What is Single Stream Recycling and How Does it Work with the New Trash Program?

The following was submitted by Hamilton Town Manager Michael Lombardo, Wenham Town Administrator Jeff Chelgren and Sue Patrolia, sustainability coordinator for Hamilton and Wenham. It is part 2 of 3 in a series of articles in advance of the new trash, recycling and organics program, which begins on April 2.

Starting the first week of April, residents of Hamilton and Wenham will be able to take advantage of new trash and recycling services. The change from every other week separated recycling to weekly single stream recycling is welcome because more items can be recycled, more often and they all go in the same bin or barrel.

Every household will be receiving a new barrel for trash, specialized for automated collection, so the old one can be re-purposed as a larger recycling container.

Many homeowners may remember that recycling used to require separating aluminum cans from tin cans, No. 1 plastic from No. 2 plastic, and separating each color of glass. Then the innovation of having to only separate paper from bottles and cans arrived. Now, with the single stream recycling program, everything goes together. How is that possible?

The recycling industry has developed technology that enables them to use magnets, electric currents, blowers and optical sorting to separate the different recyclables. Paper material “floats” to the top and the containers drift to the bottom, allowing the two streams to be separated and to flow into their respective sorting processes. These advances have allowed the recycling handlers to sort materials more efficiently. Styrofoam and plastic bags cannot go into the recycling, but just about everything else can.

Single Stream Recycling Pitch It IN:

• All kinds of paper: Colored, stapled, spiral bound, junk mail, magazines, catalogs, books, and envelopes

• Glass, plastic and cardboard bottles, cans, and snack stacks with labels, lids and plastic rings

• Aluminum foil and tin cans

• Plastic and cardboard milk, juice, water, detergent, personal care containers

• Cardboard boxes of all types – flattened

• Rigid plastic laundry baskets, buckets, plant containers, etc.

Single Stream Recycling Keep It OUT:

• Styrofoam

• Plastic bags

• Plastic toys

Waste removal is an expensive taxpayer-funded municipal program which costs the towns about to $650,000 per year. Recycling can play a major part in reducing costs because there is no cost to dispose of the recyclable materials. If those same items go into the trash barrel, the town spends $70 per ton to have them burned.

With the enhanced waste removal program, single stream recycling will now be picked up every week. Each and every resident has the opportunity to take the most advantage of these enhanced recycling programs and help reduce the amount of trash the towns have to pay to incinerate.

Please watch your mail for more detailed information on the new organic and single stream recycling programs including answers to questions on the new trash and organic carts, what can and can’t go into each cart and helpful tips on taking advantage of the enhanced offerings.

For more information visit the town websites:

Hamilton

Wenham - go to “Special Interest” at the bottom of the home page

This project is funded in part by a grant from the state Department of Environmental Protection.