Pickens Recycling Center
About 90 percent of our trash can be recycled according to our tour guide of the Pickens County Recycling Center. The Pickens Recycling facility has been in operation for about 24 years and collects the recycling from the Pickens county area, sorts it, and then sells it to offsite facilities to finish the recycling process. On site they also have a landfill that takes in about 54,00 tons of waste every year, which is considerably high for the size of the county. When we first arrived at the site our tour guide pointed out that the grassy green hill right behind us is a closed section of the landfill that has been out of operation for 12 years and has already reached its half-life. Like the Twin Chimneys Landfill, they collect the methane gas that is being released and burn it into the atmosphere instead of converting it to energy. In terms of recycling, Pickens Recycling Center collects cardboard, paper, metal, e-waste, glass, and comingled recycling. Paper and cardboard are easier to recycle but that is not the case for each product. Certain plastics cannot be recycled based on the grade of plastic itself, but 1 and 2 plastics are generally accepted as they can be broken down more easily and converted into new products like clothing. Our tour guide remarked that the most money is made from the separated and clean recycled products because they are easier to process, but most of the recycling from the residential sector is collected as comingled. However, they do not want to require that the residents of Pickens county separate their recycling at home because it may deter people from recycling overall as it is just one more thing they would have to do. The problem with comingled recycling is that it makes the process of sorting and recycling lengthier and more challenging. For instance, different colored glass melts at different temperatures, but is still collected altogether. Separating the glass at the facilities can be challenging since the glass breaks into tiny pieces and as a result many counties and recycling centers do not accept glass. However, it is important to build the right infrastructure and mindset to make glass recycling easier since it is one of the items that can be recycled indefinitely.
According to our tour guide there no downsides to recycling. It takes waste out of the landfills, reduces energy and material use, and is an efficient use of taxpayer dollars. I do agree that recycling has a lot of positive side effects, however I think that recycling does not consider the root causes to the waste issue, consumption and consumerism. What really put things into perspective for me was when our guide showed us the e-waste sorting area (Fig. 5). There were so many outdated TVs that were only good for the copper coil in the back of their boxed screens. He mentioned that the e-waste gets picked up every two weeks and the number of box TVs continues to flow in even after they have been rendered obsolete in our modern society with the introduction of flat screen TVs. The TVs in this sorting area were only from the Pickens county area too! I can only imagine what the e-waste sorting section will look like in a few years when a new version of the television comes into the market and makes the flat screen TV old-fashioned, especially since many households have more than one. For instance, in my house we have four flat screen TVs and a two box screen TVs. There will be even more electronic waste entering these facilities outside of the television with the many technological advancements we will see in the coming years, however, maybe these will be easier to recycle.
Our tour guide did not remark on the efficacy of the recycling process, but as we walked around the facility, we could see things that did not belong in certain piles. In addition, after the Pickens Recycling facility sells their products to the larger sorting areas, the pickers take out parts of the recycling that do not belong, resulting in about 4-6 percent of the “recycling” returning to the landfill, thus demonstrating a fault in the system. There must be ways to make the process more efficient. He says recycling is all politics because those in charge need to be willing to divert and increase taxes to support the infrastructure and research needed to make recycling an efficient process. However, I think to we should start at the root of the issue, meaning that products should be designed to last longer and be more easily recycled. The recycling system itself could be made more efficient through residential sorting of recyclable materials. If materials are recycled at home, the recycling facilities will not have to invest so much energy throughout the process. Another benefit with at home sorting is that more may be saved from the landfill for recycling. These behaviors can be influenced by programs such as pay for what you throw, meaning you pay a certain amount based on how much you throw away.
Coca-Cola’s products are generally sold in number 1 plastic bottles or aluminum cans, which are easily recycled, but this does not mean that they should not be concerned with the waste that is generated through the consumption and production of their products. Especially, since there is waste generated at every stage of production. In conclusion, I think that everyone should go to a recycling center and a landfill so that they can see firsthand the severity of the waste issue driven by their own consumption. Maybe everyone will be more inclined to act and reduce their personal waste.