Fairfield residents visit recycling sorting facility

FAIRFIELD — A group of Southeast Iowa residents were curious about what happens to the stuff they toss in their recycling bins, so they decided to find out.

Members of the Southeast Iowa Sierra Club, based in Fairfield, visited a recycling facility in Normal, Illinois, on Thursday, June 16. The group was 11 people strong, and they had a chance to explore the Midwest Fiber and Recycling Facility while visiting with company representatives about how recycling is sorted and where it ends up.

Margaret Dwyer said the Southeast Iowa Sierra Club unveiled a new sustainability plan in 2021, and one of the pillars of the plan is “zero waste.” That’s the pillar Dwyer is in charge of, and for the last few years she has sought a meeting with a local recycling facility. She learned that Fairfield’s recycling is sent to this facility in Normal, so she arranged for the group to visit it.

Fairfield’s recycling is single-stream, meaning that all recyclable materials — plastic, metal, glass, cardboard and paper — are put in the same bin. Waste Management gathers the recycled items and sends them to the Midwest Fiber and Recycling Facility for sorting. The members of the Sierra Club got to see workers sorting the materials and removing trash that cannot be recycled, such as plastic bags.

On average, between 12-14 percent of inputs at the facility must be sent to a landfill. The group learned that Fairfield residents are slightly better than average in their recycling knowledge because only about 10 percent of the items from Fairfield have to be discarded. Dwyer said one of the main take-aways from the meeting is that items made of mixed material, such as cardboard lined with plastic or foil, or plastic toys with metal parts, cannot be recycled because of the expense of separating such materials.

Dwyer said she went there with the idea of getting a comprehensive list of all recyclable items, but it turned out that’s not so simple. Recycling facilities differ across the country in what they will accept, and recycling requirements change periodically, making it confusing for consumers.

However, Dwyer’s main revelation from visiting the facility is that too much of this burden is falling on consumers, and the real solution must come from changes in the supply chain. She said companies must change how they package their materials so they can be recycled, which means less mixed materials. Some items are very difficult to recycle such as bubble wrap, which can only be recycled if all the air bubbles are popped.

Joining the members of the Sierra Club on their visit was Shreya Sood, a student in the Sustainable Living Department at Maharishi International University. She is interning with the Sierra Club this summer by gathering data about Fairfield’s waste, how much is produced and where it all goes.

Sood is from Mumbai, Indian, and became interested in the topic of “zero waste” when a giant landfill in Mumbai caught fire and killed someone. That motivated her to seek alternatives to landfills.

Call Andy Hallman at 641-575-0135 or email him at andy.hallman@southeastiowaunion.com