Mar 7 - Quality Processing Key to Effective Recycling, Says Guide

The new Single Stream Best Practices Manual and Guide advises local recycling products that manufacturers of recycled material must be kept in mind in designing their system. Recycled content manufacturers enjoy the increases quantity of recyclable materials that comes with a single stream system, says the guide, but the benefits of such a system can only be gained if recyclers sort materials with manufacturers in mind. As Richard Gertman, co-author of the guide principal of Environmental Planning Consultants, is quoted in a Google Groups News Posting, proper sorting is key:

"To ensure healthy operation of the whole recycling system, communities need to expand contracts to require a high level of processing and feedback from manufacturers that buy recovered materials. This is crucial, because right now nobody is taking that responsibility and poor quality is undermining recycling."

Among other suggestions, the guide urges recyclers to conceive of their operations not as additions to a long-standing garbage collection system, but rather as a resource management system that is designed to be the centerpiece of managing residents' discards.