Global, Cultural, and Social:
- According to the EPA, an average of 16% (in tonnage) of inbound single-stream recycling is contaminated. This percent of contamination can be up to 50% of incoming loads. Many people do not know what items can or cannot be recycled, and how to properly prepare them to be recycled. This becomes a huge issue at a recycling plant, as even the smallest amount of contamination can render a huge amount of recyclables contaminated and lead to them being thrown away rather than being recycled. One of our goals in seeking a solution to this problem is to make people at Lafayette College more aware of contamination in recycling and how to avoid it. With this, we hope to create a culture of environmental consciousness at Lafayette, and in turn across the globe as the Lafayette College students and staff move on from the campus.
Environmental:
- Only about 5-6% of recyclables produced in the US are actually recycled. Many items that are put into a recycling bin will not get recycled, as the rate of contamination is often high (up to 50%) and can cause recyclables to be sent to the landfill. This means that the vast majority of recyclable plastic ends up in landfills, left to spend potentially hundreds of years decomposing, or potentially being burnt for energy and releasing toxic chemicals into the air. We seek to find a solution to the high rate of contamination of recycling at Lafayette College and thereby decrease the amount of plastic that is being sent to the landfill.
Economic:
- When there is less contamination in the waste bins, more items can be properly recycled. As a result, items that use recyclable materials can be more widely made and used. According to chemical engineering professor Ryan Van Horn, each time plastic is melted down and remolded, it changes the chemical composition and the type of plastic that it is. For example, if a single use water bottle is melted down, that plastic is now changed and can be used to make something else that is not necessarily another single use water bottle, especially when considering FDA regulations. If there is less contamination in the bins, there will be more recyclable material and therefore the cost to make new items with that material will decrease.