Local News
TAKE ACTION: Natick's Recycling Problem
Ella Stern, EIC
December 2021
When I go on a walk, I leave with my dog on her leash, my phone, and my earbud case in my hands. I return with my phone and earbud case shoved into my pocket, my dog’s leash wrapped around my arm, and my hands overflowing with pieces of recycling that I picked up.
For months, I thought the recyclable items all over my street were just litter, but it turns out that there’s another factor. Recently, I went for a walk an hour or so after the recycling had been picked up, and there was a puddle of recyclables around each recycling bin. They had been dropped while the bin was being picked up and emptied, and would now get blown all over the street, where they increase the levels of litter and pollution, harm animals, and dirty our beautiful town.
This is not just a problem on my street; people I’ve talked to have noticed the same thing all over town. On a friend’s busy street, the pieces of recycling that have been dropped make their way into the road, where the speed of the cars catapults them back onto the sidewalk. These shards of glass and plastic hurt her dog when she takes it for a walk.
Due to contamination, many items that are put in recycling bins don't actually get recycled. The number of items that get recycled further decreases when some items fall out of the bin before they even have the chance to get to the recycling center. These are both huge problems that damage our future and the future of the planet. Luckily, there are steps we all can and must take to work towards the solutions.
The issue of recycling in Natick falling out of recycling bins may be due to the positioning of the trucks that pick up recycling bins, the mechanics of the trucks’ “arm” that lifts the bins and empties them into the truck, or pure human error of the operator of the truck. In any case, if enough Natick residents contact the town with their concerns about this problem, they'll be pressured to tweak the recycling pickup procedure so that all pieces of recycling make it into the truck, at the risk of public outcry and losing the next town council election. In order to protect our town’s environment and better our own futures on this planet, we must express our outrage at the town’s harmful recycling pickup practices. An easy way to do this is contacting town hall at (508)-647-6400 and the Natick Department of Public Works at (508)-647-6550.
However, as previously stated, even if all recycled items make it to the recycling center, they will not all be recycled. The solution falls on us to change our recycling habits. As the Columbia Climate School reports, even though single-stream recycling (putting all recyclables into one bin instead of separating them into glass, paper, cans, and plastic) has made it easier and faster for individuals to recycle, it has also led to an increase in the contamination of otherwise recyclable materials. For example, if food residue on a plastic container falls onto paper or cardboard, it will become too greasy to recycle. Additionally, when all “recyclables” go in the same bin, it is easier for people to make incorrect assumptions about what can be recycled (such as assuming that all plastics are recyclable). About a quarter of items recycled through single-stream recycling—the system currently used in Natick—become contaminated. Therefore, recycling something that’s not recyclable is worse than sending it to a landfill—even though many well-intentioned people recycle an item instead of throwing it away when they are unsure if it is recyclable—because it will contaminate other items. In some cases, one non-recyclable item can contaminate an entire load of recycling. Some materials can even incapacitate a recycling machine, such as wires and cables, which get tangled in the sorting machinery.
Other common recycling mistakes include not washing food and grease off of otherwise recyclable items, recycling plastic bags, recycling bottle caps that aren’t on a bottle, not removing non-recyclable packaging materials, recycling receipts (which are printed on non-recyclable thermal paper) and not checking the number on plastics—when plastics have a recycling sign, it has a number in the middle, and in some places, not all numbers are recyclable. Plastics #1-7 (all plastics with recycling signs) are recyclable in Natick. For further information about how to dispose of specific items, I recommend the app RecycleCoach, which is endorsed by Natick.
Michelle Hedlund, the executive director of Recycle Across America, offers the following suggestions for avoiding single-stream recycling contamination:
“Always recycle every empty metal can, plastic bottle and jug.
Place clean paper and newspaper in a paper bag before putting it in the recycling bin.
Only recycle clean and empty glass bottles and jars.
Never put plastic bags or plastic wrap in the recycling bin.
Contact your county to find out where to properly recycle items like batteries, shredded paper and prescription medication bottles.
Don't dispose of any food waste, dishware or drinkware in a single-stream recycling container.
Pay attention to labels, and place standardized versions on bins you use to avoid confusion.”
A good rule of thumb is that recyclable items need to be empty, clean, and dry in order to be recycled. Unfortunately, this is difficult when recyclable items are consistently dropped by Natick’s recycling pickup system. Some plastics that I’ve picked up have been so caked with dirt that it was impossible to clean them enough to recycle them. This would never have been a problem if they hadn’t been dropped in the first place.
Clearly, there are many steps Natick can and must take to become more sustainable. The time to tackle climate change is running out, and we, the students, know it. We must advocate for better recycling pickup practices in our community in order to see the changes we need.