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GREEN
FOLLOW THE CANS WHERE ALL THOSE RECYCLABLES GO
E
by Brita Belli ver wonder what happens to those recyclable items — the newspapers, pickle jars, tuna fish cans and soda bottles —
bottles, (which must be clean) into another and then carts them off to the Weston Transfer Station. As the name implies, the transfer station is just a way-station on the way to the items being broken down for reuse. There is a bin for corrugated cardboard, one for cans and bottles, one for newspaper and one for magazines. The station, says a spokesperson, charges
you leave, each week, in backyard bins? Other than the fact that our designated garbage collector hauls those recyclables away, most of us don't give our recyclables — or our trash — a second thought. Joseph Lametta, Weston's director of public works, says the town collects some 900 tons of recyclables per year and that in terms of separating out items that can be saved, "the residents are pretty good. The state of Connecticut wants to get to a 50-50 ratio between garbage and recyclables," Lametta adds. "Right not the town's ratio is 75-25, which is still good for a small town." Weston enforces backyard pickup as opposed to curbside, because like other image-conscious Fairfield County towns (including Greenwich and Westport), it considers garbage and recycling bins unsightly. That only increases the out-of-sight, out-of-mind mentality. Here's the deal. The garbage collector dumps the newspapers and other paper recyclables into one bin, and the "comingle," or cans, jars and
the garbage collectors about $79 a ton. These are later shipped to Fairfield County Recycling (FCR) in Stratford for sorting. There, says Weston resident Ed Gargiulo, who manages the facility, their biggest problem is that homeowners put into recycling bins items that don't belong, thinking that more is better. "The only plastic items that should be in bins are those with a clearly marked recycling symbol with a number one or two inside," Gargiulo says. "Anything else we just put back in the garbage." At FCR, the grouped recyclables are sent via a moving belt into an enclosure where workers pick through the items by hand. A machine with a magnet pulls the metal cans off the belt automatically, while workers are each assigned to one particular type of recyclable — one finds clear milk containers (otherwise known as high-density polyethylene or HDPE), another searches for pigmented containers, another for plastic bottles marked with the number one, like soda and ketchup bottles (made from
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"The only plastic items that should be in bins are those with a clearly marked recycling symbol with a number one or two inside"
polyethylene terephthalate or PET). The plastic, says Gargiulo, is made into bales and sent to Envision Plastics in South Carolina where it is pulverized into pellets for reuse. The soda and water bottles made of PET are sent to Mohawk Industries in Georgia, which turns them into carpet. The aluminum goes to beer giant Anheuser-Busch Companies, while the glass — separated by color — is sent to Container Recycling Alliance in Massachusetts. Fairfield County Recycling currently handles the recycling for 19 area towns, but its relationship with Weston may change when the town's contract with the company ends in June. Right now, says Lametta, Weston can drop off its recyclables to FCR for free, but it can't benefit financially from the reusable materials. Lametta says they haven't made any decisions yet, but there's a possibility that the town's recyclables could provide a little extra income for town coffers — even if only about $10 or $15
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CONTACTS: Guide to Recycling in Weston: www.westonct.gov/media/file/ RecyclingGuideRevised2008-2009.pdf Weston Transfer Station: 237 Godfrey Road East; 222-2668 Fairfield County Recycling, Inc.: 1410 Honeyspot Road Ext., Stratford; 203/378-8558. per ton. The only problem, he says, is that with the financial collapse, the market for cardboard and used paper that once received top dollar in China has all but disappeared. W
Brita Belli is the editor of E/ The Environmental Magazine at www.emagazine.com.