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| Rhode Islanders' recycled aluminum cans ready for remanufacturing. (Image: RIRRC) |
"Single-stream" recycling will make recycling even easier.
By Linda Felaco
Starting on Earth Day (April 22), RI will be switching to single-stream recycling. So you'll no longer be able to use the excuse that separating paper and cardboard from other recyclables is too much of a hassle—it'll all go in a single bin. And you won't even have to figure out which plastics are recyclable anymore—all plastics numbered 1 through 7 will actually get recycled.
Weren't they already? some of you might be wondering. In a word, no. Currently, only plastic bottles get recycled, and only those made of #1 or #2 plastic; everything else ends up in the trash. (It's a function of the shapes of items that can be processed by the sorting machines, which are currently being upgraded.)
The switch to single-stream recycling should provide a welcome boost to Town Administrator William DiLibero's efforts to increase Charlestown's recycling rate and get the RI Resource Recovery Corp. to cut us larger checks for our share of the state's recycling profits. By making it easier for people to recycle, the assumption is that recycling rates will go up. However, there is a catch: Mixing food containers with paper for recycling can lead to contamination of the paper, which lowers its value and can potentially render it unusable (i.e., trash).
So if you already recycle, it's a good idea to keep on separating the paper from the rest, unless you wash your food containers before tossing them in the recycling bin. Either way, Mother Earth will thank you—and I'm betting DiLibero will thank you too.
