Friday, January 18, 2013

Why do some recycling facilities accept certain materials, while others don't?

Now that we have been to 4 different facilities that deal with waste, I started noticing how each place was a little different about their rules for what they do and do not accept.  While I do understand they vary because of market demand and fluctuating prices, I find it hard to keep track of who takes what and why.  I got curious, and looked up what Indiana's policy was on what they accept to be recycled, and I was pretty shocked.  Their list is fairly lengthy and contains some items that some of the facilities we visited would not have wanted.

Here is a link to the article: http://www.in.gov/idem/recycle/2345.htm

They accept basically every type of glass to be recycled, when the local plant owners tended to agree that breaking down glass to recycle creates a sand film that shut will shut down the machine.  They also accept saw dust, but when we visited our first facility that collected recyclables from the community said that they have no idea what to do with sawdust, and just end of land filling it.

I just found it interesting that they could be so much variability when it comes to recycling.

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