Tuesday, December 31, 2019

Recycling baby bottles

During my household purge, I've stumbled across a bag of used baby bottles hidden away in the closet. These bottles were nearly three years old since  weening my second child off of breast milk in 2017. So instead of donating or giving them away, I decided to see if these could be recycled.




I had Medela, Tommee Tippee, Ameda, and Dr Brown bottles. Luckily, most of the bottles had the recycling code #5 imprinted somewhere on them. The Dr. Brown bottles though, had polypropylene written on the bottom, which is the same as recycling code #5.

Polypropylene (PP) is a thermoplastic consisting of repeating chains of the monomer polypropylene.  PP is a robust plastic that is heat and solvent resistant which makes it an excellent type of plastic for baby bottles. 

And with that info, the bottles made their way into the bin, marking the end of an era for our household. 

Friday, November 9, 2018

Repost: Oregon initiates first modern statewide refillable glass bottle system in the US

Repost from the Container Recycling Institute: Oregon initiates first modern statewide refillable glass bottle system in the US.
By Dawn Hammon

At the beginning of the century, refillable bottles were the only option when you purchased a beer or soda from the local merchant. With the invention of the steel can in 1938, however, that practice began to change. Within 10 years, the 100 percent refillable glass usage for beer had dropped to 84 percent. When non-refillable glass started taking over mainstream production, that number dropped to 8 percent by 1986 and, according to the Container Recycling Institute, refillable beer bottles now account for less than 4 percent of the total containers used. Today, Oregon is getting back to the basics by revitalizing the use of refillable beer bottles.
The World Counts reported, “The world’s beer and soda consumption uses about 200 billion aluminium cans every year. This is 6,700 cans every second — enough to go around the planet every 17 hours.” While recycling is an important piece of the puzzle, a large percentage of cans and bottles are tossed into the landfill. Those that do make it to the recycling plant require massive amounts of water and energy to recycle into clean, usable material.
With all of this in mind, Oregon recently initiated a statewide recycling program that cuts out the need to break down materials and turn them into something new. Instead, they’ve gone old school by bringing back refillable bottles.
refillable beer bottles in green cardboard carrier that reads, "BottleDrop Refill"
The process works the same as any other bottle deposit system. The consumer pays a deposit upfront when buying a beverage. Upon returning the empty container, they receive the deposit back. The bottle return machines identify the refillable bottles by a unique barcode and automatically separate them from the recyclable glass options. The bottles themselves are slightly different in other ways, too. Noticeably thicker and marked with a “refillable” stamp, the bottles can be reused up to 40 times, which sharply dials back the carbon footprint for the industry.
Oregon has been poised to reintroduce refillable bottles into the market because of an existing statewide program that collects and recycles bottles and cans. With that efficient infrastructure in place, adding refillable bottles to the mix is a natural step in the progression of responsible resource management within the state. It’s no surprise that Oregon is an early adopter of the program, as it has a long history of innovation in the beverage recycling industry. In fact, Oregon was the first state to pass a bottle refund law in 1971.
beer bottles with green caps in green cardboard carrier
In order for the program to be cost-effective, there are some stipulations in place. For example, bottles leaving the state and not being returned for refill drives up costs. To protect against this, bottlers who commit to using the refillable bottles are only allowed to export 20 percent of those bottles out of state. Although Oregon hopes to be a leader in the refillable bottle movement, the program is still going through some growing pains. Bottles are currently being shipped to Montana for cleaning until Oregon can complete its own facility to do the work. While the state’s Department of Environmental Quality hasn’t put an exact measurement on the impact of these efforts, most agree that even with temporary transport to another state, refillable bottles cut the carbon footprint at every post-production phase of the life cycle.
The real measure of the program’s success will come with the deposit return rates. If people don’t return the bottles, the system won’t work. This is a struggle that Double Mountain Brewery founder Matt Swihart knows all too well as the original provider of refillable bottles within the Oregon brewing industry. He’s fought an uphill battle in his efforts to successfully introduce refillable bottles to his Hood River bottling plant. With an initial return rate of only 15-20 percent, he’s hoping an organized state system will help facilitate his goals. “Anything we get back and clean saves us money down the road, and of course is a more responsible environmental package,” Swihart told OPB. “Frankly, it’s just the right thing to do.”
local Oregon beers in refillable bottles with "BottleDrop" and "Refillable" imprinted into the bottles
Currently, seven breweries in Oregon have stepped up to the program. Widmer Brothers Brewing is one such optimistic leader of change. It has always been transparent in its efforts to maintain sustainability wherever possible in the beer-making process, with actions like donating spent grains to local farms and providing reusable to-go containers for employees to cut back on waste. For a company that looks to repurpose and recycle everything down to the crayons and corks, moving to refillable bottles is a natural progression. The company stated, “In 2016, we completed our first Life Cycle Analysis on a bottle of beer produced at our brewery to understand the biggest opportunities to reduce our carbon footprint, learning that one bottle generates 392 grams of carbon dioxideemissions. We are partnering with suppliers to improve!” And now, the brewery is doing just that.
Buoy Beer, Double Mountain, GoodLife, Gigantic, Wild Ride and Rock Bottom breweries have also signed on with hopes of many others joining as the program gains credibility. Although breweries are in the spotlight right now, there is hope that the soda industry will also jump on the refillable bottle bandwagon. Who knows — maybe it’s just a few short years before we make the full circle back to refillable milk bottles.

Monday, November 5, 2018

Examining the Barriers in Plastic Recycling Rates in the United States.


A little outdate memo I wrote back in 2013, but still relevant today.

As the world’s population begins to soar, the question on how we deal with our waste is becoming ever more crucial. According to a 2012 study by the World Bank, the 34 wealthiest countries categorized as the Organization for Economic Co- operation and Development (OECD) were responsible for 44% of the global waste which is approximately 572 million tons.1 It was how OECD countries addressed this waste was startling. A meager 1% of waste was recycled while the majority of it (59%) was sent to landfills.2 In the United States alone, the EPA estimated that in 2009 Americans produced approximately 243 million tons of trash. A single person generating on average 4.34 pounds of waste each day.3 Encouragingly, trends in recycling are on the rise. The EPA reported that recycling rates have increased in the U.S. from less than 10% in 1980 to 34% in 2009. While paper and cans have experienced increased rates of recycling, the rates of recycling plastics are among the lowest (see Figure 1). 



Figure 1. Rates of Recycling in 2009 reported by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency.3

Next to food scraps, plastics are the next most abundant material found in our municipal waste streams. In 2010, the total amount of plastic products discarded in the municipal solid waste stream was 10,810 thousand tons, an order of magnitude higher than the amount of aluminum products discarded. 4 Their long and strong polymeric chains don’t readily degrade into their elemental components causing much of it to settle in landfills or be transported via waterways into ocean gyres creating plastic havens such as “Garbage Island”. As citizens in the U.S. are becoming more aware of these environmental issues, their attitude towards recycling plastic is stagnant. In this brief study, we will attempt to understand what factors cause plastics to have the lowest recycling rates.

The plastic resin identification code #1-#7 was designed to help consumers distinguish the different types of plastics. Many manufacturers have printed these codes inside the recycling symbol onto their products to help consumers recycle them. Unfortunately, these plastic resin identification codes are outdated and confuse the public. In a study conducted by Moore Recycling, they observed that when resin codes were not printed on a product it led consumers to believe these products could not be recycled.5 The study also suggested that there is ‘too much room for personal interpretation’ and recyclable items often end up into the trashcan.5 Instead, providing a picture with examples of recyclable items was determined to be more effective for increasing recycling rates. An example can be observed in an outreach program administered by the Department of Environmental Services in Arlington County, Virginia. They decided to use images of recyclable materials as part of their recycling campaign. After the first 3 weeks of mailing out the information, they experienced a 286% increase in the number of requests for recycling bins.6


The lack of emphasis or enforcement from state leadership seems to be the main barrier for poor plastic recycling habits. As of today, there is no national recycling law and prior to the 1970’s the market forces drove recycling.7 Currently, the only federal recycling law is the Mercury-Containing and Rechargeable Battery Manangement Act and not surprisingly, the most highly recycled material in the U.S. is the car battery with a rate of 96% .8 Unlike the car battery, plastic recycling lacks any federal mandate and is left up to the discretion of the states to decide the stringency of their legislation. Since no federal law dictates states to recycle plastics, the educational level of the citizens and amount of resources allocated for recycling vary widely. One trend showed that regionally southern states had the lowest access to plastic recycling.5 As expected, several of these southern states also had the poorest outreach. When communities invested in outreach education and/or passed out recycling bins they observed an increase in rates demonstrating a need for both education and resources. For instance, Burlington County, New Jersey ran a 3-month program by passing out 2000 bins. They experienced a 4.4% increase in participation.6 In Indian River, Florida, city officials developed a 3-month program where monthly fliers were sent out about recycling facts. Officials saw a 36.8 % increase in materials collected.6

In states where leadership passed stringent state recycling laws, there is more of an effort to educate and recycle. For example, Wisconsin had passed laws banning the disposal and incineration of recyclable or compostable materials since the 1990’s. This includes a ban on the disposal of plastic containers of resin #1 and #2.9 Because of these stricter state laws, leadership has made a better effort to educate and provided resources such as recycling bins and programs to the citizens of Wisconsin. Now, the average Wisconsin resident recycles 0.5 pounds more than the average American a year.10
In the years to come, we will no longer be able to ignore the adverse affect of sending plastics to landfills. As with many things, change needs to happen from the top-down. Overall, convincing leadership on the importance of recycling plastics is the main obstacle to overcome. Often it is state or municipal leaders who supply the funding that is needed to operate recycling services, provide bins, as well as implement educational and outreach programs. States that have stricter recycling laws generally have higher participation in recycling overall as well as better educational programs and more resources allocated resulting in less plastic waste in their landfills.

References
1. What a Waste: Global Review of Solid Waste Management, Chapter 3: Waste Generation.
The World Bank. Retrieved 18 October 2013 from http://go.worldbank.org/BCQEP0TMO0.
2. What a Waste: Global Review of Solid Waste Management, Chapter 6: Waste Disposal.
The World Bank. Retrieved 18 October 2013 from http://go.worldbank.org/BCQEP0TMO0
3. Municipal Solid Waste Generation, Recycling, and Disposal in the United States: Facts and Figures for 2009 (December 2011). US Environmental Protection Agency. Retrieved 18 October 2013, from http://www.epa.gov/wastes/nonhaz/municipal/pubs/msw2009-fs.pdf
4. Municipal Solid Waste Generation, Recycling, and Disposal in the United States: Tables and Figures for 2010 (December 2011). US Environmental Protection Agency. Retrieved 18 October 2013, from http://www.epa.gov/osw/nonhaz/municipal/pubs/2010_MSW_Tables_and_Figures_508.pdf
5. Plastic Recycling Collection: National Reach Study (May 2011). Moore Recycling Associates Inc. http://plastics.americanchemistry.com/national-reach-study. Retrieved 21 October, 2013.
6. Education campaigns.
Curbside Value Partnership. http://www.recyclecurbside.org/content/u/education_campaigns Retrieved 21 October, 2013.
7. Miller, Chaz. States Lead the Way: Pioneering Recycling Efforts in the U.S.
Waste Management World. Retrieved 22 October 2013 from, http://www.waste-management- world.com/articles/print/volume-7/issue-5/recycling-special/states-lead-the-way-pioneering- recycling-efforts-in-the-us.html
8. Mercury-Containing and Rechargeable Battery Management Act.
United States Environmental Protection Agency. Retrieved 21 October 2013 from, http://www.epa.gov/osw/conserve/materials/battery.htm and http://www.epa.gov/osw/laws- regs/state/policy/p1104.pdf
9. What to Recycle in Wisconsin.
Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources. Retrieved 21 October 2013, from http://dnr.wi.gov/topic/recycling/banned.html
10. April 22nd is Earth Day (10 April 2012). RecycleMOREWisconsin. Retrieved 21 October 2013, from http://www.recyclemorewisconsin.org/2012/04/10/recycling-conserves-natural-resources-saves- energy-and-creates-jobs/