Single-Stream Collection Best Practices

For most commodities, including glass, single-stream collection of recyclables can increase contamination, resulting in fewer containers recycled into new glass bottles and jars.

Use these “best practices”, derived from the Single Stream Recycling Best Practices Implementation Guide completed by Conservatree and Environmental Planning Consultants, when considering a single stream collection program:

Contracts:

• Include specific recycling goals in contracts with collectors and processors, especially the quality of cullet and other products to be marketed.


• Provide financial incentives to the collection company for clean loads and penalties for those that are contaminated.


• Provide financial incentives for the processor to ship clean cullet and financial penalties for contaminated loads.


• Specify that the contractor report on the market and end use of glass containers and other commodities recovered.

Collection:

• Be specific about materials handling requirements and ensure that the collection company spells out how these requirements are met.


• Focus collection on quality requirements to support recycled product manufacturing, such as for new glass containers.


• Give immediate feedback to residents who set out non-recyclables.

Processing:

• Require processors to sort recyclables to the specifications required by glass and other manufacturers who use the materials.


• Don’t accept processing that produces poorly sorted materials, even if there are markets for them. This undermines the health of the recycling system.


• Build in feedback loops from recycled product manufacturers, such as glass container producers.

Quality Monitoring:

• Require a sampling program to monitor the quality of collected loads when they reach the processor.


• Verify the quality of the cullet and other materials with regular reports. Well-sorted recovered materials expand recycling markets.