Sorting starts at home: Region looking to step up their recycling game

Waterloo region is looking to up its sorting and recycling game as the world looks to North America as a potential home for their recycling waste.

Communities around the world are feeling the pinch ever since China announced in January it would only accept the cleanest and purest recycling materials.

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Kathleen Barsoum, the co-ordinator at the region's waste management plant, said China's decision has caused the North American market to be flooded with material. 

Problem is, North American processors are also only accepting clean recyclable materials.

"You cannot have another material mixed in," Barsoum told CBC K-W's The Morning Edition. "For instance, I can't have a carton mixed in with my plastic number one because it can spoil the whole batch."

Region doing 'very well'

Several years ago, some municipalities switched to the cart system, where all recyclable are collected and dumped in the same space to be sorted later.

Barsoum said the region's sorting and recycling practices are very good because the region maintained the two box sort, where containers go in one blue bin and papers and plastic bags in another.

The region also has three stages of sorting before it's shipped off to the recycling processor.

"Our stuff is pretty darn good compared to the other municipalities in Ontario," Barsoum said.

Processors can pick and choose

Even though Waterloo region has had a long standing relationship with its processors in North America, Barsoum said the region needs to do an even better job sorting.

This is because since there is so much recyclable waste supply, processors can pick and choose whose recyclable materials they will accept.

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Processors will only accept materials with a very low contamination level, less than one per cent, Barsoum said.

"If they see a certain amount of contamination, they will downgrade it, which means they will pay less for it and go to a different processor, or they could return it for re-sorting," she said.

Sorting starts in the home

Mike Ursu, operations supervisor with the region, told CBC News the importance of sorting has recently increased substantially.

"With China closing the doors to mixed recycling, all of a sudden, now we are competing to try and get a home for our material within North America," he said. 

He and Barsoum said education and sorting at the home are how the region can step up its sorting effort.

They offered tips on what you can do.

Containers go in one bin, but what is a container? Barsoum said that includes anything that held food, beverage or personal care, like shampoo or body moisturizer. 

In a second bin, papers and film plastics. Barsoum said it's important to separate these two in the bin.

She suggested lose papers should go in one plastic bag and film plastics, like retail plastic bags, in another bag. 

"That simple step alone would have a big impact in some of our material," she said.