Panel discusses reality of recycling

Three local recycling experts shared their perspectives and insights with the 28 participants who logged in to listen to the presentation: David Skakel, program coordinator for the Tri-County Hazardous Waste & Recycling Program; Ruby Irving, Solid Waste director for Klickitat County; and Julie Tucker, founder and owner of the sustainable materials management company Emerald Systems LLC.

Skakel said that recycling today is confusing because there is such a myriad of packaging. During World War II, recycling was a matter of national defense, and everyone took part — but there were only three types of packaging at that time: Glass, tin and cardboard.

“Fast forward to today, where we have an unbelievable diversity of packaging,” Skakel said. “I’m a recycling professional and I’m confused because it’s complicated.”

And whereas that glass, tin and cardboard were historically separated from each other, today we rely on co-mingling — that is, tossing everything into one bin and relying on material recycling facilities (MRFs) to sort it out.

“That has really carried some inherent flaws in contamination, when you take all that tin and paper and all this increasing array of plastics, and just bundle them all together,” he said. “And throw on top of that what we call the ‘realm of the wishful recycler’ — put it in a bin and we’ll figure it out.”

Compounding the problem was the 2018 enactment of China Sword, which limited the amount of contaminates allowed in each bale of recyclables to .5%.

“It’s a very strict, almost ban, on import of most recyclables to China that has sent massive ripples globally creating great disruptions in the past couple of years,” he said. “That’s the background on how we came to be today.”

Irving said she sees China Sword as an opportunity for the Gorge to rethink recycling.

“My first reflex was, it’s like we’ve been lied to for so long about this amazing thing called recycling, (and then) to find out that we’re polluting the backyards of our neighbors, polluting the backyards of other countries — we were just being completely irresponsible with the residuals of our lives …

“One of the biggest messages that I’m trying to get out there at this point is that if you walk into a store and you are shopping but you’re not looking at the packaging to make sure that it’s made out of recycled content, then you are part of the problem,” she said. “… We’re a wasteful society and we like things easy and we like things fast … And then with COVID, there was a major problem with that because ow we need single use plastics because they’re sterile and it’s compounded the problem.”

Irving has a biology background and was previously in wastewater compliance. She also knows what it’s like to have to choose a product based on financial constraints.

“I know what it’s like to choose between Styrofoam or a paper plate,” she said. “Styrofoam is a lot cheaper so those of us who want to make a bigger environmental impact are not able to due to the social model that we’re at, the pay scale that we’re at.”

Tucker described her business, which she started in 2017 to support Skamania, Klickitat, Sherman, Wasco and Hood River counties in waste reduction efforts.

“Our mission is to change the way you think about waste to create efficient, sustainable systems to as a pathway to zero waste — reducing, reusing and lastly, recycling,” she said.

Her goal is to educate people regarding the “triple bottom line”: People, profit and planet.

“Instead of one bottom line, there should be three,” she said. “… This is the big one for me. You cannot make a healthy product without healthy people, and you can’t have healthy people without a healthy planet. You have to have a healthy planet and house healthy people and then have happy people to make a profit. That’s kind of the big eye opener for me when I started this company.”

Until the United States runs out of places to put its garbage, then there will be a push to fill landfills, she said. “I’ve noticed one reason why you see a lot of zero waste innovations (in Europe) is they don’t have land to put garbage in, so they have to find a solution,” she said.

She believes a school curriculum to educate children would be a start to creating more mindful consumers. “One of my dreams is to go into a school district and help them become a zero waste facility,” she said.

All three said they believe legislation is necessary to make any headway with the problem of recycling.

“I’m more focused on the larger upstream issues, trying to influence the designers of packaging,” Skakel said. “And legislation is the thing I’ve really been focused on for nearly a decade.”

Irving said she believes recycling needs to be brought to a local level “so we’re not driving (our waste) halfway across the world to try to recycle something. I feel locally, we have a much better chance of being environmentally friendly … I see a ton of opportunity in all of this chaos.”

Tucker said she sees five things needing to happen in order for the U.S. to move away from landfills: Education; legislation; producer responsibility; corporations changing corporate culture; and technology.

“Focus on those five things together is going to make a sustainable, lasting change,” she said.