The 5 Most Common Recycling Mistakes, and How to Avoid Them

Outisdeonline.com, March 1, 2023, Kristin Hostetter

Doing right by the planet can make you happier, healthier, and—yes—wealthier. Outside’s Head of Sustainability, Kristin Hostetter, explores small lifestyle tweaks that can make a big impact. Write to her at climateneutral-ish@outsideinc.com.

I’m standing in front of my recycling bin holding an empty cardboard carton of organic milk. I want to recycle it. Part of the reason I bought this milk, which was about a buck more than the stuff in the plastic jug, is that for several years now I’ve been waging a war against plastic in both my personal and professional life.

Cardboard is one of the most recyclable materials in the world. But a little voice inside my head is nagging, “What about that plastic coating on the inside? Does it matter? It’s still mostly cardboard…right?”

Turns out, my cardboard milk container is not recyclable here in northern Vermont, despite the carton’s How2Recycle label advice. But if I saved it and brought it to my mom’s house in Massachusetts, I could throw it in her bin. (Want to know if you can curbside-recycle cardboard milk and juice containers? Plug your address in here.)

Wishcycling is when you put something in the recycle bin because you want to recycle it. You hope it will get turned into some shiny new object. But you don’t really know if it will and so you decide to let someone else down the line figure it out for you.

Your intentions are good, but you’re actually creating a huge pain in the ass for recycling facilities.

Wishcycling Versus Reality

“Wishcycling adds financial, labor, and environmental burdens throughout every recycling system around the world,” says Michele Morris, director of marketing and communications of the Chittendon Solid Waste District in Vermont, which owns the recycling facility near my home in Stowe, Vermont. “A worker will have to manually pull that thing off the conveyor belt and send it to the landfill, when you could have made that choice and avoided all those impacts throughout the process.” Morris says she sees some wild items come through the facility: shoes, bicycle tires, garden hoses, styrofoam coolers, plastic toys, and even the odd bowling ball or two.

The antidote to wishcycling is pretty simple: Don’t make assumptions and take the time to learn which items are recyclable in your area. I googled “town dump Stowe Vermont”  and found this page which has a tab spelling out what I can recycle where I live.

There’s no magic Google phrase for all locales, though. If you live in a city, say Chicago, try “recycling Chicago.” Within a few clicks you’ll find what you need. If you have specific questions not answered there, find the contact page and pick up the phone. “What’s accepted in your area depends on how far you are from processors and how much recycling your community generates, among other factors,” says Morris. “All these can vary not just regionally, but even within one state.” Some examples of things that can vary region by region: different types of plastics, and yes, those milk cartons.

“People love to say that recycling is broken,” says Stefanie Valenti, editorial director of Waste360. “It’s not, but it is disjointed. The infrastructure hasn’t evolved along with all the different types of materials, mainly plastics, that have come out. The waste management industry is investing lots of money in improving its logistics, but it’s a slow process.”

The Big Five Curbside Recycling Mistakes

Plastic Bags

Filmy plastic (aka “soft film”) of any kind, including zipper-locks, bubble wrap, plastic padded Amazon envelopes, garbage bags, wrap from toilet paper, and bread bags, don’t work in any single-stream recycling system.

Why it’s a problem: Soft film jams machinery. Workers have to hit the kill switch on the whole operation and manually pull it out of the system. It can also tangle up with other valuable recyclables and then the whole mess gets landfilled rather than sold and repurposed. And if you bag perfectly good recyclables, like plastic water bottles and paper, the whole bag will get landfilled because workers don’t have the bandwidth to unbag and sort them.

The solution: Many grocery stores across the country accept soft film and recycle it properly. Find a local market by entering your zip code here.

Un-Rinsed Containers

Why it’s a problem: Two reasons: Old peanut butter and congealed sauce from your General Tso chicken degrades the value of the material you’re recycling (which defeats the whole purpose). And it can also pose health and safety risks to human workers who have to handle the nastiness and deal with the rats and wasps that get attracted to the facility.

To access the full article, click here:

Earth Day 2022: A Chance to Pause and Reflect

We welcome Earth Day 2022. It’s been 52 years since the first Earth Day celebration, which helped kick off the environmental movement in the spring of 1970. Man had just landed on the moon the previous year, a trip that yielded an indelible image from space of a fragile planet rich with vibrant colors.

This year’s theme for the global event is “invest in our planet.” We think that’s a particularly appropriate message, since Onepak has been on a years-long journey to invest in more sustainable practices for the reverse logistics of IT assets.

Onepak got its name from providing custom-fitted shipping packages for IT equipment returns. But we’ve never stopped innovating, always trying to make our products and services more environmentally friendly and thus becoming a better partner in the emerging circular economy.

Onepak has spent the last year embarked on an internal R&D project designed to provide our clients with what may just be the first carbon-neutral reusable shipping kits on the market. We look forward to soon sharing the news of our prototype, which will be piloted with a handful of clients. In addition to substantial reductions in emissions, we expect some level of cost savings as well.

We’re initially focusing on laptop kits, because laptops comprise at least half of all IT asset returns. Next, we expect to turn our attention to reusable shipping kits for mobile phone return programs. The win-win is that we are steadily moving away from the use of cardboard and purchasing carbon offsets for production of the recycled paper-based material we do use.

These breakthroughs couldn’t come at a better time. Last year, global sales of laptop computers were at record highs, dwarfing the numbers recorded before the pandemic. This volume—more than a quarter billion units sold worldwide—is expected to continue over the next several years. Given the rise of remote work, many of these units will eventually be returned one at a time.

At the same time, the explosion of e-commerce is causing both supply shortages and price spikes for cardboard. Happily, we’re reducing our cardboard and recycling needs and focusing more on re-use.

The whole point of these innovations in return logistics is to make the ownership and deployment of IT assets more efficient and cost-effective, and to ensure that used equipment doesn’t linger in a closet or drawer at the end of its useful life, or even worse, get tossed into a landfill.

Our fragile planet deserves better.

Demystifying Sustainability and ESG

ESG | Sustainability | Corporate Social Responsibility | Circular Economy | Going Green

Welcome to the language of today’s supply chain. What do these terms mean for members of the industry? And how can IT asset managers make the most of these emerging trends? We will look at the escalating role that sustainability and ESG plays in the IT asset hardware space and the benefits organizations can gain from adopting them.

Setting the Context

The reverse logistics industry will be affected by two major trends over the next decade: a shift by organizations to focus their goals and priorities on ESG (environment, social and governance) and the global transition among manufacturers toward a circular economy. Let’s start with some definitions of these terms.

The term ESG is the latest buzzword in the evolution of corporate social responsibility. Investment firms are shifting billions of dollars of investor funds away from fossil fuels and towards companies that practice sustainability. They are looking for ways to invest in companies that:

• Measure and minimize their impact on the environment (E)
• Operate under strong codes of social ethics around gender equality, diversity and inclusion in their workforce and communities (S)
• Have strong policies in place around fair and equal pay, employee rights, executive compensation, and environmentally sustainable business practices (G).

Organizations large and small will be coming under increased pressure from their stockholders and customers to demonstrate their commitment to ESG principles. That means they will be looking at internal policy shifts as well as external partners that can help them achieve their ESG goals. Many are developing standards or scorecards for their supply chain partners that require them to document their progress toward these values.

The term “circular economy” refers to the shift away from the traditional linear “take, make, waste” approach of mining virgin materials, manufacturing products for a single use and disposing of them. In a circular economy, goods are produced in a way that enables reuse and recycling of materials that will be fed back into the supply chain. For example, many IT returns are shipped using disposable cardboard. A circular model would enable a reusable package and return of that packaging to the shipper for multiple uses. Manufacturers are now being measured and rated on their “circularity.”

In these larger contexts, “going green” takes on a new meaning. It can refer to corporate initiatives to switch to renewable energy, it can include looking at the ratio of independent contractors to employees, or it can implement policies to address gender equality or racial diversity. Sustainability is not just about lowering one’s carbon footprint. It can also mean increasing one’s community impact. Key areas of environmental impact to local communities by both your company and your suppliers and vendors include: emissions, water usage, waste and ecosystems.

Weighing the Factors

Let’s translate the traditional SWOT analysis into a format that applies to this transition:

• Strengths = Reasons for moving towards sustainable business practices
• Weaknesses = Barriers that could get in the way of this transition
• Opportunities = Rewards for moving in this direction.
• Threats = Consequences of not making the transition

Reasons for making the move – The benefits of moving toward sustainable business practices are many and may include compliance with regulation, increased customer satisfaction, employee goodwill, better brand image and a happier board of directors. And let’s not forget reduced waste and reduced costs.

Barriers to entry – Organizations considering a transition to sustainable business practices may not find it easy. First, the chances of success are highest when buy-in is attained at the highest levels of your organization. However, if your executive team is not yet ready to take the next step, you as an IT asset manager can certainly implement more sustainable business practices within your purview. Second, finding opportunities that are measurable can be a challenge. There is a plethora of greenwashing out there, and it is often difficult to know what is true.

Consequences of not making the move – What happens if you don’t make the transition to sustainable business practices? You could lose customers to organizations that are taking a more proactive approach to environmental, social or governance issues. You run the risk of alienating investors who finally see ESG as mandatory. Every department in your organization has a role to play in making progress toward net-zero goals. IT asset management can either lead, follow or be humiliated without a plan of action for contributing meaningfully. Where do you want to be?

Rewards for the transition – The rewards of embracing a transition to sustainability and ESG values will compound over time. Progressive companies will attract forward-thinking investors, team members and customers. ESG-oriented vendors will want to do business with you. Your organization can be run more efficiently and your community standing will be enhanced. And as an individual, you will be welcome in the multitude of new sustainability groups where you can share ideas and learn from your peers.

Next Steps

There is a lot to know about sustainability and ESG, and it is changing constantly. There are organizations creating standards to measure ESG that are used by your investors, supply chain partners and customers. Common impact areas addressed by these standards include: greenhouse gas emissions (GHGe), forestry, water, waste & pollution, worker safety, jobs impact, total materials used, use of recycled materials, package/product lifecycle management and circularity. Most standards relate activities to the widely accepted UN Sustainable Development Goals. Leading standards organizations that are developing best practices in which your organization may be participating include GRI, SASB and CDP, a not-for-profit charity that runs a global disclosure system for investors, companies, cities, states and regions to manage their environmental impacts. Your challenge is to educate yourself so that you can make a meaningful contribution using whatever influence or power you have at your disposal.

What can Sustainable Logistics do for the Final Mile Industry?

Onepak salutes the opening of The Climate Pledge Arena in Seattle

Why does a reverse logistics tech company care about a sports arena? We agree with the goals of the Climate Pledge: being net zero carbon by 2040. We agree that companies need to commit to regular reporting, carbon elimination and credible offsets. Those 200 companies who have already signed the Climate Pledge? That’s our tribe. As a relatively small company Onepak is nearly already there.

Climate Pledge Arena in Seattle

Just as Onepak minimizes carbon emissions and offsets all transportation emissions with credible carbon removal offsets, so does this new arena. As Onepak transitions from single-use to reusable packaging for asset recovery, the Climate Pledge Arena is eliminating single-use plastics. Everything that Onepak transports will be reused, refurbished or recycled, so we celebrate the repurposing of the historic roof originally built for the 1962 Seattle World’s Fair.

We love the meaning behind naming such a public place for such a socially important ambition. Yes, fulfilling the pledge is environmentally impactful, but at Onepak, we lead by example. So building a public gathering place that will remind and inspire every visitor and every event viewer that such ambitions can be accomplished—that’s leadership.

Hats off to the Climate Pledge Arena and to the sheer will that it has taken to get it done right.

Is Sustainable Customized Logistics for You?

By Shawn Stockman.  Customized Logistics & Delivery Magazine. Summer 2021

OnePak Vice President Shawn Stockman recently participated in a CLDA Final Mile Forum, and in this article he recaps the group discussion around trends affecting the industry, the expanded meaning of “going green” and challenges to entry. Follow the link to the article for more insight into the language of today’s supply chain.

https://viewer.joomag.com/clda-summer-magazine-2021-final-1/0242992001632066112/p54?short&