On November 2, 2015 eight Green Team members donned hardhats and bright reflective vests to participate in a fascinating and educational field trip at Pioneer Recycling Services. Co-owner and COO Dave Claugus led us around the recycling plant, explaining the operation and sharing his extensive knowledge of recycling history and issues.

This company is solely focused on sourcing and supplying high quality recyclables to remanufacturers. The “big bin” recyclables that are picked up from the Panorama Recycling Center by LeMay Pacific Disposal are taken to this location. No glass is handled at this facility (except for glass bottles and fragments that are part of the mixed recyclable “contamination” and are removed and sent to the landfill).

Outside the plant we saw bales of sorted recyclables, ready for shipping to remanufacturers. These bales included:

– “3-7 plastic”, meaning hard plastic with recycle symbols 3 through 7.

– plastic milk and juice bottles.

– plastic water & soda bottles. Dave told us that the number of soda bottles is decreasing but the number of water bottles is increasing.

– tin (steel) cans.

– worn out plastic recycling bins (an example of “source separated” recyclables which arrive at the plant already sorted).

Upon entering the recycling plant, we encountered an enormous mound of “commingled recyclables,” including cardboard, various types of paper, tin cans, aluminum, and plastic containers. Near it was a mountain of cardboard – Dave would explain later how this mountain was produced.

We climbed a staircase for a close-up view of the sorting equipment. Dave gave us an explanation of the sorting process.

Workers at the recycling plant manually remove contaminants (non-recyclables) including plastic grocery bags that are mistakenly put in the mixed recycling bin. However, sometimes they miss the bags, which then get caught in the mechanical sorter and jam it, causing a shutdown of the operation and wasting valuable time. (This is one more reason to support the plastic bag ban.)

In addition to some manual removal of contaminants, the sorting process includes mechanical, magnetic and optical sorting.

A mechanical process separates cardboard from the other recyclables, ejecting the cardboard sheets into the giant mound that we saw upon entering the facility. The other recyclables continue on to additional sorting.

Next there is a mechanical separation of paper from other recyclables.

The magnetic process separates tin (steel) cans.

The optical sorter uses a high-speed computer with pattern-recognition software to recognize the difference between plastic milk cartons and other plastics such as detergent bottles.

Dave explained that the shift from individual recycling bins (for example, cardboard, paper, glass, and plastic in separate containers) to commingled recyclables approximately doubled the amount of material recycled, probably due to the fact that it’s much easier for customers to recycle with a single bin.

The paper & cardboard from the recycling plant is normally used for producing cereal boxes, shoe boxes and similar products, and is not used to produce newsprint.

Since most of the remanufacturers are in China, much of the plastic processed in this facility is shipped to China.

Drops in prices for oil, natural gas, and aluminum have cut into the profits of the recycling facility. For example, a year ago it could sell aluminum for $1700 a ton, and now the price it receives is only $1000 a ton.

Dave recommended reading The Junkyard Planet, by Adam Minter, for an explanation of the global movement of recycling commodities.

Green Team members attending were Mary Boston, Peggy Jamerson, Bill Seelye, Evie Starr, Phyllis Sturges, Lee Thompson, Carolyn Treadway, and Roy Treadway, accompanied by driver Steve Pogge.

We appreciate the time and effort Dave expended in showing us around the plant and educating us about recycling procedures and issues. We all gained a new expanded appreciation for the business of recycling. Visiting Pioneer Recycling Services was both overwhelming and impactful in viewing such an incredible amount of material being recycled, and learning all the effort it takes to make even recyclables useable again, when recyclables are such a small portion of the trash we throw away.

References:

(1) Pioneer Recycling Services
4109 East 192nd Street, Tacoma, WA 98446
http://www.pioneerrs.com/

(2) YouTube video about sorting commingled recyclables
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4zyY5pY43ro

(3) YouTube video about optical sorting
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X-bO4vVc-ts

(4) The book “The Junkyard Planet” is available in the Panorama Library. You can also purchase it on Amazon.com:
http://www.amazon.com/Junkyard-Planet-Travels-Billion-Dollar-Trash/dp/160819793X

(5) The Junkyard Planet video
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RaqjJ9y-D1w

(6) Nov. 2013 Interview of Adam Minter on NPR
http://www.npr.org/2013/11/13/244984351/christmas-lights-make-slippers-in-global-junkyard-economy

Evie Starr, Panorama Green Team
Adapted from the December 2015 Panorama News
All photos except group photo at top are by Carolyn Treadway.