The big problem with cardboard recycling in the UK
Cardboard has many uses. Just look in your recycling bin. It’s the packaging of choice for the world’s largest retailers. And it houses everything from our takeaways to electronic deliveries. Thankfully as far as the environment is concerned, it’s also possible to recycle. Sometimes as many as 4-5 times. But there’s a pressing problem within the industry, which this post looks to expose.
The story starts with education
Of course, it doesn’t help that 66% of UK households don’t know what goes in their recycling bin. And 76% of the population routinely add items that aren’t accepted locally. Most of the time, all residents get is a flyer. Busy lifestyles mean that usually, the information about what to put in isn’t absorbed.
As a result, when we collect our weekly waste for dry recycling, it’s easy to put the blinkers on. We sort thin plastic wrappers into the household waste. Then sort paper and cardboard boxes into the dry recycling. After that, we move onto the leaflets, amazon boxes, plastic cartons, and pizza boxes. But wait a minute. Pizza boxes?
Pizza boxes contaminate the load
‘But pizza boxes are made from corrugated cardboard’, we hear you cry. Often in disbelief as your entire contents for the week aren’t collected. You scratch your heads. Because you don’t have conversations with the recycling crews, you put another box in the next week.
Then, when the recycling is collected, you scratch your heads again. After all, the rules appear to change on a whim.
The reason why your waste is rejected
Ask yourself. How likely is it that your used pizza box contains grease from meat, cheese, and vegetables? Let’s face it. It would have to be a very unusual pizza not to leave any trace of those residues at all.
Once cardboard absorbs any kind of grease or oil, it’s unsuitable for recycling, period. The reason for this is because the paper fibres can’t be separated from the oil during the pulping process.
But it’s not just pizza boxes. Masking tape is another, huge problem. Think how many boxes arrive on your doorstep bound by the stuff. We might not know but the truth remains. The cardboard must be free of masking tape before it’s suitable for collection.
Other culprits preventing collection
Other materials that cause contamination are the adhesive-backed delivery labels in plastic envelopes. So, again, these must be free from the envelope and cardboard completely. Only then are they free to go in the dry waste receptacle.
It’s also important to remove the material inside the boxes before placing them in the recycling.
Let’s not forget cross contamination
Of course, contamination also occurs when the wrong items are placed inside the wrong bin. So, you could have a bin perfectly full of dry waste ready for collection. But that misplaced kebab wrapper? The grease that drips down risks contaminating the entire load.
But what happens when your recycling isn’t rejected
Waste collection crews don’t have x-ray vision. They also don’t have much time, so they can only perform quick inspections. If your kebab wrapper sits near the bottom of the bin, your waste will still get collected. However, when it arrives at the recycling depot, the whole load is flagged as unacceptable.
When that happens, it’s separated from the load and sent to the waste-to-energy incinerator. Or worse, the landfill. Both these options are bad for the environment and aren’t what you would call recycling.
Considering the effort put in to sort it, this seems like a huge waste of time and effort. But it’s becoming an increasingly large problem.
In addition to the damage this does to the environment, we’re also giving ourselves a huge bill. It costs money to employ extra staff to separate non-recyclables from recyclables. Plus then pick out the contaminated waste.
It’s not only humans that are affected
Whilst the waste is sorted by humans, it is processed by machines. So, when a dry recycling processor gets fed a greasy wrapper, it leads to expensive repairs.
Also, reduced quality means the waste fetches less on the international market. In fact, countries we once relied on to take our recycled bales (like China) now refuse to accept them.
In fact, our recycled bales are deemed so poor quality that they are bad for their environment. As a result of this, the UK has a reduced number of buyers for its recyclable waste. And the price has dropped by three quarters.
Right now, the story of our recycling process doesn’t look good. To ensure there’s a happy ending, we all have a collective responsibility to reduce the waste we produce. And just as importantly, improve the quality of waste we offer to the collection crews each week.
We need the recycled waste dry and uncontaminated
That’s the message we need to enforce in every communication, and in ways we haven’t done before. It’s not just about dry recyclables. It’s about uncontaminated dry recyclables. That way, the quality of waste we sell to other countries will become much more marketable.
So, start checking your recycling like an inspector. Look for:
- oils
- delivery labels in plastic envelopes
- boxes bound in tape
- and ensure you remove all packaging materials
And of course, make sure there’s no food inside that could contaminate the load.
Any paper or cardboard you remove, keep separate in the general waste sections. And as far as the dry recyclables are concerned, ensure they stay that way. So, dry and free from water damage.
Most bins are covered and protected from rainfall. But it’s an important consideration for any waste that can’t fit inside.
Finally, take the time to flatten down your cardboard. It’s amazing how much space can be saved when we break a box and make it flat. This also helps the collection crews and enables them to collect more.
So, next time you go to the bin, don’t just think of yourself as a recycler. Think of yourself as someone capable of changing how the story ends. And someone integral to improving UK PLC’s recycling output. As the old adverts used to say, ‘it’s the game we can win’.