Single stream recycling: You put everything in one container, wheel it to the curb, a truck comes to pick it up and takes it away. It’s just like how garbage day works. It’s easy, but it may not be the best idea.
“It seems to be created to get more people to recycle, that there’s a perception that it’s easier, but it causes more contamination and that’s some of the concerns we have with it,” said Ted Onufrak, Executive Director of Centre County Recycling and Refuse Authority.
In Centre County, two people sort through your material at the curb. It’s more effort, but it saves you money.
“Because we sort through it at the curb, we pretty much have zero contamination right now,” Onufrak said. “Typically single stream averages about 16 percent. So when you’re looking at 10 to 15 thousand tons of recyclables a year, that’s a substantial amount of tonnage that you’re losing in revenue for the sales of material.”
Not to mention, it’s not good for the environment. One big contaminant is glass. You can’t mix brown, green and clear. In single stream, you do. Glass gets broken and ends up in a landfill, which costs you more money.
“Our goal wasn’t just to maximize profits, it was to maximize the volume and weight of the recyclable materials and glass here constitutes 25 to 30 percent of the recycling tonnage we pick up,” Onufrak said.
If CCRRA maximizes profits through cleaner recycling, it means they charge less for the work. Instead of paying the national rate, $6 per month, you pay around $4. Those savings add up.
“We think people in this area want to recycle as most as they can and we think the way we’re doing it now is the best mechanism for doing that,” Onufrak said.
Single stream is geared more toward larger, urban areas to increase recycling volume. In Centre County, the average household already recycles 100 lbs. more than the national average.