“Contamination in the waste stream is one of the main problems that we're working on improving within the Virginia Tech community. The facility tour really highlighted the need for clear labeling on our recycling containers, standalone soft plastic recycling bins, and more consumer education. We learned that machinery can be shut down for hours due to recycling contamination,” said Madison Norman, a sophomore majoring in environmental conservation and society within the College of Natural Resources and the Environment and leader of the Waste Management Student Intern Team.
“The new bins collect everything — grocery bags, bubble wrap, newspaper sleeves, produce bags, Ziploc bags, cereal bags – just a lot more plastic than is able to go to the RDS facility currently. People think you can recycle any plastic within one bin, when in reality that isn’t the case. Now we are able to collect more of those plastics and recycle them, which is something we weren't able to do beforehand," added Norman.
“We're also currently working closely with Emily Vollmer, sustainability coordinator, to create a label log, looking at academic buildings on campus and identifying whether their bins have updated stickers for recycling or if they're outdated, hard to read, scratched up –– anything like that. We are addressing contaminate in the waste stream and seeing how we can decrease that on campus to better help the RDS facility. If recycling matter has a certain amount of contamination in each ton of recycled material, then it can't be used, which defeats the purpose of recycling certain products,” said Norman.
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April 05, 2022 at 12:56AM
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In the bag: New soft plastic recycling bins expand recycling options - Virginia Tech Daily
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