Local Recycling Depot Faces Global Challenges
WARSAW — The recent announcement by Kroger it was phasing out plastic bags by 2025 put recycling back in the headlines; however, for Tom Ganser and the other employees of the Kosciusko County Recycling Depot, there have been other developments in the world, which may require people to take a closer look at how they recycle.
“Plastic bags are a huge source of pollution,” Ganser, director of Kosciusko County Recycling Depot, agreed. And while there has been some attention paid to such environmental blights as the Pacific Trash Vortex, Ganser pointed out, “We need to be concerned about home … we have a lot of water resources here.” Bags catch the air, which gets them into everything, and wherever they go they cause physical and chemical pollution.
But as anyone who recycles knows, the recycling depot at 220 S. Union St., like most facilities of its kind, does not accept plastic bags. Bags wreak havoc at processing facilities like Borden Waste-Away — which takes most of the depot’s recycling — getting into rollers, covering electronic eyes and causing expensive shutdowns. They also contaminate bales of other materials, such as cardboard, which has economic implications.
Half of the world’s recyclables go to China, and, according to Ganser, about one-third of those processed in the U.S. In 2018, however, China announced it would not accept some materials, and, crucially, it reduced the amount of contamination it would accept down to 1 percent in 2017, and then .5 percent last spring.
Contamination comes from such things as uncleaned microwaveable dinner trays or a jar of spaghetti sauce someone forgot to rinse before throwing it in the bin; the plastic lining on a cardboard container; grease in a pile of newspapers. And it can result in an otherwise viable bale of material ending up in a landfill.
So far, said Ganser, the effects of these changes are being felt mostly on the West Coast, where many cities have discontinued curbside recycling, but he worries it is only a matter of time. Meanwhile, recyclers can be more vigilant about what they throw in the bin. They can also look into how to reuse products and materials.
“Reuse is a good thing. If we became a society of reuse we’d be better off,” Ganser stated. Unfortunately, he added, “That doesn’t always equate with convenience.”
Another important key to the future of recycling is education. KC Recycling has a “robust” presence in the schools, observed Ganser; however, it is the people out of school who he feels the depot needs to reach. “I see people all the time who say, ‘I didn’t realize you were here.’” Many people also do not realize they take electronics, such as TVs, which contain hazardous materials that should not go in a landfill. The depot takes batteries as well.
“We’re the solution to a lot of things,” Ganser commented.
For more information about Kosciusko County Recycling Depot, go online to www.kcrecycling.com or call (574) 372-3087.