Dual Purposes

Single-stream recycling collection and processing has marched steadily forward, and no one is more aware than Mark Naef of Naef Recycling, East Syracuse, N.Y.

Naef started his company less than a year ago to handle commercial and residential recyclables collected in and around Syracuse. Residential collection and processing in that area has traditionally been done in the dual-stream manner, with fibers segregated from the container stream. The Naef Recycling plant was set up to process materials collected that way.

But no sooner had Naef Recycling opened its doors than Waste Management Inc., Houston, set up some of its first single-stream programs in the eastern U.S. at new material recovery facilities (MRFs) in Syracuse and Binghamton, N.Y.

Naef says the introduction of single-stream techniques has sent mixed signals to haulers and municipalities in the region, and if it is ultimately a stronger signal that mixing materials is fine, then he may have to change the way he does business.

But Naef contends that mills he sells to, such as the Abitibi-Consolidated mill in Thorold, Ontario, Canada, or the Solvay Paperboard mills in New York, can tell when they are seeing single-stream material because of the increased presence of glass pieces and glass powder.

The glass powder is difficult to spot on visual inspections, but Naef says the effect of the contaminant becomes clear over time. "The powder is practically sand-blasting the equipment it comes in contact with at mills," he remarks.

Additional contaminants such as lids from steel cans and plastic bags, caps and rings are also common in many single-stream shipments, Naef contends.

While he understands the desire for municipalities and haulers to reduce their collection costs, he wonders whether they realize what they are losing money on the selling end of the transaction. He says the nearby single-stream MRF operated by Waste Management is shipping out numerous loads of the "hard-pack" mixed low-grade of paper, while his MRF produces only one or two bales per month of this commodity.

While plant operators and equipment makers devise methods to improve sorting, Naef notes that true single-stream collection is not in place until compactor trucks are doing the collecting. That’s when recyclers are really put to the test to make clean, high-quality shipments. "It’s a whole new dynamic," he remarks. "When they first try single stream, it’s with older collection methods."

He also believes that the move toward single stream is blurring the line between recyclables and garbage and undoing several years of recycling education about keeping recyclable commodities clean out of consideration for consuming mills.

"My background is in the environmental movement," says Naef, "and I’m concerned we’re losing the conservation component of recycling when the individual no longer has to take care of what is being recycled."

Naef says programs should continue collecting "the way it’s been done for years" in Syracuse and other parts of Onondaga County, N.Y.: "Either two bins, one for bottles and one for paper, or paper in the same bin but within a bag."

He and other dual-stream advocates have publicized the advantages of dual-stream collection. This effort may eventually involve a legal challenge calling upon jurisdictions to enforce a source separation law in New York state that Naef says requires those collecting recyclables to keep materials segregated in the same method they are brought to the curb. Naef says the law’s origin lies in preventing haulers from dumping recyclables into garbage trucks to take materials directly to the landfill.

"Preserving the integrity of the education message and of recycling as a separate collection process is critical," says Naef. He says there has been little opposition from residents to performing their own sorting tasks, as Onondaga County has a 95 percent recycling participation rate and a diversion rate that has been calculated in the 40 percent to 60 percent range.

The single-stream collection message seems to have spread rapidly, however. Naef notes that shortly after the publicity by Waste Management that they would accept single-stream materials, he began to see more commingled materials coming his way. "They’ve changed the way people collect in an award-winning recycling program," he remarks.

Currently, enough dual-stream material is coming in that Naef Recycling is still able to produce the ONP (old newspaper) grades it strives for, but starting this spring, he has noticed a greater influx of single-stream material being tipped at his MRF.

"Eventually, I may try an incentive system, such as not charging haulers who bring in dual-stream materials, but charging a tip fee for single-stream materials," says Naef.

Eileen Berenyi of Governmental Advisory Associates, Westport, Conn., publishers of the Materials Recycling and Processing in the United States directory, noted that the number of MRFs claiming to process single-stream materials jumped from a dozen or less in 1995 to 78 by 2001, with that number having grown to as much as 90 currently.

At the time she conducted her survey, Berenyi found that 57 percent of the single-stream plants were in the western U.S., 30 percent in the South, 13 percent in the Midwest and none in the Northeast. But subsequently, Waste Management has opened its two single-stream plants in New York, with other installations and conversions also taking place in the northeastern U.S. and just across the border in Canada, where Haycore Canada Inc. operates two single-stream plants. (See "Singles Hitters," January 2003 Recycling Today, pg. 22.)

Presenters Theodore Pytlar of Dvirka & Bartilucci Engineers, S. Plainfield, N.J. and Nat Egosi of RRT Design & Construction, Melville, N.Y., each noted that operators were finding different reasons to gravitate toward single-stream set-ups.

Pytlar noted that MRFs want to lower labor costs by using automated equipment, with screens such as the Lubo StarScreen gaining popularity because of their ability to let glass fall through early in the process, thus protecting conveyors and balers from handling glass (and keeping paper grades cleaner).

According to Egosi, single-stream automated MRFs are also allowing facilities to handle more material, with operators in the western U.S. having grown accustomed to the process and having learned how to lower residue rates.

He noted additionally, though, that the slower economy with its tight municipal and state budgets may slow down the trend from growing in the eastern U.S. for awhile.

The session was moderated by Kevin Roche of the Broome County Department of Solid Waste, Binghamton, N.Y., which has worked with Waste Management Inc. to open the single-stream MRF in that city.

Roche said that the MRF has exceeded the county’s performance expectations in terms of keeping residue rates low and for increasing material collected. "Single-stream recycling can work; it’s a matter of whether you’re ready for it," he stated.

Steven R. Stein of GBB Inc., Fairfax, Va., outlined a connection between residue rates and handling glass in several cases studied by the consulting firm.

When tailoring recycling programs for cities and solid waste authorities, his firm has increasingly advocated dropping glass from programs. The material now accounts for only 3 percent of the municipal solid waste (MSW) stream, versus 10 percent in 1970, so its diversion value has decreased greatly.

When it does show up at MRFs, its harmful qualities (contaminating loads of other commodities and its abrasiveness against equipment) greatly outweigh any diversion rate boosts or market value, said Stein.

Stein said messages from recycled paper consumers such as SP Newsprint, Dublin, Ga. (a sizable consumer of ONP), that it would consider switching a secondary fiber-consuming mill to wood chips if recyclers can’t control contamination problems should be a clear signal to MRF operators to keep plastic, metals and glass out of fiber loads.

Naef believes he is on the same side as the mills, but he is not certain that the trend toward single-stream collecting and processing can be reversed.

Currently, Naef says there is still enough dual-stream material coming in to keep his plant viable. But if the single-stream collection method ultimately prevails, he may find himself facing sorting and separating challenges he never intended to tackle.