The Professionals Need Recycling Help?

Volunteer at IUCN's 2016 World Conservation Congress 

At two recent major conferences I observed volunteers providing coaching at waste centers: the United States Green Building Council's GreenBuild in Los Angeles, and The International Union of Conservation Networks' World Conservation Congress in Honolulu.

The efforts are exemplary yet the human factor was so discouraging. At the World Conservation Congress the event managers found that two days into the program they had to provide volunteers to help conference goers be more successful in sorting - and these were all primarily environmental supporters! Then, in an excruciating discovery, a bureaucratic glitch was allowed to prevent the composting intended to make the Congress a Zero Waste event.

GreenBuild 2016

At the US Green Building Council's 2016 GreenBuild conference, the volunteers stationed at waste, recycling, composting centers anecdotally reported that attendees didn't want help with sorting, yet were not very effective at it.

There are similar reports out of the 2016 annual conference for the Association of Zoos and Aquariums!

Volunteer helpers at sorting stations is a proven success mechanism if we take advantage of it.  Come on gang - let's help us help ourselves!

The Recycling Conundrum

A respected colleague and dear friend sent me an article "A greener nation puts recyclers, cities in the red" (also named "American recycling is stalled").

I needed six weeks to prepare to read the assumed bad news.

I was afraid to find out that a gateway practice to environmental sustainability was in anyway diminished by this news. Phew - it was not dismissed by what I read, but it was challenged. 

So I learned, and was reminded that learning, and learning more, is what matters most in this race to green ourselves thoughtfully and effectively. 

The bad news

• "A storm of falling oil prices, a strong dollar and a weakened economy in China have sent prices for American recyclables plummeting worldwide."
• Bigger blue curbside bins have encouraged "experimentation", meaning all rubber, plastic and metal end up inside in case they're recyclable (which clogs and contaminates), and discouraged users from breaking down cardboard boxes, and enable full box dumping even with packing materials left inside - more contamination.
• There is "a three-year trend of shrinking profits and rising costs for U.S. municipalities -- and little evidence that they are a blip."

The good news is

• Increased processing for comparable volume produced is partially due to reduced amounts of tin and plastic used to create each container. Recycling is harder, but consumption per item is reduced. The goal has always been to Reduce before Reusing and before Recycling.
• Cardboard (if we take out the packing materials and reuse them) and paperboard recycling is increasing significantly; its value is decreasing but not as much as with other streams.

So what did I learn?

• There are leaders in the industry really researching the problem, not simply abandoning the waste.
• That packaging providers have been adapting design to address sustainability issues - great!, but haven't done so in concert with recyclers - sheesh!
• That the American public is participating in recycling, though inelegantly. Excellent education is important. It should be a co-project of packaging producers, recyclers, and environmental communication specialists. What a great museum exhibit that would be - the history and results of recycling in the US. You could discuss, chemistry, physics, design, advertising, trade, government regulations and incentives, business history, economics.....

Working in an evolving field, such as waste management, or an emerging one, such as environmental sustainability in museums, requires daily jumps into the unknown. Doing it with eyes wide open is the only way to make progress.

Please don't assume recycling problems mean we should stop recycling. We need to keep working the system, and with a goal of substantial waste reduction. Recycling is one tool: not the only tool, and not the best.  

Remember - perfect is the enemy of good.

A Few Recycling Ideas II

Minnesota Science Center, St. Paul

The last post on this topic showed recycling systems - major installations of multiple streams (not multi-stream) of recycling in one well-signed receptable. Well if your museum has no appropriate space or need for the large bins, here are some smaller options to consider.
You can place smaller systems in small places, and larger ones in larger places. You need not choose a one-for-everywhere apporach. Green is very local sometimes.

Remember how we've discussed the importance of a trash bin with the recycling or you just end up with all the trash and recycling in one bin?  Well here are some examples of trash (or trash and compost) bins no one will separate:

US Botanic Garden, Washington, DC

 

Johns Hopkins Hospital, Baltimore

My favorite is the blue/green bin at US Botanic Garden. It communicates well because its shape is an internationally-recognized garbage can shape; because the disposal opening shapes communicate the different types of appropriate items; and the blue/green split uses color coding we are increasingly recognizing as blue for recycle, green for garbage. And, of course, these bins, like the others do not get separated.

This option doesn't allow much branding by your institution becuase the sides are the tradiational anchored garban can holder, But then you may not need to generate andy more branding material, anyway.

The Science Center's option is a VERY close second because it has a composting section. Okay - maybe it's becoming my favorite. Composting is the Next Frontier for recyclers.

So - have you spotted any good trash/recycle pairings we should know about?

A Few Recycling Station Ideas...

The easiest recycling station is a mixed-stream station right next to a garbage can.

But if you must separate your recyclables, the perfect recycling station...

• is always right where people want it to be
• has good written and visual instructions
• has a see-through option so users can picture what should/should not go in the bin
• has openings shaped to match the items to be included
• is perfectly-sized
• and is easy to empty

But we don't live in a perfect world. Whatever you choose you will find that needs change and new ideas develop. So propototype your system and your stations, and after two or three tests, choose your best option. Even after it's installed you'll wish you could tweak it more. Do what you can and then let it go...move on to the next green challenge. 
If you wait for perfect, you'll be missing a lot of reycling.

Here are a some multi-item, but not mixed-stream, stations I've seen on my travels: 



At ECHO LAke Aquarium and Science Center, Burlington, Vermont



National Aquarium, Baltimore

At a big important place you might not think would be worring about recycling....with signage by Ecorite Imaging so even the signs are recyclable



A public parks program