WASTE WATCHERS BLOG

Despite being the most abundant metal on the planet, demand has never ceased. Airplanes, cars, construction materials, or beverage containers—the market for aluminum is strong, especially the recycled variety. And the process is both economically important and relatively easy.

  Though the fine print on the back puts its worth at 5¢ (or 10¢ in Oregon and Michigan), an aluminum can is the most valuable item you throw in your recycling bin. Going back 150 years ago, aluminum was considered more precious than gold—but even today, it hasn’t lost its luster. Despite being the most abundant metal on the planet (aluminum ore makes up 8% of the Earth’s crust), demand has never ceased. Airplanes, cars, construction materials, or beverage containers—the market for aluminum is strong, especially the recycled variety. Now, as the COVID-19 pandemic-related shortages hamper the industry, the simple act of recycling our soda, beer, seltzer, and soup cans becomes paramount. The good news is that it’s relatively easy.

Less than a fifth of global e-waste is recycled, leading to higher waste bills, increased energy costs, dwindling natural resources, and concerning effects on the environment. We discuss better ways to manage and recycle your business's e-waste.

This post, first published in August 2020 by Shelby Bell, has been updated. In over 50 years, we’ve moved from 1.44-megabyte floppy disks to 532-gigabyte flash drives smaller than your thumb. The computers that took the United States to the surface of the moon in 1969 are now trivialized by the technology we carry in our pockets—a modern iPhone has 100,000 times the processing power as Apollo 11’s onboard system. Yet, printing from the cloud and the capability to make a Zoom call from practically anywhere on the planet didn’t happen overnight. As technological innovation goes, there are countless iterations that allow us to progress from point A to point B. And the modern business takes advantage of just about all of them.  While we heedlessly move on to faster connections, smaller devices, and the electronics of the future, many of the iterations of the past half-century are still around—underground, overseas, and in the atmosphere.  It’s called e-waste, and our appetites for new tech make it the fastest-growing waste stream (even outpacing plastic) in America today.

Glass is an ideal recyclable for both manufacturers and consumers. But the U.S. recycling system has made a material that’s incredibly easy to recycle substantially more difficult.

  Over 3,000 years before plastic usurped our soda pop, olive oil, and peanut butter containers, glass was as valuable as the items it held. Fast-forwarding to modern day, glass is no longer a marvel, yet it’s worth is not lost on us. Even as commercial glass has been largely relegated to beer, wine, and liquor bottles, American consumers have shown a thirst for its sustainability through recycling. Why, then, are glass recycling programs being discontinued across the country? The answer is both economic and process-related, and as we’ll cover below, the U.S. recycling system has made a material that’s incredibly easy to recycle substantially more difficult.

From 10,000 sheets of office paper to 500 disposable coffee cups, the average office worker generates a substantial amount of waste every year. Considering the majority of our days are spent in the office, it’s very important to focus on recycling there! Read on to find out how much waste the average office worker generates.

This article was originally published June 2019 and has been updated. The concept of working a 9-to-5 office job often evokes memories of spending more waking hours at your place of business than in your own home. Inevitably, in being more active at work, the average American office worker generated a substantial amount of waste—from 10,000 sheets of office paper to 500 “disposable” coffee cups. When the COVID-19 pandemic sent many workers home, all of our wasteful behaviors followed us to the kitchen, couch, and bedroom. But now, as the economy reopens and companies like Google and Goldman Sachs act as bellwethers leading the nation back to their second homes, the time has arrived to reset how offices think about waste and recycling. With sustainability, efficiency, and employee well-being top of mind, we discuss five materials responsible for the disproportionate waste generation in the office setting, as well as ongoing considerations for a zero-waste future. Let's dive deeper into just how much waste is created in the office...

Being aware of Earth Day is easy—it’s taking the next step that requires boldness, and for many, knowing where to take that first step is the hardest part. Well, with pollution, emissions, and preserving natural resources in mind, why not take action with recycling?

  Each year in April, we celebrate Earth Day, a united call for the creativity, innovation, ambition, and bravery needed to protect the planet we call home. It’s the largest secular observance around the globe, with more than a billion Earthlings from 193 countries lending their voices for a better world and a sustainable future. All too often, however, those pledging their awareness of the looming environmental crises treat this day with antique shop etiquette: look but don’t touch. Consider this: Earth Day began in 1970—accruing 50+ years of awareness to date—yet, we’re only now beginning to address some of the biggest challenges to ever face humankind.  From here on out, our actions must speak much louder than words.

While MRFs seem powerful and reliable, in reality, the American recycling system is incredibly fragile. And for a country that collectively throws away 804,090 tons per day without full knowledge of what is and what isn’t recyclable, we constantly break it.

  The standard compactor truck (aka “garbage truck”) will crush anything at approximately 2,750 psi—enough pressure to pulverize a pickup truck—while its mechanical arms can lift up to 1,000 lbs. Those compactor trucks then deliver our waste and recyclables to materials recovery facilities (MRFs), the centerpiece of the American recycling system. The largest MRFs can process up to 700 tons of material per day or more, with recyclables whizzing past at nearly 20 mph. While all of these specs would make you believe in its strength and reliability, in reality, the American recycling system is incredibly fragile. And for a country that collectively throws away 804,090 tons per day without full knowledge of what is and what isn’t recyclable, we constantly break it. While we’ve recently covered the types of valuable recyclables we tend to throw in the trash during spring cleaning, the COVID-19 pandemic, and beyond, this is a case of the opposite. Through contamination and the act of “wishcycling”, we’re tossing nonrecyclable items known for their troublemaking into our recycling bins. Plastic bags, leather belts, and more—we’ll cover the often-recycled (yet nonrecyclable) items that break the system, endanger its workers, and spike your business’s waste bill.

It’s important that your staff and coworkers are educated and up to date on what materials are accepted for recycling. To help make it easier, we’ve identified which materials your office should recycle, and which ones should be tossed.

  When spring finally arrives, all of the things occupying the back of a warehouse, back of a refrigerator, and back of the mind come back into focus. To the untrained eye, it’s junk—material you’ve put off removing or completely forgotten about. And now that you realize it, you know it belongs anywhere but there. While Americans have shown a strong desire to recycle—over 90% support recycling efforts—it’s not usually the first action that comes to mind when clearing out something unwanted. That’s why, outside of loss caused by contamination and operational inefficiencies, our “throwaway culture” is to blame for poor national recycling rates. But know this: Not all junk is trash. Reflexively, during spring cleaning or not, businesses send valuable, reusable materials like paper, cardboard, plastic, and glass to landfill. But if these companies, and the individuals within them, saw the positive impact on their supply chain, their waste bill, and the environment, they might rethink how they tidy up.

When you try to recycle a “disposable” coffee cup, greasy pizza box, or the ink cartridge from your office printer, wistfully expecting them to embody the next new product on the shelf—you’re actually an unknowing participant in the act of wishcycling. And the practice is one of the biggest challenges facing the recycling industry today.

This article was originally published March 2020 and has been updated. Americans are united in the urge to recycle. About 90% of U.S citizens support the practice of recycling, and for 28% of the country, their communities consider it an important civic duty. It’s actionable, too. Amid heightened interest in the environment and enlivened participation in the nation’s sustainability efforts, we’ve been given an avenue to curb our wasteful ways. An estimated 94% of the population has access to forms of recycling like curbside bins, commercial dumpsters, or drop-off centers, which mollifies many of our concerns. For the majority of businesses and individuals, the ends justify the means. The thought is if you do your part—putting an item you hope can be reused or recycled in the bin or dumpster instead of the trash—the collectors will somehow find a way to recycle it.  However, expectations and reality are very far apart. When you try to recycle a “disposable” coffee cup, greasy pizza box, or the ink cartridge from your office printer, wistfully expecting them to embody the next new product on the shelf—you’re actually an unknowing participant in the act of wishcycling. And as you’ll see, you’re not the only one who’s crossing their fingers.

In this blog post, we dive more into the increased plastic pollution problem as a result of the pandemic, additional areas of impact, and how humanity can recognize and take necessary steps to alleviate the PPE problem before it’s too late.

**This article was originally published October 2020 and has been updated. More than 12 months after the World Health Organization (WHO) declared COVID-19 a global pandemic, we’re still dependent on those disposable blue “paper” masks. The world uses 129 billion per month, 3 million a minute, or 50,000 every second depending on how you frame it. But what most of the world hasn’t pictured is the convergence of pandemics—because the masks we’ve relied on to dampen transmission aren’t just paper. They’re polypropylene too, the same plastic used for drinking straws and ketchup bottles. As the world grapples with a glut of plastics in its soil, drinking water, and even the tip of Mt. Everest, we’re faced with a new mountain of a problem: trillions of discarded masks with virtually no solution to recycle them. While no one could have predicted a pandemic or its many byproducts, without collective action and innovative thinking, we’ll be fighting personal protective equipment (PPE) long after the novel coronavirus is gone.