If you’re not sure what can go into that blue recycling bin, you’re not alone.  Although curbside recycling has been around for decades, it still confuses many San Diego residents, who wonder if they are doing it right.

The confusion is not only about what kinds of things shouldn’t go in the blue bin.  But what are people throwing away that could be recycled instead?

A study conducted in 2007 by The California Integrated Waste Management Board shows that only a quarter of Californians are recycling as much material as they can.  The city of San Diego is working to raise that percentage locally.

And so far it’s been working, according to Ken Prue, recycling specialist for the city’s  Environmental Services Department .

“Our contamination rate is at about 14 percent,” Prue says, referring to the amount of  non-recyclables that end up in the recycling facilities.

But Prue also points out that, while San Diegans have been learning how to get the right material in the right bin, there is still more that can be diverted from the landfills.

“Even with the recycling people are doing, there are still a lot of people putting a lot of recyclable materials in the trash,” Prue says.

He suggests part of the problem might be that the city can only collect the blue bins every other week.

“If we could do it weekly we would have more [recyclable material], but we just don’t have the funding,” Prue explains.

But Prue and his co-workers at the city’s Environmental Services office realize that regardless of the amount of bins or frequency of collection, San Diegans need to be clear on proper recycling habits.  Through their outreach newsletter, called The Curbsider , and information on their Web site, they are confident that San Diegans are getting the message and taking it to heart.

“Our program is doing great,” Prue says.

He compares San Diego’s recyclables contamination rate of 14 percent to rates of 30 percent or higher in parts of Los Angeles.

“In that regard people are doing a good job,” he says.

But not everybody is clear on the process, and many things end up in the recycling bins that shouldn’t be there.  Dwayne Bullock has been collecting trash and recycling for the city of San Diego for 15 years and says he sees first-hand the types of mistakes that people make.

“People think you can recycle anything and everything,” Bullock says.

“Sometimes we take it out and throw it in the black bin,” he says.

“It’s also common to find diapers,” Bullock says.  “People think because there is plastic on the outside, it’s recyclable.”

Jennifer Ott is Outreach and Education Coordinator for the City’s Environmental Services office.  She says that the biggest thing people are not clear on is differentiating the various types of plastics.

“Part of that is it is a bit of a difficult message,” Ott says. 

She explains that plastic containers are all labeled with a number and that the most common plastics to recycle are labeled with either a number one or two.

“But not all ones and twos are the same,” Ott says.  “Some are blow-molded and some are injection-molded.”

“Historically, our message has been: one or two plastics with a narrow neck,” Ott says.  “Which is confusing, right?  So two or three years ago we changed it to: all your bottles and jars.”

Ott explains that some people want to know more and some want to know less, so they try to make their message as simple as possible but still offer the more detailed information through their outreach.

Teaching San Diego to Recycle 

In addition to the newsletter and the Web site, the city of San Diego is taking outreach and education to the schools .  Ken Prue explains that through a contract with the county Office of Education, they are able to try to get the children involved.

“We do these enviro-tours where we take busses of students and take them out to the landfills,” Prue says.  “[We] show them the hazardous waste facility and recycling facility and our composting facility.”

Prue adds that they also go to schools to do presentations and community information booths.

“There’s a lot of outreach to [students], a lot of really effective outreach,” Prue says.

Jennifer Ott says that the adults are learning too.  She explains that people look for different levels of information when it comes to recycling.

“Some people want to know more and some people want to know less,” she says.  “Some want recycling 101, some want recycling 401.”

Ott says that while they try to accommodate people’s questions and make as much information available as possible, they make a point of keeping their message as simple and consistent as they can.

The Process

But even with the outreach and education, one of the great mysteries in recycling is the process itself.  The mystery begins when the recycling truck drives away.  What happens to all those bottles and cans after that?

The city uses its own trucks to collect the blue bins, then takes the material to one of San Diego’s private recycling facilities.  Their residential curbside collection program, the one that is free for San Diego residents, uses Allen Company and IMS Recycling.

Dwayne Bullock explains that at the end of his route, he drives to Allen Company and dumps it for them to sort.  The drivers don’t do any sorting past what they might have already taken out of the bins at collection.

“We dump it and it gets pushed onto a conveyor belt,” Bullock says.  “Their people go through the process of separating out the things we may have missed.”

The drivers also keep track of the weight while they collect.  The truck has a built-in scale that weighs the amount of material in the holding compartment.  The weight is displayed on a screen in the cab, next to the driver.

“This truck can only collect about eight tons to eight and half tons, “ Bullock says.  “We might go a whole day and get only eight tons.”

Bullock says that is about average for collecting recyclables.

Residents in other parts of the county pay for service and their bins are collected by the private recycler’s own trucks.  Edco is one of the oldest recycling companies in Southern California and services 10 cities in San Diego County.  They do their own collection, but the process that happens inside the facility is very similar among recycling companies.

Ed Burr is the owner of Edco and has been in the business of recycling since the beginning.  He explains that the process is all about efficiency.  When Edco started recycling in the early 1990s, customers had to separate material before leaving on the curb.  And the sorting at the facilities was done mostly by hand.

Now, technology has advanced and much of the process is automated.  After the material is dumped at the facility, it is pre-sorted by hand as it passes on a conveyor belt.  But the machines take over after that.

At Edco, the recyclables pass through the facility as what is called a “single stream,” and different materials are sorted out by different technologies along the way.

“The tin is picked up by magnets,” Burr explains.  “While the aluminum is repelled by magnets.”

As the stream continues, more materials are sorted out.  Some of the plastics are sorted by color using an optical detector, then blown off the belt into sorting containers by blasts of air.

All this technology is expensive.  And although it streamlines the process, companies are always striving for better efficiency.

“We’ve got to get more efficient,” Burr says.  But he adds, “The tradeoff is that you take less to the landfill.”

After being sorted, the recyclable material is baled and loaded into shipping containers and hauled to the port of Long Beach.  From there it goes mostly to overseas markets.

“We export out about 25 containers a day to Long Beach,” Burr says.  “It goes to China or wherever the market is.”

But even with the high cost for equipment and technology, companies like Edco are turning a profit.

“As long as the market is like it is, it’s pretty good,” Burr says.

The second life of recyclable material is a huge industry in itself and that profit potential has fueled its growth.

Burr is first and foremost, a businessman.  But he considers himself an environmentalist.

“Do I consider myself a so-called tree hugger?  No,” Burr says.  “But we’re in the environmental business.”

“Recycling has become a way of life,” he says.  “It definitely helps the environment, it definitely helps the landfill.  It’s definitely the way to go.”

Dwayne Bullock loves his job collecting blue bins for the city because he gets exercise and is helping the environment.  He is sometimes amazed at the value of the material in the bins.

“You know the saying that one man’s trash is another man’s treasure,” Bullock says.  “Well that is definitely true.”