By Barry Kaye, MD
You are a good person. You recycle everything that you can and feel good about that. But have you wondered what happens after that big blue bin is picked up? I just assumed it was all recycled until my son told me some inconvenient truths about recycling.
If you read no further—just remember that because something is recyclable, it does not mean that it will be recycled. Unless it is economically feasible and there is a market, it’s just trash. It turns out that the only things that are genuinely recycled at the present time are paper, #1 and #2 plastics, and metal cans. The town pays a fee for all items in recycling bins that are not clean or not recyclable. Please don’t place that sticky peanut butter jar in the blue bin.
Some people say that the problem is so huge that there is no point in working at the individual level. I disagree.
Paper
Paper and cardboard fill most of our bins. Why is that? In a word: Amazon. Vast amounts of paper are needed to make all those cardboard boxes that come to our doors. Paper cartons can be recycled, but only if they have been washed out.
Making paper uses energy and pollutes water, so try to use less. Buy more locally and less online.
Glass
I always imagined that all those beer, soda and wine bottles would be easily melted down and made into new bottles. Unfortunately, that is not the case. There is currently little market for glass; almost all of it is crushed and sent to landfills. There is only one recycling plant in the state that can handle only a tiny fraction of our glass.
I used to think that beer is better in bottles. I spoke to Suzanne Schalow, the owner of Belmont’s Craft Beer Cellar. She told me that’s no longer the case. Bottled beer can develop “skunking” from even low light exposure—a nasty taste.
Beer in cans stays fresher longer. Aluminum cans are light in weight and easily recyclable, and that lighter weight translates into less energy use overall.
Wine comes in heavy glass bottles. Making the bottles and shipping them thousands of miles uses a lot of energy. Boxed wine uses much less energy, and everything except the thin plastic liner is recyclable, but who wants to drink wine from a box? Even if it tasted OK, what would my guests think? Who would bring a box to a dinner party?
I spoke to John Mooradian, wine director at the Spirited Gourmet. He told me that many very good wines are now available in boxes. The main obstacle to switching from glass to boxes is consumer acceptance—our belief that good wine only comes in bottles and snob appeal. Wines in “bag in a box” containers have the added advantage of lasting much longer after opening, as they are less exposed to the aging effects of oxygen.
Electronics
Do you have drawers and shelves full of adapters and cords? They seem to multiply like rabbits. Can’t remember what they went to? Do you have old computers and game consoles? If you go to the Department of Public Works website, you will see that these can just be put in the trash. That’s what I have always done.
I recently discovered that major stores like Staples and Best Buy will accept and recycle these for free—even those pesky old cords. These items contain valuable rare earth metals, copper, steel, and aluminum. I dropped off three big boxes at Best Buy last week. (They charge for recycling TV screens).
Textiles
About 10% of our carbon footprint comes from our clothes, and we are wearing a lot more than we used to—about 60% more than a generation ago. Much of the increase can be attributed to “fast fashion”—inexpensive, trendy clothing produced in sweatshops in countries without worker protections. The quality is often poor, so they don’t last long, goes go out of style quickly, and are tossed.
While some fabrics are recyclable, few are recycled. They wind up in incinerators or landfills. There are places in developing countries where these items cover and pollute vast areas. Historically, people bought less clothing of better quality that was worn for many years. We can all REDUCE—buy less. Somehow, we managed to get by with a lot less not long ago.
Fleece, which we have all come to love, gives off nanofibers that go into the environment—never to return. Before there was fleece, we wore wool, a natural fabric. Many people don’t like wool because it can be itchy, but modern marino or “Smart Wool” is soft on the skin and does not scratch.
Cotton requires a lot of water, pesticides, and energy to produce. Linen and hemp require much less.
Textiles, including footwear, purses, backpacks, and belts, can no longer be thrown away in trash bins. So long as they’re not moldy, wet, and contain no hazardous chemicals, you can bring these items to a bin at one of the designated pick-up locations listed below. Ninety-five percent of these textiles are reused or recycled.
- Grove Street playground
- Waverley Square parking lot
- VFW at 310 Trapelo Road
- Claflin Street parking lot at Belmont Center
- Belmont Street next to Oakley Country Club
Metal
What do we do with all the metal objects we cannot put in the recycling bin, which will only take metal cans and containers? Old tools, dead toaster ovens, nuts and bolts that don’t fit anything. Think about a road trip to Everett, where there are several junk yards that recycle metals—no questions asked, and items can have attached glass or other materials. Just throw them on the pile.
Make it a destination: take a trip to the casino—or just stroll along the Mystic River and the casino gardens. Check out Everett’s craft breweries and distilleries. Combine a load with neighbors at your next block party.
Jay Marcotte, director of Belmont’s Department of Public Works (DPW), told me that metal items can be placed in the textile recycling bins, and the town will then sell these to metal recyclers. The DPW will pick up large items. This service comes with an additional charge; check the DPW website for more information.
Metal that is thrown into the trash is incinerated, using yet more energy.
Plastics
The impetus for plastics recycling came from the plastics industry, not environmentalists. Some would say it’s a form of “greenwashing.” For starters, only about 60% of plastics are potentially recyclable, and only a small fraction is actually recycled.
I used to think plastic could be quickly melted down in a saucepan and reused. It turns out that it’s much more complicated than that. It takes a lot of energy and chemicals to break the plastic bonds to make it reusable.
Currently, only #1 and #2 plastics are reliably recycled. Number 5 plastics are difficult to recycle, and black plastic (takeout containers) are not recycled. Plastic bags gum up the recycling machines and should never be thrown in recycling bins.
Many of us know about the great Pacific garbage patch. Even more concerning are the nanofibers that plastic ultimately breaks down into. Eventually, these enter our water, soil, air, and bodies. This is a looming health crisis of immense proportions.
Eliminate plastics
The real solution for plastics is not recycling. It’s trying to eliminate as much plastic as possible. For starters, we try to avoid as many plastic products and as much packaging as possible. Do we really need the billions of plastic water bottles thrown away every year?
Can we ask restaurants to use recyclable or compostable containers and leave out the plastic cutlery that we don’t need? Blueland sells a whole line of non-plastic household products. I’ve switched to bar shampoo and conditioner instead of bottles, and I am very happy with the results.
Food waste
Forty percent of food in America is wasted. When we lived on farms, wasted food was fed to livestock or used to enrich the soil. Now, it ends up in our trash.
Our family signed up for Black Earth compost pickup. For $2 per week, we just put our garbage in the rat-proof container, and every year, we get a free bag of composted soil. It’s so easy! Check out www.belmontcomposts.org for more information.
Hazardous waste
It is tempting just to throw this in the trash. You can hide it inside a trash bag, and no one will know, but these materials do need to be disposed of properly rather than sent to the incinerator with our regular trash. Go to www.belmont-ma.gov/dpw-highway-division/pages/hazardous-waste for collection dates.
We can do a lot, and one of the best ways to change our culture and government is to lead by example. Of course, we must also work to get local, state, and federal governments to address these problems effectively. Using our recycling bins is simply not enough.
I hope that this has been helpful. Many thanks to Jay Marcotte for his help with this article and for his leadership of Belmont’s recycling efforts.
Barry Kaye, MD, is a Belmont resident and primary care physician at Mass General Brigham in Everett.
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