A weekly column by Duncan Watson, solid waste coordinator for the city of Keene, N.H.
With tips by Charles R. "Charlie" Beauregard, a longtime Swanzey, N.H. planning board member.
Contaminated Recyclables
There is no magic here. There is no miracle process that cleans dirty material or separates one type of material from another. Contamination of recyclable material is one of the most vexing problems faced by recycling centers. There are times, however, that our systems designed to catch contaminants (such as unrinsed containers or unrecyclable material mixed with recyclables), is overwhelmed.
Such is the case when DuPont Corporation included a full sheet of their nearly-impossible-to-tear material known as Tyvek (which is used in some overnight mailing envelopes and also for wrapping houses to protect them from the elements), in December editions of the following publications:
Newspapers: USA Today, Investor's Business Daily, The Wall Street Journal, Barron's.
Magazines: Business Week, Forbes, Architectural Digest, Institutional Investor, National Journal, Forbes, Bloomberg Personal, Smithsonian, US News & World Report, National Review, Harper's, Art News, Ivy League Network, Roll Call, Economist.
Unfortunately, this material is a serious contaminant for paper recycling. The sheer volume of paper products we receive on a daily basis precludes us from any type of reasonable sorting process to find this proverbial needle in the haystack.
When paper products are shipped to paper mills, the products are put into a large vat that looks like a blender, mixed with water and the paper is turned into pulp that can be made into new paper. Imagine what happens when that newspaper or magazine that has a sample of Tyvek in it gets into the blender. It sure as heck doesn't break down. What it does is wreck havoc on the machinery. At best, newspapers or magazines that have Tyvek samples will be downgraded from high quality fiber to low quality fiber, which reduces its value. At worst, the paper mills will reject the material and we will have to pay to dispose of the paper in a landfill or incinerator. This is a perfect example of a marketing decision that has grave consequences for an entire industry. Manufacturers must begin to consider recycling in their design so these types of situations can be avoided.
If you encounter Tyvek in any of these publications, please remove it prior to putting it out for recycling.
Note: Charlie says: "Think recycling when you purchase products. Ask yourself, can this product be recycled? If it cannot, inform the manufacturer that you would prefer products that are made from recycled products and can be recycled."