastic (numbered 1-7 together), cans, clear glass, green glass, brown glass, and aluminum pans.
The way our paper is picked up, all sorts get mixed together. Some towns and most businesses that recycle paper separate the office and computer paper from other grades. This sort of paper can be recycled into higher grades than newspaper or junk mail, but Lexington's attempts in years past to keep the types sorted out didn't work, and we now just send commingled.
It is very important that items like ceramics or Pyrex NOT be included with recyclable glass. If the sorters miss such items and they make it into the mix at the glass recycling plant, whole batches of new glass can be ruined. The overall effect is to discourage manufacturers to use recycled raw materials, and to drive the price of recycled materials down. Also, all glass should be well rinsed.
Recycling plastic can have similar problems - the different numbered
plastics are made from different source materials, and for recycling purposes
the numbers must be separated. KTI sorts plastics into
#1, #2, #4, for which there is a steady market and
#3 ,#5 ,#6, & #7, which are less in demand. KTI doesn't take
the polystyrene foam items often used for grocery trays, hot beverage
cups, and so forth.
Currently, due to our hauling contract with Waste Management, we in Lexington are supposed to put only #1 & #2 plastic in our bins. We are working to have the other types of plastic included soon. All containers must be cleaned and no items without the recycling numbers can be included (if these items make it to KTI, they are discarded).
The market for the material in our recycle bins is very volatile. For example, due to the current high price of petroleum, KTI gets a very good price for the plastics they sell. The price of paper can vary almost day to day. Lexington neither profits nor loses from such fluctuations because our contract with Waste Management is for pickup of recyclables only, and does not address the market value of it. The hauling fee is paid once a year.
Got a question? You can reach us by calling the League of Women Voters line at 861-0123 or by email at lexrecycles@hotmail.com. For more information, check out the SWAT web page at http://www.lexingtonma.org/swat/HomePage.htm.