Welcome, and thank you for coming to learn about recycling in St. James.
As you can see from the agenda, this presentation will answer the questions:
(1) Why recycle?
(2) How does recycling work in St. James?
(3) Do our recyclables really get recycled?
(4) When we recycle, what impact do we have?
Can anyone answer this question?
Great! Let’s see what answer was.
[Click on the link to the video.]
Well, it looks like “plastics” has become a big part of our future. You see aisles like this in every big box store and supermarket.
As a matter of fact, it has become too much! This Great Pacific Ocean Garbage Patch measures 617,000 square miles. That is over 2 times the size of Texas. It is estimated there are over 1.8 trillion pieces of plastic within it. The small and microscopic pieces of plastic ingested by a variety of marine wildlife are now part of our food chain. This garbage patch is kept intact by ocean currents.
Our landfills are overflowing. The Brunswick County landfill is at capacity. Our waste in St. James now goes to the Sampson County landfill 100 miles away. It is estimated to be full by 2036. After that, where will our waste go and how much will it cost? Note that only 47% of NC municipalities offer curbside recycling. St. James is one of them.
Our opportunity to recycle is provided by two companies: GFL Environmental and Sonoco Products.
GFL Environmental is the company that offers curbside recycling pickup to St. James. The closest location to us their Brunswick County transfer station in Bolivia. Our waste goes from their transfer station to Sampson County. Our recyclables go from their transfer station to Sonoco Products in Wilmington and Jacksonville, both within an hour of St. James.
Sonoco Products is a worldwide packaging company. As a manufacturer of a large variety of products, they rely on recycled products that can be repurposed into the products they make. In addition to their manufacturing plants, they have two material recovery facilities locally, often referred to as MRFs or “murfs.” The Wilmington location specializes in recycled glass and paper. The Jacksonville location handles all recyclables: glass, paper, metals and plastics.
Let’s take a 2-minute tour of a material recovery facility. This facility is not one of Sonoco’s, but it closely resembles the facility in Jacksonville, where a group of St. James Recycles’ members drove there for a recent tour. Before the tour started, the plant manager told us, “The reason we are here, is to keep your recyclables out of the landfill.” [Click on the link to watch the video.]
So, now that we have an idea of what happens after your recyclables are picked up by GFL, Let’s talk about what goes into the bin, starting with paper.
Metals and glass
Plastics – Note that the 1, 2, or 5 designations are usually found on the bottom of containers. Designations with numbers other than 1, 2 or 5 are not considered recyclable currently. You will find that over 90% of food and household plastics containers are either numbered 1, 2 or 5.
So, after Sonoco processes your recyclables, where do they go? As you can see, Sonoco makes a wide variety of products and serves several industries. Our recycled products get a second life, instead of a final resting place in an overflowing landfill.
I call this a circle of renewal. We are fortunate that St. James is located in an area where recycling works very well. Currently, our curbside recycling effort has about a 40% participation rate. If we could advance that to 80% like most of our nearby neighboring communities, we would keep about 2.6 million pounds of recyclables out of the landfill. This is based on residents recycling 50 pounds every two weeks (a conservative number) for one year. Our children and grandchildren will inherit this mess and must deal with it. Recycling is one way we can make a difference in their future. Thank you!