First off a great big thank you to all of you who chose to give us a read! We are here to help you have a better understanding of what happens to your waste and recycling after it is picked up by your hauler. We know that knowledge is power, and this may be the knowledge that your waste hauler hopes you don't have.

Some of our readers pointed out in the Facebook comments section of our last article that "Recycling Offset Fees" are a necessary evil. We must endure them to be offered the convenience of single-stream recycling.

But is the hauler who is charging recycling offset fees equipped to handle single-stream recyclables in the first place? To be fair, not all haulers will try to add this hidden or "ghost" fee to your bill. We are just asking you to be wary of those that do.

Single-Stream Recycling: Your hauler becomes the sorter, not you.

"What is single-stream recycling ?" you may be asking. It is just a fancy term for the extra garbage toter issued to you with the recycling symbol on it. This convenient toter is designed to be filled with recyclable material such as aluminum and tin cans, plastic and glass bottles, cardboard, and newspaper. Your hauler has a facility that will then sort the plastic, glass, paper, tin and aluminum and of course the garbage that probably also got mixed in with the good stuff. Your hauler then works with secondary markets to get the recycled materials back into production instead of into a landfill.

Dual-Stream Recycling: You sort the recyclables, not the hauler.

Dual-stream recycling predates single-stream. It was one of the first and most effective types of recycling programs. You were given a series of small bins and asked to separate your paper from your glass, plastic, and metal.

These small containers were then placed on the side of the road next to your regular garbage.

We love single-stream recycling because
it's easy!

Now that you know the difference which would you prefer? Most everyone prefers single-stream recycling. By introducing single-stream recycling to a municipality, participation rates can jump by over 25%. But your hauler must be responsible enough to provide a high level of contamination-free recyclables. If they don't they can collapse the market and cause the recycling system we depend on to fail.

Getting to the "contamination-free zone" also requires us to be smart and think about what we throw in our recycle bins. Only about 75% of what we place in the bins is recyclable. Many of us can confuse "reusable" with "recyclable." It's not unusual to find rubber hoses, unused building products like vinyl siding, and plastic bags mixed in with true single-stream recyclables like aluminum cans, glass bottles, and paper products.

Single-Stream contamination is not entirely the fault of the consumer though. We are encouraged to throw broken glass and plastic in with paper products. A paper mill, for example, which relies on high-quality, contamination-free material to make recycled paper will most likely get those same shards of broken glass mixed in the paper bales if sourced from a single stream facility. 

Is the waste-hauling industry's ability to implement an effective single-stream program the issue? If so, how can we help them out? Charging us an offset fee is a non-starter. By adding additional costs and penalizing us because they are doing a sub-par job at something we as the public have proven we could do better should be unnerving to everyone. Haulers took their "eye off the ball." They created this weak market by producing contaminated recyclables. Then they use recycling offset fees to prop up profits without addressing the real issue.

What we need is cleaner, contamination-free recyclables on the open market. If the haulers continue to provide markets with sub-par quality recyclables, the markets will continue to soften. The downward trend will continue.  Participation rates will drop because of higher costs, and recycling programs of any kind will no longer be an offered on municipal contracts. 

We don't think anyone would disagree that that recycling remains a meaningful way to reduce litter and waste and to recover valuable materials. Clean, recycled material can still be a tremendous source of secondary content that can be used all over the world.

How to fix single-stream recycling without raising the price.

Rewarding the good recyclers could be a solution. Better education programs would also help. How about recycling vending machines? We had them in the 1980's, where'd they go?  Your waste hauler should never discourage us from recycling with added fees. Do the haulers even care that they are the main catalyst to correct the market for single-stream recyclables?

Your hauler should also be happy you are reading articles like this to give you a better understanding of their business. Ask your local hauler what kind of education programs they have to help you determine what can and can't be recycled, a good first step.

How much does it really cost?

It's difficult for us to get a clear picture of how much municipal recycling programs cost compared to landfilling. Haulers do not advertise pricing, so it is impossible to even find out what the market rate in your area should be for waste pickup.

We originally started Waste Hacker to build a public database of commercial hauling prices. Our database is currently running and accessible to businesses. Just fill out our form to find out if your container fees are in line with your neighbors. We won't collect your email or phone number either. You are given your result in real-time.

We figure we could do the same for residential hauling fees, (phase II of our project.) As we gather residential information, we are finding hauling prices to fluctuate from town to town to town. Sometimes hauling prices can vary by over $100 a month in municipalities right next to each other. If you are interested in leveling the playing field, you can help us by anonymously submitting your residential hauling fees. We can do this together!