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Republic Services’ Southern Nevada Recycling Center—the largest residential recycling facility in North America—can process roughly 700,000 pounds per day. But not all objects make it through the channels. In honor of Earth Day on April 22, the Weekly asked the company’s community relations manager, Steve Orrico, for some tips on how to recycle more efficiently.
Not all plastics are created equal.
Nearly every commercially-produced plastic container will include a number on the bottom that identifies the type of material it was made from. Ranging from one to seven, these indicators can typically be found within a triangle made up of three arrows pointing toward each other—the universal recycling logo.
Most recycling centers can only process plastic types 1, 2 and 5. The first group includes clear water and soda bottles, the second is most often found on milk jugs and shampoo bottles and the latter consists of objects like pill and condiment containers. Anything bearing another number should be omitted from your bin, Orrico says.
Stick to food-grade metal and glass.
“If food or drink came in it, then it’s recyclable,” Orrico says.
This applies to nearly every food-grade material made from steel, tin, aluminum and glass—so long as they’re rinsed out first.
“A tuna can or a beer bottle is recyclable, for example, but a drinking glass or plate is not,” Orrico says. “That’s because different types of glass boil at different temperatures. Because they’re not the same density, they’ll bubble if you combine them.”
Food containers made from other materials—like the greasy cardboard from the bottom half of a pizza box—can also contaminate the process. However, Orrico says most pizza boxes are now perforated so you can recycle the top half and discard the bottom.
Don’t crush cans and bottles.
Modern recycling centers utilize a technology called optical sorting, in which a machine is programmed to identify and separate common recyclables by shape. If a can or bottle is crushed, it’s often misidentified and sent to a landfill instead.
“If the container is only half or a third of its original size, it may not register,” Orrico says. “It’s somewhat different for cans because we have a current that will instantly magnetize aluminum, but it can still miss them sometimes. So, we prefer that you don’t crush either.”
Cap your bottles and secure your lids.
Similarly, loose plastic bottle caps are frequently missorted and sent to landfills.
“Water bottle caps are made out of a different material than the bottle. We’ll be able to separate them at the center, but if you take it off and try to recycle the cap itself, it won’t get captured because it’s too small,” Orrico says.
Can lids can also get lost in the shuffle and create safety issues for workers. Orrico suggests keeping them together by putting the lid inside the can and giving it a slight pinch to keep it in place.
Avoid putting one recyclable material inside another.
Contrary to popular belief, Orrico says it’s best to avoid putting bottles, cans and broken-down cardboard into larger, intact boxes.
“The truck will compress that into one solid object, and you’ll end up getting one big club of cardboard instead of several separate boxes. And when you mix different materials, the plastic or glass is crushed into that box and gets kicked out as trash,” he explains.
Compiling items in a plastic grocery bag is another big “don’t.” Republic Services was previously able to accept plastic bags, but new sorting methods have since excluded them from the process.
“Now, we’re trying to get people to not bag their recyclables. For safety reasons, if they come in bagged, we have to discard them,” Orrico says.
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