AVALON – Joseph Rizzuto, executive director, Cape May County Municipal Utilities Authority (MUA), gave a presentation on the recycling market to Avalon Borough Council May 29.
For years, China represented the largest market for recycling materials. Little thought needed to be given to contamination levels. Wet newspapers or cardboard, cans still dirty with tomato sauce, plastic soda bottles capped and still containing soda – all these were accepted.
China will no longer accept the volume of materials it had been taking, a sea change happened in recycling in 2017. Since then, markets for materials dried up, costs for curbside collection soared and recycling material contamination levels became a central issue.
Rizzuto emphasized two ways to reduce contamination that surprised council.
Remove the caps from plastic water and soda bottles, and rinse out the bottle before disposing of it in the recycling can. Caps can interfere with the heavy machinery used to recycle plastic bottles.
Also, there is a direct relationship between the cap being left on and the chance that liquid is still in the bottle. When that plastic gets to the MUA, it must be “clean and dry.”
The other issue was the contamination of paper and cardboard with moisture from dew or rain while it sits at the curb. Rizzuto recommended lids for recycling cans that would keep moisture out.
If paper or cardboard is too wet, it goes to the landfill and is not recycled.
Where does one get the lids? Those who live in a community where they buy their own recycling cans, probably came with lids, and the MUA asks that they are used.
If the municipality provides recycling cans, lids are probably not available, and residents may need to improvise some means of providing moisture protection for recyclable paper products.
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