Hours have been spent arguing over Pringles cans.
That’s what Julie Jackson, municipal manager at Republic Services, told a group of attendees at the Lebanon Chamber of Commerce Forum Lunch on Friday, Feb. 27.
The reason, Jackson explained, is because that one packaging item contains not only paper, but also a thin plastic barrier, a metal ring and a plastic lid.
“It has so many different materials that it’s just almost impossible to recycle,” she said. “You gotta separate those all out and they’ve all gotta be sorted differently and go to different locations.”
The argument ensued while trash and recycling industry leaders in Oregon were helping to create a statewide list of all items that can be collected and recycled as part of the relatively new Recycling Modernization Act.
The list was created – and argued over – to help all municipalities in Oregon have one set of standards for collection of recycling materials.
You’ll notice, she said, that Pringles cans are currently not on that list.
When the Oregon legislature passed the RMA in 2021, it created “some really big changes” in recycling that some may not be aware of. Republic Services has been spending the last several years adjusting to the new rules to provide a better recycling system.
“We really have been working hard at a state level to craft what this act looked like and how we modernize Oregon’s recycling bill through the industry,”
Years ago, consumers had to separate their recyclables into different bags, but the trash and recycling industry found more people would recycle if it was easier to do so. Today, much of what can be recycled can all be combined into one cart.
Recently, Republic Service purchased a commingled recycling processing facility in Salem, which helps them sort the different types of materials they receive. Once separated, the materials are baled together and shipped to market, which, Jackson said, is a key player in the recycling game.
“If there’s no market for material, nobody will make anything out of it and it can’t be recycled,” she said.
And then there’s manufacturing, which, “if nobody wants to make anything out of it, it really can’t be recycled.”
In addition to the shared statewide list of collectible recyclables, the RMA created the “extended producer responsibility,” requiring packaging produ-cers to pay a tiered fee based on how difficult or easy their packaging can be recycled.
That’s because a large portion of what ends up in the trash is the packaging more so than the item that was in the packaging.
“It’s really meant to incentivize those producers to come up with packaging that’s more earth-friendly,” Jackson said.
And finally, another big change to Oregon’s recycling rules is that materials have to go to responsible end markets.
In 2017, the industry started going through what they called “the China sword initiative,” when they realized about 65% of all recyclables worldwide were being shipped to Asian markets.
Around that time, Jackson explained, China basically said the world was just shipping them trash, and much of that “trash” ended up in riverbanks.
What came from that was a halt on shipping recyclable materials out of the United States. But what also came from that was the creation of domestic markets for those materials now.
“That’s been a really great thing to come out of it,” Jackson said.
Some of the materials added to the RMA’s state-wide list include nursery pots (about two quarts or larger), plastic buckets (no bigger than five gallons), scrap metal less than 10 pounds or 18 inches long (no tanglers or sharp items), polycoated cartons (e.g. milk cartons), and lids screwed onto their bottles and jars.
Jackson offered what she considers the “important tips” for responsible recycling: know what you can recycle or what should be thrown away, keep the materials clean and dry, and never put recyclables in a bag because, for safety’s sake, that bag full of unknown items will just get thrown away.
“Contamination reduction is one of the parts of RMA that’s really important,” Jackson said.
Contamination is not just about food debris. Items that can get tangled in the sorting machines (“tanglers”) such as hoses, chains, ropes, wire hangers and plastic bags are considered contaminants.
Other dangerous, hazardous, difficult or non-recyclable materials worthy of note include Styrofoam, batteries, clothing, electronics, diapers, coffee cups (because of their plastic lining) and pizza boxes with the food or oil on it.
Jackson also urged people to avoid “wishful recycling,” which is essentially throwing an unaccepted material in the cart (e.g. clamshell containers, shredded paper, plastic utensils) simply because one desperately hopes it can somehow be accepted.
“I really can’t stress contamination enough,” Jackson said. “I think it’s really, really important to know what goes in the cart.”