Internal Waste Assessment

Here at RIRRC we did a waste assessment of our own!

Before my time at Resource Recovery the decision was made to have an internal waste assessment. As it was explained to me, it was decided because RIRRC provides waste assessments for other companies and private entities so it is only fitting that they would do one for themselves.

The Report

Overview:

Individuals involved: David, Kristin, Krystal, Katherine, Chris, Jared, Egidia and Amelia.

Reason for internal waste assessment: The purpose of conducting an internal waste assessment is to evaluate how well the employees at Resource Recovery are separating their trash from the recycling. The Policy and Programs Department provides waste assessments for commercial entities to either start a recycling program from the ground up or to improve upon their existing program. This assessment will make sure that we are not just providing the information but that we are also following these recycling guidelines ourselves. The results of this waste sort will indicate if the general guidelines on the Recycle Across America labels are being followed, and if there needs to be an emphasis to recycle certain items/materials to comply with the recycling guidelines.

The process: All the trash and recycling at Resource Recovery was collected from June 5 to June 8 (Tuesday-Friday). The bags of trash and recycling we placed in two separate piles in the Eco-Depot for storage. On Friday, the 8th, the team geared up in Tyvek suits, masks, safety glasses and gloves. Krystal was the note keeper and took notes of the findings and weights of all the bags and Katherine helped sort recyclables and took photos during the trash sorting process. The rest of the team sorted recyclables first and then moved onto the trash.

1. The first step in the process was to weigh each bag individually before sorting.

2. Once a bag was weighed, it was brought to the covered table and sorted through. There were two lined recycling bins and two trash bins at the end of the table to put the respective items into.

3. At the end of the sorting period, first for recycling and then for trash, the bags from the end of the table were weighed to get the overall amounts. These amounts included the total pounds of trash and recycling that were properly disposed of as well as the contamination (trash put in the recycling) and recycling that was thrown away with the trash.

**Note: the recycling guidelines that we followed to sort the trash and recycling was strictly based on the Recycling Across America guidelines that we expect the public to follow. These are just the basic guidelines found on the labels placed on the recycling bind, not the in-depth guidelines found on the Resource Recovery website.

Observations: As judged by basic mixed recycling guidelines

Contaminates found in the recycling:

-Lots of napkins and paper towels

-Plastic bags/film

-Plastic items that are not containers (straws, rubber gloves, doo-dads)

-Metal items that are not cans, lids or foil (nuts, bolts and screws)

-Hybrids: items made up of equal parts of different materials- plastic-cardboard containers

Prep Problems for recycling:

Lots of cardboard that is not flattened (boxes, innertubes, etc…)

Paper that is not flattened (recycled-bunched up in a ball)

Plastic containers that are not empty at a minimum (lots of containers that were full of food and liquid)

Plastic containers that were not rinsed when possible (iced coffee containers from the kitchen)

Recycling found in the trash:

Paper and cardboard

Metal cans, lids and foil

Lots of plastic containers

Other observations:

There are plastic bag/film containers on site

We encountered items that could be dropped off at the SVA

We encountered many full or partially full food/beverage containers that could have potentially been emptied/ rinsed and recycled.

Data:

There was 138 lbs. total of recycling recorded, 127 lbs. of the total were proper recycling (92%) with 11 pounds of contamination (11%).

There were 83 lbs. of trash recorded, 71 lbs. were trash (86%) and 12 lbs. of recycling (14%).

We generate 31.75 pounds of recycling per day. If you extrapolate that on a yearly basis we generate 7969.25 pounds of recycling per year.

We generate 17.75 pounds of trash per day. If you extrapolate this on a yearly basis we generate 4455.25 pounds of trash per year.

We throw 3 pounds of recycling in the trash daily. If you extrapolate that on a yearly basis we throw away 753 pounds of recycling per year that could have been diverted from the landfill.

Conclusion:

Overall, the employees at Resource Recovery do a great job of separating recyclables from the trash stream. If everyone were a bit more mindful of emptying out containers, removing straws from cups before recycling them, and just being more mindful of the mixed recycling labels we could get the contamination rate as well as the amount of recycling thrown in the trash even lower.

Here are some photos from the day: