Docent Corner

The October newsletter starts a monthly short article by our docents on how to improve your recycling knowledge and skills.  We have found that it really is a positive step to have a docent on duty to answer questions and assist with recycling. We just need more volunteer docents. 

In mid-September, our docent witnessed a well-meaning customer dump what looked like plastic film sacks into the mixed recycling bin. We fished out the pale green sack, and saw it was indeed different and not your ordinary plastic film. He and his wife have tried really hard to be informed recyclers, and found a product to load recyclable items into, knowing that it would indeed decompose. While we appreciate the effort and personal expense to do it better, these sacks still pose problems in our system (the specific brand is Hold On.). The bags will indeed decompose, but not before our mixed recycling bin is processed at the Material Recovery Facility (MRF). We encourage you to look on YouTube for examples of how MRFs work. While much of the process of sorting plastics, paper, metal, etc. is done by puffs of air, magnets, or other neat devices, there are still lots of human hands involved to get it right. As the materials pass a worker, the green bags will look like more plastic film, and be pulled out as a contaminant. The goal is to keep plastic film from wrapping around the mechanical devices, which require a shutdown to clean up the mess.

So if you cannot use these good tools to recycle, what’s next? Our director, Pete Moe’s comment was, that when we have our commercial composting operation going, those bags with compostable waste will be great in the mix. We know a composting center is in the future, but have no time line on when it will happen. The bottom line on the compostable green sacks is to use them when they will work as intended.  

BTW did I mention we really need more volunteer docents to be “explainers”. If you have an interest in recycling and like to talk with folks, please consider helping out. Contact Duff at “tpiduff@hotmail.com” and we will get your started.