Recycling Information
Around town we often hear: “ I gave up on recycling.” “What a lot of work.” “I was rinsing, separating, storing and paying extra to recycle and then my hauler told me, “ Don’t bother it all goes to the same place anyway.” “I saw my hauler throw my recyclables in with the garbage.”
“I give up!”
Don’t give up! The recycling process is taking place at Recycling Technologies, Inc. at 307 White Street in Danbury, our intermediate processing center (IPC) . Recently Housatonic Resources Recovery Authority (HRRA.org) established a Regional Recycling Task Force. The mission of the task force is for local towns to work together to improve recycling in our region.
Brookfield has two representatives on the Task Force, and Selectman Joni Park and myself serve on the HRRA. The Brookfield Selectmen are very enthusiastic and supportive of improving recycling in the Town starting with municipal and school facilities.
The first order of business was to take a tour of RTI. RTI Acting CEO Paul DiNardo started our tour at the tipping area where the haulers drop off your curbside pickups. To the right newspaper/magazines/ cardboard are dropped off and to the left plastic/metal/glass.
Mr. DiNardo was quick to point out that items haven’t been recycled until they have gone through the entire process of being made into new products. Just getting them to the curb or the IPC isn’t enough; they need to be further sorted, packaged into bales, and delivered to a recycling manufacturer. After it is made into another item, it is recycled.
Another crucial point made by Mr. DiNardo is just because an item is labeled that it can be recycled doesn’t mean there is a market for it. If there isn’t a market for a recyclable, it won’t be recycled. For example, there is not a market for boxboard from soda, snack or cereal boxes, etc. Plastic grocery bags or plastic food containers are without a market as well.
Right now paper is a hot commodity: newspapers, magazines, catalogs and corrugated, double-walled cardboard. There especially seems to be a lack of catalogs being recycled. There is a market for #1 and #2 plastics, which include clear and colored bottles with a neck including laundry detergent bottles. Metal and glass food and beverage containers as well as aluminum, foil, and disposable foil pie plates are also marketable.
Putting your recyclables in a blue or clear bag or a recycling bin. makes it easy for your hauler to be able to identify the recyclables from the trash. You do not need to wash out your recyclables and take off the labels. A quick rinse to remove food particles will suffice. It’s helpful to remove bottle caps but bottles will be accepted with caps.
Some haulers use one truck for recyclables and another for trash, but some haulers may put recyclables in the same truck in different areas. RTI is located at the same site as the regional solid waste transfer station, which is in a separate area/building. So your trash and recyclables may go to the “same place” but in two different areas for two different purposes.
If you have any questions about where your recyclables are going, first ask your hauler. If you still believe your recyclables are going in the trash, call Cheryl Reedy, HRRA Director, at 775-6256 x304 and she will investigate.
Children would love RTI, and if we can get them to think about recycling now, chances are it will stay with them through life. The children would see the trucks coming in and dumping the curbside pickups. The bags and items go up the conveyer belts through the sorters to be made into bales.
The bales are the finished product at RTI and quite an amazing sight. Each bale is approximately 4x4x8 ft. The bales are stacked up like building blocks , each one made up of a different recyclable: plastic bottles in one, aluminum cans in another, a newspaper bale, one of detergent bottles, one of just metal cans, magazines and catalogs in one, aluminum foil in another.
It is fun to watch the different vehicles move the bales around to ready them for pick up. Trucks come and take the bales to recycling manufacturers where they will be made into their finished product and thus recycled.
The people at HRRA and RTI want to get the word out about recycling. They will come to you and speak to your group or arrange for you to come to them and have a tour of the facility. To make arrangements call Dave Dunleavy at 203 743 0405.
Don’t give up on recycling!
by Jerry Murphy
For more information click the link below:
2007-08 Household Hazardous Waste Collection Events
Save the Earth Curbside Recycling Brochure
Easy Recycling Guide - Clip and Save
Sea Ingenioso, Recicle Hoy!
HRRA Hauler Recycling Hall of Fame
Some Tips for Choosing a Hauler
HRRA Website
