The Basics of Single Stream Recycling: A Comprehensive Guide

Woody and the gang get trapped in a recycling facility, facing certain annihilation, with the conveyor belt steadily and firmly moving toward the incinerator. That’s a single-stream recycling facility you’re looking at — a place where plastic toys, newspapers, tin cans, tires, cardboard boxes, and glass bottles all meet their end.

The movie came out in 2010, less than a decade later when single-stream recycling became mainstream and gained momentum.

In today’s post, we cover everything about single-stream recycling. We’ll talk about its pros and cons, the materials it accepts, why it has become the #1 choice for most municipalities and businesses, and if it is the right choice for planet-focused environmentalism.

Let’s start.

What is Single-Stream Recycling?

Single-stream recycling, also called Commingled Recyclables, collects all your recyclable items — paper, tin, plastic, glass, etc. — into a single bin during disposal. A collection truck takes all these items into a Materials Recovery Facility (MRF) where items are sorted and separated into different streams to be sold to manufacturers to make new products.

Single-stream recycling is popular for two reasons:

1. It is convenient so more people feel inclined to recycle.
2. It has low collection costs thus encouraging municipalities to recycle more items, expand the services, and make processes more efficient.

While single-stream recycling has only been around since the 1990s, it has quickly taken over other recycling systems as the most cost-efficient and popular waste management system.

Single-Stream vs Multi-Stream Recycling

Single-stream recycling keeps things simple.

You chuck all your recyclables into a single bin for the collection truck to come and haul them away.

Multi-stream recycling is more restrained. Sorting takes place at the source (“source separation”), whether at homes or businesses before it’s picked up by waste collection companies. Consumers take on the responsibility to separate their recyclable items and put them in designated separate bins.

Collection trucks for multi-stream recycling possess separate containers for each waste stream to prevent contamination, thus ensuring a higher quality of recyclable materials resulting in higher revenues.

Multi-stream recycling may be a touch more complicated than single-stream recycling but it minimizes contamination (and eliminates it in most cases), thus resulting in higher-grade recycled materials for manufacturers to use.

How Does Single-Stream Recycling Work?

It uses a wide array of manual and automatic systems to sort through the jumbled-up waste, separating items by their types, and processing each stream individually.

A complex web of technologies, machinery, and equipment is used to process single-stream recycling. Some of these include:

• Back Scraping Drum: A conveyor belt to spread out items
• OCC Screen: A screen to sort cardboard boxes, old corrugated containers (OCC)
• Fines Screen: This screen removes small materials from the mixed waste stream and removes all fine materials less than five centimeters long.
• News Screen: Identifies newspapers and separates them from the mixed stream.
• Ferrous Magnet: It catches all ferrous metals such as tin cans, steel, and iron.

In theory, these processes result in the most cost-effective and efficient waste management method. In reality, however, the processing cost of single-stream recycling outweighs the savings in collection costs. According to the Container Recycling Institute, a nonprofit research and advocacy group, “…single-stream costs about $3 more per ton than dual-stream.”

There are also other challenges to single-stream recycling where the demand for recycled materials is shrinking compared to the massive supply waste haulers are dealing with. Add to it rising contamination levels of single-stream recyclables and you’re dealing with a waste stream that is increasingly becoming unsustainable.

What You Can and Cannot Recycle In Single-Stream Recycling

Depending on the scope of recycling items a waste management company accepts, and your local municipality, the specific list of accepted recyclables may vary from one recycler to the next. However, the following lists give you a starting point.

Accepted Items in Single-Stream Recycling

Wash and dry your plastic and glass bottles and containers before you send them for recycling. The clean lid of pizza boxes can be recycled, but the greasy bottom cannot. Do not throw any soiled or greasy items with the recyclables as it can contaminate the lot.

1. Paper bags, folders, paperback books
2. Tin and aluminum cans
3. Plastic bottles like juice and water bottles
4. Plastic containers with wide mouths
5. Clean aluminum foil and pans
6. Glass containers with separated lids
7. Cardboard boxes such as cereal boxes. Flatten them for best use.
8. Milk and juice cartons but rinse and dry them.
9. Newspapers, magazines, and junk mail

Non-Acceptable Items in Single-Stream Recycling

Make your single-stream recycling a success by keeping these contaminants away from your recycling bins.

1. Food or liquid
2. Plastic bags
3. Paper cups or plates
4. Plastic cups or plates or straws etc.
5. Paper napkins, paper towels, or tissue papers
6. Chip bags or candy wrappers
7. Styrofoam products like to-go containers
8. Plastic packaging materials like zip lock bags, clingwrap, or bubble wrap
9. Non-recyclable plastic items like clamshell packaging, lids, wraps, etc.
10. Hardcover books or ring binders
11. Dirty paper or greasy cardboard like pizza boxes
12. No electronics of any kind. Use e-waste recycling companies to recycle your retired devices.
13. Soiled aluminum foils

Eliminating common contaminants from recyclables can help us support circular economy models. It ensures we only send the most high-quality materials back into circulation to be reused and repurposed as new goods.

Pros and Cons of Single-Stream Recycling

Single-stream recycling seems like a simple solution to a complex problem. But does it work? Even though it has been adopted by eco-minded businesses and millions of households around the country, its naysayers are many and loud.

They cite several issues connected to single-stream recycling systems that negate the method’s effectiveness and may also worsen the original problem.

If you are wondering whether single-stream recycling is the right choice for your business or household, let the pros and cons table give you a fair picture of the matter.

How to Improve Single-Stream Recycling to Make it More Effective

Two solutions can help solve several issues related to single-stream recycling and both can be achieved through a single means: public education.

Through local community campaigns and awareness drives, recycling companies and climate activists can help educate the public about the dangers of contaminated recyclables.

Not only do these contaminations affect the amount of stuff that can be recycled, but they also affect the public confidence in recycling on the whole.

People can lose confidence in recycling as a solution when they see their stuff is ending up in landfills instead of being returned to the economy. Businesses also receive low-grade recycled materials that either can’t be used or produce subpar-quality products.

As you get ready for recycling day next time, think about cleaning up all the waste you’re going to throw into that blue bin, make sure you have put only the designated items in it, and help your local community reach its sustainability goals and make the earth a happier place in the process.