Earth Day: Donations, Trash, and the Dangers of Wish-Cycling
It’s Earth Day, and a great time to talk about how to responsibly handle your decluttered items! It is important to everyone to avoid waste and give items the longest life possible. Finding the most appropriate location can trip many people up when their possessions are overwhelming them, which is why I include hauling away most donations, and even E-Cycling as part of my professional organizing service. But let’s explore the options and then do a deep dive on "Aspirational Recycling"!
Selling:
E-bay, Craigs List, Facebook Marketplace, Consignment Shops, Yard Sales – so many possibilities for getting some money back for your valuable stuff! If you are overwhelmed by stuff, this is not the option I recommend, as there is great value in letting it leave immediately and not using your valuable energy and free time re-homing your things individually (do some more decluttering instead!) If you know you will be tempted to “try again” or keep items if they don’t fetch a price you are hoping for, I also recommend another route – in our low cost manufacturing economy, the resale value of most items doesn’t come anywhere near the “What I paid for it” objection, and that can be very discouraging, rekindling feelings of guilt. Why overcome THAT mental hurdle a second time?
Focus on giving it a second life and on the joy of generosity: If I haven’t used it in the last year, how good would it feel to give it to someone who WOULD? Can I mentally picture a person just like myself, 20 years ago when my resources were fewer, being blessed by receiving this item? How great would it feel to know it was because of my generosity? Embrace that feeling of open hands, of giving, of knowing you will not hoard the items, but will meet the needs of others, and that if you have a time of need, others will meet YOUR needs.
If you are just doing a quick pass through, letting go of children’s items on a regular basis, or in no danger of the selling process stalling you out and causing items to linger in a NEW spot in your home, by all means, sell away!
Thrift Store/Church Donation:
This is a great spot for your nice items! Rule of thumb: They have to be nice enough that you would stand behind a table a yard sale (where people you KNOW will come by) and unashamedly ask for money for them! This means torn, dirty, smelly, moldy, broken, grossly out of date, non-functional, dusty, and heavily used items should NOT go in the box. It also means if you aren’t willing to spend the time to clean it, it doesn’t make the cut. “Out of Date” means different things for different objects – with unopened food or beauty products it is non-negotiable with the best by date, with textbooks and electronics, there is about a 5 year window, with toys, kids clothes and wooden furniture, that window grows a good bit! Thrift stores spend a large part of their budget on trash services (which is why some of them at times seem so over the top picky!), but you are not looking for your donation to cost them money, right?
Clothing Donation Boxes:
Make sure the box is not earmarked for local resale, but MOST clothing boxes (like Planet Aid, etc.) actually are reselling to textile recycling. This keeps textiles (including bedding, towels and curtains) out of the landfill and means that even stained, torn, frayed, or worn out (and even socks and underwear!) are welcomed in this box. They still should be washed, clean, and not damp or moldy. This is the ONE category where I think people err on the side of discard when they COULD recycle.
E-Cycling:
Electronics older than 5 years (I’m looking at you, tube TVs and VCRs) just DON’T belong in your donation pile. They also are unlikely to be taken in your trash (they cannot be in York, PA) If you can give them away to someone who can reuse them for a child or parts, that’s great (but again, if this step will slow your progress, jump ahead to…) E-cycle them!
I want to share the process in York, PA, because it is absolutely FREE and relatively painless, but a little intimidating your first time: you are headed to York County Solid Waste Authority (http://www.ycswa.com ) on BlackBridge Rd (also known locally as “the incinerator”). You will drive up to the weigh station, and pull on to the scale. “Oh no,” you will think, “Are they going to charge me for this?” You will tell the attendant that you are here for E-Cycling. She will hand you a large paper “E”. You will follow the signs (I think it is VERY well marked), pull into the residential area, and be directed to the recycling side where the skids full of electronics are easy to spot. Usually someone will help you unload and properly sort the electronics for you. You drive back around, back onto the scale house, turn in your big “E”, and you are done! Easy Peasy!
(Just a note: If you do have a load of large items for trash, it is just $20 for up to 600 lbs (or $65/ton). I have filled the entire back of my minivan with relatively massive items from customers, and have never exceeded the $20 mark. Also, tossing broken items into the “pit” is very cathartic!)
ACCEPTED ITEMS: • Computer - Devices PCs \ *Printing Devices *Laptops/Servers *Receivers• Monitors/ Televisions • Communication Devices• Networking Devices
Power Supplies
Recycling vs. Wish-Cycling:
Why We Wish-Cycle - we all want to “do our part” to help the environment and keep items out of the landfills. We have been encouraged by plenty of PSAs to recycle EVERYTHING we can! Unfortunately, these best intentions without all the information, have caused a global recycling crisis.
The Rules May Have Changed: China
Until 2016, two-thirds of the world's plastic waste was bought by China. In July 2017, the country, announced it would ban the import of 24 materials, including mixed plastics recycling, largely because the goods we sent them were too contaminated. The single stream recycling programs (which allow you to mix all recycling in the same bin, without sorting paper from plastic and metal for example) helped haulers collect even more, but made it all too easy. We got lazy, sloppy, junky, including too much trash in our recyclables. Up to 25% (or 500 lbs of every 2000 lb ton of the recycling collected is actually trash, and on average 20% of every processed bale headed for China was non-recyclable trash. The new Chinese policy reduced the contamination threshold to .5% of each bale, or just 10 lbs/ton. That was unattainable – Waste Management’s website gives us a great visual: “That’s like taking something the size of a grizzly bear and shrinking it down to a small puppy.”
This policy went into effect on January 1, 2018, collapsing the global supply chain, and sending shockwaves through the recycling industry. In Pennsylvania, a state law that prohibits the disposal of recyclable materials as trash without a clear system for exemptions left months of palleted recyclables in warehouses with nowhere to go, and no one to buy it. Penn Waste spokesperson Amanda Davison pointed out its value was only going down, “it can only sit outside for so long before it becomes a safety hazard because of rain deterioration and vermin.”
Many Recyclers rolled out a Back to Basics approach – severely reducing the items once accepted. So, double check the current regulations in YOUR area!
Considerations with Wish-Cycling
Contamination
– adds significantly to the costs and reduces the items that can ultimately be recycled. (Again fully 25% of items in the recycling shouldn’t be there!)
“This garbage ranges from recyclables that are too dirty to process—mayonnaise jars still coated in a thick layer of eggy goo, for example—to items that just shouldn’t be there in the first place,” says Brent Bell, vice president of recycling operations at Waste Management. It can make ALL the contents useless.
Machinery
- Items are sorted by machine (in a really amazing process designed to separate plastics, paper, aluminum, and other recyclables: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u7YVLV4oDpY ) Items that don’t belong could end up jamming the complex machine at the recycling center, and even injuring a worker. Even a small item like a bottle cap could cause damage. “Tanglers” (like thin plastic bags, extension cords, Christmas lights, plastic and metal strapping, VHS tapes, clothing, and hoses) get wrapped in the moving parts, bringing processing to a standstill for hours each day as team members climb into the machinery to cut them away.
One Bad Apple Spoils the WHOLE BUNCH
–so you can see that your good intentions in recycling do more harm than good if you include items that contaminate the batch, preventing the recycling center from selling it, making it ALL trash instead of recyclables. You’ve now created more waste. Greasy Pizza Boxes are a serious issue among the paper recyclables, as are wet papers.
Reduce and Reuse before Recycle
- reduce the single-use items you bring into your home, try to reuse them, or donate them to a place where they can be used. Recycling comes last in that list, so consider recycling a final option, not a catch-all for all the single-use items you bring home.
When in Doubt Throw It Out (DON’T Default to Aspirational Recycling!)
Each Municipality is different, and changing! Many are drastically reducing what they accept, so review the rules for YOUR materials recovery facility (MRF), as they may be “Back to Basics” in order to package purer recyclables they are actually able to sell.
Here are the current rules for York, PA, which have definitely scaled back in the last year: (https://www.pennwaste.com/recycling/all-about-residential-recycling/ )
CARDBOARD - Corrugated Cardboard and Shipping Boxes Only (Note this is not cereal boxes, etc., as in the past.
PAPER - Newspapers Only (Note this is not mail and other office paper materials)
PLASTIC BOTTLES - Plastic Water, Juice & Soda Bottles, Plastic Containers & Bottles #1, #2 & #5: (shampoo bottles, liquid detergent containers, condiment bottles). The neck of the bottle should be smaller than the base.
METAL & ALUMINUM - Aluminum Cans, Steel Cans and Food Containers
CARTONS - Cartons are defined as a type of packaging that food and beverage products come in that you can purchase at the store. Includes juice, milk, soy milk, soup and broth, wine, cream and egg substitute cartons.
GLASS - Food & Beverage Glass Only - Clear, brown, blue and green glass food and beverage containers.
Tips To Prepare Your Items for Pickup
CARDBOARD and PAPER:
Remove all packaging inside the box (such as packing peanuts, bubble wrap, etc)
Flatten ALL boxes
Cover loose papers with heavier items in the container to prevent them from blowing away
Check the weather. If the weather calls for high winds or rain, keep your recycling inside until the following week, if possible. Wet products are more difficult to process.
CONTAINERS:
Make sure the carton is empty and rinsed thoroughly to remove any residue
Remove any plastic caps, tops, or lids
Labels and neck rings do not need to be removed from containers
Be sure to remove straws.
Cartons may be placed in your bin along with all other recyclables.
UNACCEPTABLE MATERIALS
The following items are NOT recyclable: Food-Soiled Materials, Soaked and/or Wet Papers or Cardboard, Waxy Cardboard, Shredded Paper, Plastic Food Wrappers, Plastic Tableware (Knives, Forks, etc.), Plastic Bags (Including Grocery Bags), Needles and Medical Waste, Broken Glass, Windows, Mirrors, Ceramics, Drinking Glasses, Aluminum Foil, Scrap Metal, Solvents, Oil and/or Chemical Containers, Used Paper Towels or Tissues, Christmas Lights, Hoses, Propane Tanks, Plastic Toys, Disposable Diapers
