Wait you don't recycle? GASP!

Wait, you don't recycle? GASP! By Molly Barari

You know you should be doing it. The thought nags at you every time you throw away aluminum cans, plastic bottles or newspapers. I should start recycling, you think. It’s true—you should be recycling. We don’t need to tell you that it’s good for the planet and protects our way of life—you already know those things. What you might not know is that you can be recycling more items than you realize.

Let’s talk about some of the opportunities available for recycling in Rapid City. With a population of 67,956, roughly 20,000 residents participate in the city’s recycling programs, according to Beth-Anne Ferley, sustainability coordinator for the city’s Solid Waste Division. That’s only 29 percent of the city’s residents, which needs to change.

You’ve seen those big blue bins around town, lined up next to the regular green trash cans. The blue bins are for singlestream recycling. If you forget what can go inside them, just remember GASP: Glass, aluminum, steel and plastic products. “Unfortunately, the city only can collect from residents up to a four-plex. All others are collected by private haulers. This is per city ordinance,” says Ferley. “We also recycle newspapers and cardboard, but they need to be dropped off at a drop-off site. We need to keep these products clean.” There are a few different drop-off locations, and you can find the one nearest you at https://www.rcgov.org/how-to/how-to-learn-about/recyclingprograms-456.html.

If you’re using a blue bin, you need to keep in mind that many items cannot be recycled by the city, including the following: Styrofoam, plastic grocery bags, aluminum foil, cereal boxes, scrap metal, light bulbs and more. There is a complete list of nono’s on the city’s website. Once recyclable items are collected, the items are separated and bailed, and then a middle man sells them to a remanufacturing plant to be made into new products. Sure, it takes a bit of time to start to get into the habit of recycling, but once you do, it benefits us all. For those who don’t know where to start, “there is an app called Recycle Coach that is helpful,” says Ferley.

Don’t stop there. There are more places in the city that provide specialized recycling services. Ace Steel & Recycling Inc. recycles almost all metals, except mercury and manganese iron. Ace Steel & Recycling takes copper, brass, stainless steel, aluminum, lead, and wire with or without insulation (copper, steel and alum wires should not be lumped together). In fact, any metals you take should be sorted. For example, aluminum cans cannot contain tin cans with them. The company also takes lead acid batteries, catalytic converters, and even vehicles with four tires—so long as the fluids are drained.

Got appliances you no longer want? Ace Steel & Recycling can take those off your hands, too. “Dishwashers must have a metal tub, and microwaves must be mostly metal and have the glass plate removed,” says Dorene Schochenmaier, who owns the business along with two of her brothers. “Freon bearing appliances must have a certification of proper freon removal. Noncompliance can cost a big EPA fine.”

What’s especially cool—and downright profound if you think about it—is that aluminum cans shipped out from Ace Steel & Recycling’s facility will be back on the consumer’s grocery shelf in 60 days. “We ship all our recyclables to EPA approved facilities. We also pay you for your recycling here,” says Schochenmaier. That’s a bonus, if we do say so ourselves.

When you are gathering items for recycling, remember this advice from Schochenmaier. “Be nice to your fellow human

beings. Do not put hypodermic needles in any kind of recycling. Employees get cut and stabbed with these needles and end up needing shots for hepatitis. Needle punctures also cause them a lot of unneeded stress. Your pharmacist will help you dispose of needles properly,” she urges. “Also, rinse out your tin cans, milk and juice jugs—and eliminate garbage from your recycling. No one wants to handle rancid food and dirty diapers in their warehouse. All these items run up the cost of recycling.”

Pacific Steel & Recycling in Rapid City will also pay you for all varieties of scrap metal including vehicles, catalytic converters, aluminum, brass, copper, steel, miscellaneous scrap, ferrous metals, non-ferrous metals and more. Pacific Steel & Recycling works mainly with customers in the trade industry that work with scrap and scrap metal on a daily basis, but you’re welcomed and encouraged to bring household scrap items, too.

“It’s important to recycle metals because being able to take something that someone believes is worn out and not worth much and turning it into something that has been repurposed is amazing,” says Andy Sukut, assistant manager at Pacific Steel & Recycling. “The metals can be melted down to make re-bar that keep our highways together or into aluminum sheets to help make cars and trucks that we rely on every day. Doing this also lets us cut down on the amount of material that goes to our landfills.”

Reducing the amount of material in our landfills? That’s a definite yes from us. Starting now, we encourage you to reduce, reuse and recycle. As corny as it sounds, it’s true: Your actions will help our planet. BHW

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