Press Release
You have heard the three R’s: Reduce, Reuse and Recycle. You have seen the “chasing arrows” recycling logo. You have seen signs and media about the importance of recycling and reducing what is dumped in our landfills, right? You know what I am talking about. You may be thinking does it really matter that just little ‘ol me brings a few items for recycling? Does my material really get recycled? What about the water I am using to clean the material? What about the trucks and equipment being used to process it? Does all of this really matter?
Hi, I am Summer, the Town of Patagonia’s Recycling Coordinator and I am here to tell it is does matter. Your effort big or small matters because you are saving energy by offsetting raw materials being used repeatedly versus one and done.
Let’s go back in time for a minute. The first recycling in the United States was in 1660. That is impressive. Rittenhouse Mill in Philadelphia recycled linen and cotton rags and turned them into paper that was used to make bibles and newspapers. Ok, so now fast-forward to 1939-1945 during World War II. The American people came together to aid the troops by conserving and recycling. More than 400,000 volunteers and thousands of tons of recycled tin, steel, rubber and paper were used to save money for the war efforts.
In the 1960’s curbside collection of yard waste, metal and paper became the norm. In 1970 Earth Day was the first year celebrated and then became a yearly celebration. By the end of the 70’s there were 220 curbside collections and 60 were multi-materials. Wisconsin, California, Missouri and Massachusetts were some of the states putting bans on recycled material from entering landfills in the 70’s through the 90’s. In 2012, San Francisco achieved 80% of their waste being recycled and 5% into source reduction activities. What? Impressive! Finally, in 2012 McDonalds said goodbye to that horrible Styrofoam cup and replaced them with paper. Thank you! You can see this conscious effort and outpouring of participation to minimize waste even “back in the day.”
Let’s talk about why recycling is important. Did you know that when we throw waste in our landfills, it creates methane? Methane emissions are one leading cause to global warming. When you recycle you are helping reduce waste emissions. The recycling industry employs 1.25 million people whereas the waste management employs .25 million in the United States. When you recycle you are helping people keep good paying jobs. Do you know what “circular economy” is? It is the infinite loop. What that means is when you use a plastic water bottle and recycle it, it gets turned into PET flakes sold right back to a company that will turn it back into a water bottle. Not all recycling companies operate within the infinite loop. Some will sell to a carpet company for example and the carpet company will advertise, “made with recyclable plastic products.”
Now let’s talk about how to reduce, reuse and recycle and what happens to your materials after you recycle. This begins with you at the store. Have you heard of precycling? Precycling is the practice of avoiding waste before it gets created (Earth911.com). Purchasing becomes a myriad of questions. Do I need this? (reduce) Can I reuse this? Can I recycle this? One does not have to make any drastic life changes to accommodate the Three R’s. You can choose to walk when you can, use reusable grocery totes when you go shopping, use refillable water bottles, use reusable napkins and hand towels, reuse wrapping paper and gift bags (you know you do this one already, good job!), cut up old clothing for cleaning rags (and this one too, high five!) and use glass jars for storage. Here are some websites for inspiration and education on creative ways to reduce, reuse and recycle even further: republicservices.com, recycleacrossamerica.org/tips-to-recycle-right, zerowaste.org
Every Thursday you can bring to the recycling bins what you cannot reuse or reduce. At home you will clean, rinse and dry all your metal tin cans, plastic and glass. Keep your lids on all containers, break down all your clean cardboard. You can combine plastic, glass, tin, aluminum, and paper together. Keep cardboard separate, please. We cannot accept balled up aluminum foil, oil or grease-stained cardboard, crushed cans, broken glass and soft plastics (grocery bags and bubble wrap from shipping boxes), pharmaceutical pill bottles, Styrofoam and Ziplock’s.
I want to explain why we cannot accept these items (even with a chasing arrow logo)—I don’t want you thinking I am making up the rules. Grocery bags, zip locks, food bags and the plastic bubble wrap get caught in the machinery and it causes thousands of dollars’ worth of delays and repairs. The balled-up aluminum foil slips through there machinery and enough people ruined it for the rest of us by leaving food inside the ball. Medication bottles have no buyer and Styrofoam is just a bad news bear, plus there isn’t a way to clean it properly enough for Republic to resell it. There are people that sort these materials and broken glass can cause and injury.
Now that you are recycling pros, let’s talk about recycling day.
Recycling day is a special day. We are greeted by you, kind and conscientious people who care so much about our community and environment. Your attitudes are infectious. My favorite day was when a woman (I will not name her) asked if we took glass. I told her we do, and she grabbed me, hugged me and cried. We are greeted with surprise cinnamon rolls, hot chocolate, cookies and chocolates. Thank you for all the treats! It is an honor to see each of you that participates in our program and get to know more about you and Patagonia through your lens.
Recycling Day begins with our Public Words department making rounds at 7:00 a.m. Thursdays to all our businesses. Wait, I’d like to take a minute and give a round of applause to every single business in Patagonia and our Public Schools. Town Hall of Patagonia recognizes how busy these businesses and schools are and that they take the time to separate what can be recycled. Be sure to thank them. These entities make a big difference.
Ok, back to collections. Our Public Works collects all the recycling from our Public Schools and businesses before opening our bins to the public at 8:30 a.m. Our service is open from 8:30 a.m. to 11:30 a.m. every Thursday behind the post office. We have a driveway lined with cones that we ask you follow for everyone’s safety. Please stay in your car, once you reach the stop sign that is where you may get out and we will get you unloaded. We only want to unload one car at a time at the stop sign for our efficacy and safety for everyone. Thank you for helping us achieve this.
After we close, we assess how much room is left over to squeeze more material in or do we need a pickup? Currently, we are filling the bins every two weeks. When the bins leave Patagonia, they travel to Republic Services Materials Recovery Facility in Tucson. We have one bin that is all cardboard so that goes right to the baler. Our other bin is mixed material and goes to the floor. This is where they analyze if a bin is contaminated. We have been told that Patagonia’s reputation is sterling, and our materials get put on the conveyor belt quickly. It only takes a few items (20%) to deem a load trash. Does that make sense why we are “strict” on what goes in our bins?
Once it is green lighted as clean it gets shoveled by a front loader onto a conveyer belt that begins its multi-level process. Conveyer belts going in every direction shaking, blowing and tumbling the product to be able to send each commodity to its rightful place. There is a machine that can pick out a number 1 plastic and sends that to be baled separate from other plastics. More than 25 people stand in different locations along fast-paced conveyor belts to remove the no no items that were not caught before. There are about 40 full-time employees daily at this MRF. Everything moves fast and with swift precision. They have two machines for every process because they cannot afford to be down. The Tucson MRF sees 128 tons of material each week. Most of the material goes to Las Vegas, San Diego and the Midwest. Republic Services pledges to operate within the infinite loop/circular economy. They just finished building their Polymer Center in Las Vegas, Nevada. They are now their own buyer of all plastics. At their Polymer center all plastic gets broken down into PET Flakes, sorted and melted. That then gets sold to buyers who will return the product into its original use.
The Town of Patagonia partnered with Republic Services out of Tucson in December, 2023 and the Town of Patagonia Recycling Program was launched. Mayor Andrea Wood, Town Manager Ron Robinson and community enthusiast Robert Brandt worked hard to offer this program to Patagonia. I would like to thank Robert Brandt and all our fun volunteers who help us maintain this program with their huge hearts and eager desire to learn. Thank you to the lovely community members who choose to make a difference.
The Town of Patagonia has a population of 793 people. There are currently 526 trash customers. Our biggest participation so far has been 122 local households. That means we have a 23% participation. Great job! In the month of February 2.53 Tons of material was collected and recycled. Round of applause. There was a decrease of .76 ton in waste material collected. We also saw a decrease of .76 ton in waste collected from this time last year.
High five Patagonia! Every day every decision counts. Our community is small but powerful.
I will leave you with a quote that sums it up. “If you think you are too small to make a difference, try sleeping with a mosquito in the room.” – The Dalai Lama
Summer Smith
Town of Patagonia Recycling Coordinator