Florida DEP and others host educational webinar about state recycling

Environment Florida, a St. Petersburg, Florida-based environmental advocacy organization, has partnered with the Florida Department of Environmental Protection (DEP), the Florida Recycling Partnership and Waste Management Inc. of Florida to address misinformation regarding the state’s recycling.

These organizations hosted a webinar May 13 to discuss common myths associated with recycling, as well as the steps the state is taking to increase recycling rates.

Recycling in Florida

In 2008, the Florida legislature passed the Energy, Climate Change, and Economic Security Act, establishing a statewide weight-based recycling goal of 75 percent by 2020.

Kenya Cory, executive director for the Florida Recycling Partnership, described this target rate as a “lofty goal,” but it did cause the state’s recycling numbers to increase.

To combat a dip in recycling in late 2017, the Florida DEP partnered with Waste Management, Houston; MARPAN, Tallahassee, Florida; Waste Connections, Ontario, Canada; and Single Stream Recyclers LLC, Sarasota, Florida, to launch a statewide public education campaign called “Rethink. Reset. Recycle” to educate Floridians about curbside recycling.

The campaign was designed to serve as a reminder to residents about the basics of recycling, such as clean and dry aluminum and steel cans, plastic bottles and jugs, and paper and cardboard.

“Thirty percent of materials going into [curbside] bins can’t be recycled,” said Cory during the webinar.

According to Dawn McCormick, director of communications for Waste Management of Florida, contamination can cost an average of $125 per ton and will often shut down processing center for hours at a time.

“Every year at Waste Management we spend about 140,000 hours cleaning plastic bags and hoses and cords and Christmas tree lights out of our equipment. [Personnel] have to go down into the equipment four and five times a day, we have to shut it down for a half-hour at a time and these workers have to manually cut out the plastic bags or plastic film,” she said. “It’s a huge worker safety issue, it’s a cost issue and it drives up the cost of recycling.”

By eliminating the 30 percent of contaminated materials in curbside recycling bins, Floridians could save up to $100 million in recycling costs in one year, McCormick added.

Turning point amid COVID-19

As a result of the COVID-19 pandemic, Waste Management of Florida saw an increase in curbside recycling as many families adhere to the stay-at-home orders. McCormick emphasized the importance of recycling, especially now, as cardboard, plastics and paper are in high demand.

“During the last three months of the COVID-19 pandemic, we’ve always known that recycling is essential for the environment,” McCormick says. “But I think a lot of us understood how important recycling is for the supply chain. Much of the material that’s produced by our manufacturing revolves around and relies on recycled content.”

She described the current circumstances as a “unique opportunity” to help residents understand their role in aiding the supply chain of recycled materials.

“Recycling is doing well, and there’s new challenges we have to meet, but we’re in a good position to capitalize and re-energize recycling.”