California acts as a model for environmental legislation across the country, spearheading strict regulations and pushing the boundaries on climate action.
Even still, its recycling rates remain dismally low.
A recent report from CalRecycle, the state agency that oversees recycling and waste disposal in California, estimates just how few of our milk cartons, peanut butter jars and takeout containers actually end up being properly recycled.
Spoiler alert: The results are enough to make any concerned citizen feel miserable about the prospect of their yogurt container getting new life.
Despite California’s best efforts, no material category came in anywhere near a recycling rate of 100%.
The biggest offenders were aseptic and gable-top cartons — the common containers of milk, juice and broth — with less than 1% of those materials recycled.
The multi-layered paperboard containers have long been the subject of recycling skeptics. For starters, the material is made with layers of paper, plastic and sometimes aluminum, and can easily contaminate other recyclables when mixed with them. There’s also a lack of a recycling market for the products, making them economically infeasible for recyclers. It’s all going so poorly, in fact, that the receptacles may even lose their recycling symbol altogether.
Recyclables labeled with #6, best known as the foam containers that house food from takeout spots, also have a recycling rate of less than 1%. Plastic utensils are also in that category.
The material with the best success rate — 71% — is a segment of “paper and fiber,” including all forms of white and mixed paper with and without a plastic component. Cardboard is a close second at 68%, but even that’s probably disappointing to online shopping-devotees.
Efforts are already underway to fix some of California’s recycling problems. Passed in 2022, Senate Bill 54 shifts the focus from the consumer to the producers and requires all single-use packaging to be recyclable or compostable by 2032. If successful, the bill is designed to boost recycling of single-use packaging to 65%.
Right now, none of the plastic recycling categories rose above 33%.
Academics and policymakers have revealed that the American recycling system is largely broken, mostly blaming our plastic problem. Even the states with much better recycling rates — California isn’t in the top 5, according to one report — are far off from 100% success.
Some recycling services are pledging to bridge the gap, keeping hard-to-recycle items like plastic film and textiles out of municipal recycling facilities to ensure they’re given a second life. But those services aren’t cheap and don’t get to the root of the problem. Producers also tend to find a loophole: When the original plastic bag ban went into effect in California in 2014, many companies switched to thicker “reusable” plastic bags, making the problem arguably worse. A new plastic bag ban went into effect on Jan. 1.
Under SB 54, this CalRecycle report will be updated every year.
HERE’S OUR PRIOR REPORT A FEW YEARS BACK FROM THE OUTDOOR ART CLUB:\
Confused by the seemingly never-ending fluidity of the recycling, compost and garbage landscape? Join the club. The event featured Jennifer Selvig of Marin Sanitary Service and Jim Iavarone of Mill Valley Refuse on the current state of trash in Marin County, including dual recycling, what can and can no longer be recycled, the growing focus on composting, evolving state laws and regulations, and how you can adapt your product usage and recycling for maximum environmental impact. Small kitchen composting buckets will be available at the event.
The global waste conundrum began when China invoked its “National Sword” policy in 2018, banning the import of most plastics and other materials headed for its recycling processors, which had handled nearly half of the world’s recyclable waste for the past quarter century, the recycling world in particular has been in a tailspin. The move was an effort to halt a deluge of soiled and contaminated materials that was overwhelming Chinese processing facilities and leaving the country with yet another environmental problem — and this one not of its own making.
Since then, the Mill Valley City Council unanimously approved a switch to dual-stream recycling services, backing a proposal by Mill Valley Refuse Service that its officials say has been driven by dwindling options for responsible, cost-effective disposal of paper, cardboard, plastic and glass materials.
And check out this New York Times video about what is and is not recycled after we toss it in the blue bin:
