Opinion
Single-Stream A Better Solution
Why would anyone spend time attacking processes that make recycling easier, target more than 50 percent of the waste stream and drastically increase the amount of recyclables collected and recovered [letter, July 26, "Update Bottle Bill"]?Even harder to understand is why anyone would advocate that a better alternative is to expand a far more complicated system that focuses on less than 3 percent of the total waste stream, damages the environment by increasing the number of trips to redemption centers and focuses on materials already being recovered by the simple, convenient recycling system.
In single-stream recycling, a truck stops at each house and collects all the recyclables that residents would like to recycle. This involves no sorting at the house, no special trips to redemption centers and no extra nickels charged on anything you buy. The convenience and simplicity of single-stream recycling leads to drastic increases in recycling rates and targets all classes of recyclables including newspapers, soup cans, cardboard boxes, junk mail and other materials that the bottle bill fails to address.
We agree that "three equally important components of the system must function well: collection, materials processing and end use of the processed material by manufacturers." The good news is that single-stream recycling does all three more effectively (with higher collection and recovery rates) and more efficiently (better systemic environmental footprint and economic value) than the deposit system or current dual-stream recycling system.
We, too, are concerned about glass contamination and other cross-contamination, so we have invested more than $10 million in high-tech systems to maximize the recovery of recyclables. Not only are we getting the glass out of the paper, in the last 10 years our single-stream facilities have recovered and sold more than 1 billion pounds of high-quality fiber. To date, none of our recovered fiber has been rejected or downgraded because of glass contamination, and we have structured our contract with the Connecticut Resources Recovery Authority so that we only make money if we recover materials at exceptionally high rates and market high-quality materials. Our business depends on recovering clean, high-quality recyclables.
With rising energy prices, this is a critical time for legislators and citizens to focus on green solutions that decrease our dependence on foreign oil. An effective way to limit our dependence is to increase recycling rates by promoting ways to make recycling easier.
If we want to do what is best for the environment and Connecticut residents, we should make recycling simple and convenient without adding millions of nickels to grocery bills.
Graham Stevens
Director of Growth and Sustainability FCR Recycling Charlotte, N.C.
FCR Recycling operates the Connecticut Resources Recovery Authority's recycling facilities in Hartford and Stratford.
