Megan Hall: Welcome to Possibly, where we take on huge problems like the future of our planet and break them down into small questions with unexpected answers. I’m Megan Hall.
Megan Hall: Today’s question comes from a member of our Possibly Team, Juliana Merullo. It occurred to her as she was eating her lunch:
Juliana Merullo: I just finished my smoothie, only a little film on the inside, the rest is gone, but now I’m not sure… can I recycle this? Or, do I need to rinse it first?
Megan Hall: In past episodes, we’ve looked into how much of our recycling ends up in landfills, but this time Juliana wondered if we can’t rinse our recycling, should it just go in the trash?
We had her and Emily Tom look into this question, and they’re here to tell us what they found! Welcome, Juliana and Emily!
Juliana Merullo: Hiya Megan!
Emily Tom: Thanks for having us!
Megan Hall: So do we need to rinse out our recycling every time?
Juliana Merullo: Well, to answer that I needed to know who even makes the decision about whether a load of recyclables is too contaminated. Luckily, I knew someone who could help:
Mary Ann Remolador: I’m Mary Ann Ramolador. I’m the Assistant Director for the Northeast Recycling Council.
Emily Tom: Mary Ann says that our recycling goes first to local Material Recycling Facilities. They sort the containers and make sure they’re clean enough to meet manufacturers standards.
Because if the recycling is too dirty to be turned into something new, what’s the point!?
Mary Ann Remolador: So what happens if you have all contamination, there’s no market for it, it’s going to be trash… So it has a ripple effect.
Juliana Merullo: If a load of recycling is found to be too contaminated, these facilities might have to reject all of it.
Megan Hall: But would a recycling center really reject an entire truck of recyclables because of your one smoothie cup?
Juliana Merullo: It really depends on how much is left in it. In my case, it was just the residue, but Mary Ann says any more liquid would do more harm than good.
Mary Ann Remolador: Look, if your container is half full, put it in the trash, because that just wreaks havoc.
Emily Tom: The rest of that smoothie in the recycling would just end up spilling all over the other containers and ruining that material.
Megan Hall: So if there’s still liquid in it, your one cup really would contaminate the whole load?
Juliana Merullo: Exactly!
Megan Hall: Okay, but what about if it was basically empty, just not totally clean?
Juliana Merullo: To find out, we reached out to the recycling center in our state, called the Rhode Island Resource Recovery Corporation.
Emily Tom: We got an email back from Jared Rhodes, who’s the director of policy there. He says rinsed recyclables are ideal, but it’s unlikely an entire load would be rejected just because of one dirty container.
Megan Hall: Well that’s a relief! So, if we don’t have someplace to rinse a cup, we should still try and recycle it?
Juliana Merullo: A lot depends on your local recycling facility, but Mary Ann told me that if she was in my situation:
Mary Ann Remolador: What I would do, I would empty it as much as possible. And then I’d put it in recycling.
Juliana Merullo: But don’t get too comfortable throwing dirty containers in the recycling bin.
Emily Tom: Mary Ann says that even if your cup might not spoil the whole load, it’s important to remember the people have to sort through our recycling.
Juliana Merullo: Even a little bit of food waste can attract rats and other pests to these Material Recycling Facilities, or MRFs.
Mary AnnRemolador: Would you want to be working on a line at a MRF? Dealing with a smoothie cup that is now rancid? Think about them next time you think you don’t have time to rinse out a cup!
Juliana Merullo: Rinsing our recycling might be an extra strep, but it helps to make those people’s lives so much easier.
Mary Ann Remolador: It does take effort, it does cost money. But it’s so worth it.
Megan Hall: She’s right! But I want to know, what did you end up doing with that cup?
Juliana Merullo: I took Mary Ann’s advice! I wiped it out with a napkin, and then tossed it in the blue bin!
Megan Hall: Awesome! Thanks, Juliana and Emily!
Megan Hall: That’s it for today. For more information, or to ask a question about the way your choices affect our planet, go to the public’s radio dot org slash possibly. Or subscribe to us wherever you get your podcasts.
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Possibly is a co-production of the Institute at Brown for Environment and Society, Brown’s Climate Solutions Initiative, and the Public’s Radio.
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