Many trash haulers in Virginia provide single stream recycling – mechanically separating bottles, cans and plastic from other garbage, but residents of one community in the Commonwealth insist on sorting and delivering their own recyclables. Sandy Hausman reports on why one government agency still offers a sort-it-yourself service, and why it’s adding a new option.
On a cold Wednesday afternoon, there is actually a crowd at the McIntire Recycling Center. More than two dozen parking spaces are filled by folks like Tess O’Connor and Clara Henning who say local trash haulers don’t recycle everything. Here, newspapers and cardboard are untainted by garbage, and huge dumpsters are filled with bottles, plastic and metal cans.
“I guess part of me likes to sort through – to know everything is going to the right category. Especially over the holidays you see how much waste you create.”
“I’m never so sure whether in fact the recycling is being done by these big haulers. Is all of it a big scam? Are we not really saving the world?”
At the Rivanna Solid Waste Authority, Executive Director Tom Frederick says it’s true. A fair amount of newsprint, paper and cardboard is unsuitable for recycling once it’s contaminated by food.
“When waste is mixed, the quality of the paper can be degraded. If you wanted to take high grade paper materials and turn them into high grade recycled materials, source separation is still the best way to get that quality.”
And here in Albemarle County, Frederick says people were anxious to recycle one other commodity – food scraps, which are second only to paper in taking up limited space in landfills.
10 – I speak to citizens all over this community who say, ‘I compost in my backyard,’ but some people say, ‘My living space outdoors is very small, and I’d rather have a program where I can bring the compost to City Market or McIntire and know that a professional company is going to make compost.”
So this month, the Rivanna Solid Waste Authority opened a kiosk at the recycle center where patrons could pick-up special bags to be filled with leftover food which they’ll give to a private company – Black Bear Composting. In the first week, customers like Zakira Beasley and Ellen Anderson delivered 150 pounds of fruit peels and coffee grounds, chicken bones and wilted vegetables.
“We live in a townhouse, and we don’t have any access to composting around our house, and we were using the City Market every week last year and have been thrilled to know that we no longer have to put our food waste into our trash that goes to the landfill.”
“I come down here for recycling, so I might as well just do one more thing. It’s fine.”
The pilot program will run through March when the authority will decide whether to make it permanent. Virginia cities lag behind San Francisco, Seattle, Portland and more than 150 other communities that collect organic waste at curbside.