ARCHBOLD WEATHER

Glass No Longer To Be Accepted For Recycling




 

 

(Editor’s note: This is the first of a three-part series about the state of recycling today. There have been big changes in recycling, as described by writer Pam Graber in this first article.)

February 2017 marked a turning point in the world of recycling, from businesses that made a profit, to businesses struggling to survive.

That’s when the People’s Republic of China announced its National Sword 2018 initiative, when it stopped taking anything it deemed to be trash.

“It’s unfortunate what has happened,” said Michele Ryder, ARS vice president of sales and marketing.

ARS provides refuse collection and recycling service to the village of Archbold.

“Four, five, six years ago, recycling was at its peak,” she said. “We could recycle, to the best of our knowledge, just about anything, but it was hard to get people on the bandwagon.

“They didn’t want to take the time to sort and separate their product.

This photo shows ARS Inc. employees hand-sorting recyclable materials at the company MRF, or Material Recovery Facility, near Defiance.– courtesy photo

This photo shows ARS Inc. employees hand-sorting recyclable materials at the company MRF, or Material Recovery Facility, near Defiance.– courtesy photo

“Unfortunately, by the time that people really got on board with recycling, the market started shifting.

“Now that we have avid recyclers, we have to go back and say, now the dynamics have changed.

“It goes back to 2016- 2017, when 90% of domestic recycling product was being shipped to China. We couldn’t find domestic outlets for these products.

“It was being broke down and put in more genuine, pure forms of the product and then being shipped back to the United States.”

No More “Trash”

“In 2016-2017, China basically said, ‘We are, and have been, taking a lot of your trash. We’re out of room now.

“’We have nowhere to put it, so when you ship us a bale of aluminum and the contamination of that aluminum is X percent, we were taking it. We were dealing with it.

“’We’re not dealing with it anymore. We’re out of room here.’

“It wasn’t a smooth or easy transition. It became an allor nothing. About 2017, China started really restricting their imports.”

As the Chinese began spot-checking the product coming in, they started refusing to accept entire loads if they found even one item that was unacceptable.

“That meant that the load had to go back to the facility at the facility’s cost, be completely un-baled, refiltered through the Material Recovery Facility, and then baled back up and sent,” Ryder said.

“Very expensive. Very labor intensive.

“They did that for a while. Tried to slap our hands, teach us a lesson.

“By us, I mean generally the United States. I’m not talking just Northwest Ohio, or Archbold by any stretch of the imagination.

“They came out with National Sword and Blue Sky 2018. That was the initiative that took place.

“We have passed through Blue Sky 2018, where the People’s Republic of China announced their ban to foreign garbage smuggling, as they called it.”

U.S. Non-Response

“In the meantime, the United States didn’t respond accordingly by saying, well, if they’re not going to take it, who is? Who’s going to process it? Who’s going to refine it?

“Who’s going to get it back to the manufacturers that need this product in the raw?

“We just kind of sat around and did nothing, unfortunately.

“Now, we’re in the middle of National Sword. They have banned any kind of contamination whatsoever.

“If they open the back of a semi load, and they see one thing that they do not like– one piece of paper that somehow got mixed in– they will reject the load and send it back, even though there’s 99.9% good product in there.

“Again, very expensive, very labor intensive for the processor.”

No Glass

China’s regulations have resulted in revisions of what local recycling centers can take.

Glass is no longer accepted in Archbold recycling bins.

Fulton County Commissioners followed suit when, during their Tuesday, July 16 meeting, they resolved to suspend glass collection at county recycling program drop-off sites.

The suspension of glass recycling starts Oct. 1.

Currently, the only facilities in the United States that take processed glass for recycling purposes are located on the west coast.

The weight of the glass makes it cost prohibitive for recycling facilities to transport.

The Pettisville recycling center still accepts glass and cardboard even though, according to John Poulson, PHS FFA instructor, there is no market out there for either one.

“I know the market for cardboard and glass is gone at the current time,” Poulson said. “This is not a new issue. This is ongoing for various products.

“A profit needs to be turned and people need to buy recycled products.”

Next week: More about changes in the recycling industry, including specifics about fiberboard or paperboard and plastic.