Residents urged to be mindful of guidelines as recycling issues rise

Every week, Republic Services visits Vestavia Hills residences three different times.

Two of those are to pick up trash, with the days varying depending on the street and area of town.

On Wednesdays, however, Republic’s trucks sweep the entire city to pick up items residents hope will have a second life.

The city’s recycling program has taken multiple forms over the last few decades, depending on what company the city has contracted with for pickup.

Over the last six years, Vestavia has recycled between 800 and 2,100 tons of items annually, and as of mid-April has recycled 437 tons of paper, plastics and metals, according to data from Birmingham Recycling and Recovery (BRR).

But while Vestavia Hills is generally the second-highest over-the-mountain community in terms of tonnage recycled, issues still exist.

Many residents are unsure of what can and can’t be recycled — and what happens to it once it leaves the end of their driveway. At the same time, BRR and others are struggling with a tumultuous market for recycled materials, as well as growing contamination rates in the loads they receive each week.

A regular habit

Many in Vestavia Hills, such as longtime resident Katherine Manush, have made recycling a habit, treating the practice the same way they do laundry or paying their bills.

“We recycle just because I thought it was the thing to do,” Manush said. “The city made it easy.”

Manush said she really focused on it when her kids were younger, as it wasn’t unusual for her family to go through upwards of a gallon of milk a day or case of water a week.

“When all my kids were living at home, we generated an enormous amount of garbage,” she said.

On top of just regularly filling up the recycling bin and other basics, Manush said her family has tried to reduce their waste by moving to reusable water bottles and cutting out styrofoam and other non-recyclables.

“Does it make a huge difference? No, but that was something that we could do,” she said.

June Clark, who moved to Vestavia with her family in 2010, said she has always been passionate about recycling, from serving in environmental clubs in school to encouraging anyone and everyone she meets to recycle.

“It’s something I’ve done for a long time,” she said. “I get really sad thinking about all the trash and waste we dump into landfills.”

In 2016 when she and her husband remodeled their kitchen, she said they made a point to make it recycling-friendly by installing a second slide-out can to collect recycling just like trash.

Clark said her recycling bin typically fills up twice as fast as her trash can, and she works to try to reduce her waste in other ways as well.

“I also try to avoid extra packaging if it’s not needed,” she said, citing efforts such as declining a grocery bag for only a few items.

She said she also tries to reuse materials whenever possible.

Last summer, she and her children saved glass jars and used them as a means to share flowers from their garden, decorate for gifts or even as the base of Halloween decorations.

“There’s lots of fun things you can come up with to do when kids are bored,” she said.

While recycling is a visible part of each of their families lives, both Manush and Clark said they wished there was a more robust system for recycling locally.

And they aren’t the only ones.

Industry issues

BRR takes in recyclables from all 25 municipalities that make up the greater Birmingham metropolitan area.

Each month, BRR receives between 1,200 and 1,400 tons of materials from residential sources, and about 3,000 tons when that amount is combined with commercial sources.

Manager of Municipal Services for Republic Services Gary Stignani said that the recycling industry as a whole is in pretty bad shape.

“The state of residential recycling right now is really in the worst spot it’s ever been in,” he said.

The vast majority of material recycled in the United States eventually makes its way to China. But earlier this year, the Chinese government enacted a “National Sword” policy, cutting the types of materials it will accept and drastically reducing the acceptable contamination rate it will allow, ultimately decreasing the amount of material it takes in.

At the same time, Stignani said, the amount of material being recycled has gone up as the practice has gained popularity, leading to a serious supply-and-demand issue.

“That gap has just really increased,” he said.

What has also increased, Stignani said, is the rate of contamination, including non-recyclable materials and improperly cleaned items.

In 2017, Vestavia’s contamination rate was around 30 percent, and Stignani said the rate has increased to 38 percent so far this year.

Recyclables can be contaminated in multiple ways, he said, but generally it’s when food or liquids are left in containers. When it comes to recycling, he said, there are three keys: empty, clean and dry.

Food containers should be fully cleaned out, rinsed and left to dry, not only to be recyclable themselves, but to prevent contamination of other items in the bin.

Additionally, Stignani said, folks should be aware of what can and cannot be recycled.

Currently, curbside recycling accepts plastics 1 and 2, aluminum, steel and tin cans, cardboard and other paper.

Options

Both Manush and Clark said they wished the city’s recycling program still took glass, though they were aware the city had limitations.

BRR, where Vestavia’s curbside pickup goes, doesn’t accept glass, and while the Alabama Environmental Council (AEC) Community Recycling Center usually takes glass, the location hasn’t been able to accept it recently due to a backlog and a low-demand for recycled glass in Alabama.

Clark said when the city stopped accepting glass, she discovered that area Target stores will accept it, and once or twice a month she and her family will gather up what they’ve accumulated and take it to the store.

In an email to Vestavia Voice, Target corporate representative Jacqueline DeBuse said that the items collected for recycling at Alabama Target stores are transported to the company’s regional hub in Madison, Alabama.

DeBuse said Target has been recycling its own materials, such as cardboard boxes and plastic shrink wrap, as far back as the 1960s, but in 2010 began a customer-facing recycling program that allows shoppers to drop off items when they visit the store.

Target accepts glass bottles, cans, plastic bags and other materials that are taken to the company’s Madison facility and sorted, along with items from 75 stores across the Southeast, before being sent to a recycling vendor.

Moving forward

Stignani said it remains to be seen what the full impact of China’s Sword policy will be.

“It is possible there could be some changes in how it’s collected, what’s collected, that kind of stuff,” he said.

In the meantime, he and city officials said the best thing residents can do is make sure they are recycling the proper items, only putting their bins out on Wednesdays and considering finding ways to reuse or repurpose items.

For more information on the city’s recycling policy, visit vhal.org/departments/public-services/public-works/recycling/, and for information about AEC, visit aeconline.org.

Do you know what can be recycled?

Items that CAN be recycled:

► Plastics 1 and 2: Water bottles, milk jugs and other soft plastic bottles

► Cardboard, newspaper, junk mail and other paper

► Aluminum, tin and steel cans

Items that CANNOT be recycled:

► Glass

► Plastic or “grocery” bags

► Wire hangers

► Styrofoam

For a complete list, visit vhal.org/departments/public-services/public-works/recycling.