Here’s how much of your curbside recycling is getting trashed and why

ST. PETERSBURG, Fla. — Dale Gruver faithfully fills his recycle bin each week before wheeling it to the curb of his home in Town ‘N Country to be picked up.

As far as rituals go, Gruver hopes his isn’t a waste.

He’s the latest VERIFY viewer to email us asking what happens to their recycling after it’s picked up. Even as an avid recycler, Gruver admits he’s skeptical. He’s heard as little as 5% to 9% of recycling is being recycled.

THE QUESTION

Is less than 10% of recycling being recycled?

OUR SOURCES

• Environmental Protection Agency (EPA)
• National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL)
• Florida Department of Environmental Protection
• Recycling programs in several local municipalities, including Tampa, St. Petersburg, and Hillsborough and Pinellas counties
• University of Florida study on statewide contamination rates
• Recycling Partnership, a non-governmental organization formed to advance and improve recycling systems
• Kurt Salac, spokesperson for Waste Connections
• Dawn McCormick, spokesperson for Waste Management (WM)

THE ANSWER

No, it’s not true that less than 10% of recycling is being recycled.

The 5% to 9% estimate refers to the total amount of plastic recycled, not the percentage of what’s sent to a recycling facility. Local recycling programs report that most curbside recycling is recycled.

WHAT WE FOUND

Most items collected for recycling do get recycled. But when it comes to plastic, most isn’t collected for recycling in the first place.

The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) estimated that about 9% of all plastic waste was successfully recycled in 2018. Researchers at the National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL) estimated that approximately 5% of all plastic waste was recycled in 2019.

These statistics, which are the most recent available, are based on all plastic waste generated, which includes plastics that cannot be recycled and those that were thrown away.

As for plastic and other items that can be recycled, where it goes after leaving your curbside depends on where you live. For many in Tampa Bay VERIFY found it ultimately winds up at one of two facilities, known as MRFs.

Recycling collected in most of unincorporated Hillsborough County is shipped to Waste Connections in St. Petersburg. The cities of St. Petersburg and Clearwater also have processing contracts with the company. Recycling from Tampa is processed at a facility in Ybor operated by Waste Management, where recycling is also processed from Largo, unincorporated Pinellas County, and parts of Pasco County.

Waste Connections granted VERIFY access to its St. Petersburg facility and we took Gruver along to see first-hand what happens to his recycling.

Roughly 20 tons of recycling move through the facility each hour, according to Waste Connections spokesperson Kurt Salac. Items are first sorted by hand, allowing workers to remove things that don’t belong, like plastic bags.

“They’re taking materials out that aren’t going to be recyclable, that can cause problems to the process,” Salac said. “A lot of what you see in those bins is plastic shrink wrap and plastic bags that [have] the tendency of clogging the whole system up because it gets wrapped around the gears, wrapped around the sorting equipment.”

Items then ride through a series of conveyor belts and sorting tools powered by artificial intelligence where they’re cleaned, compacted and then shipped off and sold to reclaimers.

As much as 25% to 30% of intended recycling – items sent to a processing facility – winds up getting trashed, according to a 2020 study conducted by the University of Florida. It’s what’s known as the contamination rate—stuff that shouldn’t be in the bin or is too dirty.

In Pinellas County, 1 in 5 items placed in a recycling curbside container were contaminated, a separate 2020 study found, with plastic bags, cords, ropes, and hoses, foam packaging products, food waste and residue, and yard waste being the most common.

Too many people are “wish-cyclers,” Hillsborough County Solid Waste Project Manager of Sustainability & Disposal Operations Danny Gallagher told VERIFY.

“Where residents are hoping that by putting anything and everything in the recycling bin, it'll get recycled,” Gallagher said. “We find clothing and t-shirts, bowling balls and electronics and they think either we're going to get it to the right place, or maybe they generally think a bowling ball is recyclable.”

The contamination rate is around 24% in Hillsborough County.

"One in every four trucks is basically garbage, but that means three and every four trucks is accepted good, clean material that's going to get recycled," Gallagher said.

The average contamination rate for all materials at recycling programs across the U.S. was 16.9% in 2019, according to the 2020 State of Curbside Recycling report by the Recycling Partnership, a non-governmental organization formed to advance and improve recycling systems.

Gallagher said local municipalities are constantly working to improve awareness and education about what should and should not be recycled. Rules can vary because of differing contracts but there are more similarities than not across Tampa Bay. Guidelines for recycling in Tampa, St. Petersburg and Hillsborough and Pinellas counties can be found at tampabayrecycles.org.

What about e-waste?

After our report aired, Steve D. in Clearwater emailed VERIFY asking why local recycling programs don't accept electronics, or e-waste. A recent report published by the United Nations warns that waste from electronics is piling up worldwide while recycling rates remain low and are likely to fall even further.

“E-waste" is defined as discarded devices with a plug or battery, including cellphones, electronic toys, TVs, microwave ovens, e-cigarettes, laptop computers and solar panels. It does not include waste from electronic vehicles, which fall into a separate category.

Because of the complexities involved in the recycling process, e-waste is not accepted through curbside programs. But several area counties do accept electronics to be recycled either through drop-off or a special pickup service. 

Hillsborough County

Hillsborough County recycles the electronics received from its residential drop-off program with a contracted private vendor, Gallagher told VERIFY. The electronics received are wiped and have their data destroyed. 

"By recycling the electronics, we alleviate disposal capacity on our landfill and waste-to-energy facilities, keep resources circulating in the economy, and protect human health from any potential fires and metals leaching into the environment," he said in an email to VERIFY.

Hillsborough County accepts limited monthly quantities of household electronics from residents Monday through Saturday for recycling at no additional cost at its Community Collection Centers. Residents need to bring a photo ID with a Hillsborough County address to participate. This program is open to all Hillsborough County residents, not just Hillsborough County solid waste customers. 

Rechargeable batteries found in everyday electronics should never be placed in the garbage or recycling roll-carts. Lithium-ion rechargeable batteries are a major cause of fires across the country. 

Pasco County

Pasco County has a program for what is considered household hazardous waste which recycles several types of electronics, including flat screen TVs, computer towers, monitors, laptops, and tablets, county spokesperson Ryan Hughes told VERIFY. 

The county's e-scrap vendor, A1 Assets, picks up the pre-sorted electronics for recycling at their processing facility. Since January, according to Hughes, the county has sent nearly 15,000 pounds of electronics for recycling.

Manatee County

In Manatee County residents can utilize their one free item privilege, allowing them to dispose of one item, large or small, free of charge per calendar year, spokesperson Bill Logan told VERIFY.  Residents also have the option to purchase an “extraordinary service” in which they will be charged $31.56 per item for disposal, this can be picked up curbside.

Otherwise, residents can bring their e-scrap to the Lena Road Landfill Monday through Saturday 8am-5pm free of charge. The county's e-scrap vendor, A1 Assets Inc. picks up the electronic scrap twice a month. Three off-site collection events take place each year at Coquina Beach on the last Saturday of January, and at the county's 66th St. utilities location the first Saturday of April, and the first Saturday of October. 

Pinellas County 

As of 2022 Pinellas County no longer accepts e-waste. A county spokesperson says the primary recyclable components of e-waste — metals — are recovered during processing at its waste-to-energy facility. These metals are then cleaned and sent to a metals recycler.

"There are limited reliable options for recycling electronics/e-waste locally, especially for the plastic casings that make up a large portion of many electronics," spokesperson Kelsey Grentzer told VERIFY in an email.