A new partnership between a Dutch company and a regional waste management system will bring new garbage bins to homes in Central Virginia. The new bins are unique as not only will they hold your trash; they’ll also be made out of it.
Jack “Tato” Bigio with Netherlands-based UBQ Materials held up three vials, one at a time, to illustrate exactly how his company’s new recycling process works.
“This is waste with chopped bits. You can see it without smelling it, but what smells good is this, the powder. From here we convert all these materials into one, homogeneous consistent thermoplastic," Bigio said. "But typically, we pelletize it to ship to customers.”
Bigio’s explanation shortened: “Instead of plastics making waste we’re making plastics out of waste.”
That’s right, chicken bones, dirty diapers, even greasy pizza boxes you can’t normally recycle, UBQ is turning it into plastic.
This revolution in recycling comes as Central Virginia Waste Management Authority announced the purchase of 3,000 household trash cans that will be made out of UBQ materials.
Laura Thomas is the director of sustainability for the city of Richmond, one of the localities which will utilize the new cans.
“Today’s announcement marks more than new trash carts, it makes a new way of thinking about waste," Thomas said. "It’s turning something once discarded into something useful, durable and climate positive.”
The new bins will be available in Richmond City, Henrico County as well as Colonial Heights and Ashland as customers request new bins. The old bins were made out of about 30 percent recycled material; the new ones include a similar recycled material ratio but also about 5 percent UBQ. Officials said the cost of the new bins is comparable to the old ones.
They’ll be manufactured by Cascade Engineering at a plant in Michigan, but Bigio hopes to bring a UBQ trash-to-plastic facility to the East Coast in the coming years.
This report, provided by Virginia Public Radio, was made possible with support from the Virginia Education Association.
