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File photo by Patricia O’Blenes
By: Andy Kozlowski | Southfield Sun | Published February 11, 2022
SOUTHFIELD — Everyone can be a good steward of the earth, and it starts at home with simple recycling habits.
The city of Southfield is home to the Resource Recovery and Recycling Authority of Southwest Oakland County, or RRRASOC, located at 20000 W. Eight Mile Road. The group oversees recycling operations in the area.
“Recycling has steadily risen in the city of Southfield,” said Michael Csapo, the general manager of RRRASOC, in an email. “Residential waste generation, including recycling, has generally risen during the pandemic as people are spending more time at home.
“Paper of all types, including cardboard and boxboard, continues to be the No. 1 category of recyclables,” he added. “Consumer products and product packaging are continually changing and evolving, so it’s important that folks be familiar with those things that can be recycled.”
What’s acceptable Items eligible for recycling during curbside pickup include narrow-neck and wide-mouth plastic bottles and containers with lids. Items with recycling numbers 1 through 7 are accepted, but not 3. Polystyrene foam, or Styrofoam, is also not accepted curbside. However, Lathrup Village residents can recycle polystyrene by appointment at the Southeast Oakland County Resource Recovery Authority drop-off center in Royal Oak.
Most bulky plastics can be recycled curbside, including cat litter buckets, plastic pails and molded kids’ furniture.
Beyond plastic, other items for curbside recycling include newspapers, magazines and catalogs; junk mail, officer paper and phonebooks; cardboard and boxboard; glass bottles and jars in all colors, including lids and labels; household metals such as empty cans, foil, pans and small scrap metal; and paper cups and paper drink cartons such as milk and juice cartons — but rinse and dry them first, remove any caps, stirrers or straws, and do not flatten them.
Items not accepted for curbside recycling include anything with polystyrene foam, plastic bags, plastic and metal clothing and coat hangers, plastic cutlery and straws, batteries, shredded paper, household trash, and facial tissue, toilet paper, paper towels and napkins. To keep plastic bags out of the trash, people can keep reusable grocery totes on hand, or they can recycle the plastic bags at many large grocery stores, including Kroger, Target, Walmart and Meijer.
It’s important to wash containers. It’s not necessary to make them perfectly clean, but simply filling them with water, shaking them and emptying them can help reduce odors and pest problems. Also, when putting items in your recycling bin, just leave them loose — do not put them in bags first. As for cardboard or paperboard boxes, those should be flattened first to free up space in the bin.
Hazardous household waste spans a variety of items and generally includes anything with electronic components and/or chemicals. For more information on how to handle those, visit the RRRASOC’s website: https://www.rrrasoc.org/household-hazardous-waste/what-is-hhw/.
According to Matt Fletcher, a recycling market specialist for the Michigan Department of Environment, Great Lakes and Energy, buying habits have changed during the pandemic, resulting in more takeout containers and cardboard boxes, which in turn means more material to be recycled.
“Michigan residents know that now, more than ever, it is important to recycle correctly so that recycling bins are free of trash,” Fletcher said via email. “Recycling correctly keeps those materials circulating in the economy where they can make their way into new packaging, essentially going from your doorstep to your curb, to a recycler, and back to your doorstep — a real closed-loop story.”
What happens next After materials are collected, they’re taken to the Materials Recovery Facility, or MRF, which is also located in Southfield. At the MRF, the materials are separated into various commodity grades by a combination of mechanical and manual sorting. Republic Services, the contracted MRF operator, then makes arrangements to ship those sorted materials to mills, secondary processors and manufacturers where they’re used as building materials, also called feedstock. That’s when the items you recycle are turned into brand-new products.
“Those shipments are tracked by the RRRASOC to ensure that the collected and processed materials enter the supply chain,” Csapo said.
He described the many good things that come of the process.
“In addition to simply preserving landfill space, recycling provides a host of environmental, economic and social benefits,” Csapo said. “For example, manufacturing with recycled feedstock reduces energy consumption, reduces pollution and conserves natural resources.”
He noted how in 2021, the recycling efforts of Southfield residents conserved enough energy to run 261 homes for a year, while reducing airborne pollution emissions by nearly 3,000 tons and saving nearly 20,000 trees.
“Recycling is also economically important since it creates jobs, provides important feedstock for manufacturers, and allows communities to feed the critical supply chain instead of burying important resources in landfills,” Csapo said. “Finally, recycling is an important part of the circular economy and sustainability. It provides residents with a tangible opportunity to play an important role in ensuring a sustainable future.”
Kerrin O’Brien, executive director of the Michigan Recycling Coalition, said there is a real need for the materials that recycling provides.
“As more companies step up to sustainability goals, they are demanding recycled materials to produce new products,” O’Brien said via email. “RRRASOC is an important partner in this work, enabling convenient recycling opportunities for residents and local businesses to recycle and meet this industry demand.”
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