Recycling center selfie
Last month, I had the opportunity to visit the Recology Recycling Center in Seattle, and I absolutely loved it. I attended with members from the Seattle Zero Waste group, including individuals who want to become better recyclers and small business owners who want to make recycling easier for all.
After a round of introductions, Recology discussed its mission; the difference between garbage, recycling, and compost; how waste gets contaminated and recycled; and how the sorting machinery functions.
Here’s what I learned:
About Recology
Recology is an employee-owned company, hauling and processing recycling bins in 10 Puget Sound communities. Its mission is to reduce tons of waste sent to landfills, recover resources, and save money. Each day Recology’s Seattle facility processes 350 tons of material by hand, and with sorting technology.
Recycling is sorted by hand or by machine (seen here).
Where does recycling go?
We sort our garbage at home and put it out for pickup once a week – then what?
- Collection trucks pick up recycling (trucks are slowly transitioning to electric vehicles).
- Trucks take recycling to a materials recovery facility for sorting.
- People and machines sort recyclables.
- Sorted materials are baled together to be sold.
- Bales are sent to recyclers to be made into new things.
It is important to know Recology recycles all of the acceptable materials collected; they never send recyclable materials to a landfill. Buyers of these commodities vary from month to month based on the market for the materials.
Sorted materials are baled together to be sold.
Where do Seattle’s recyclables go?
- 28% recycled in Seattle
- 38% recycled in the Northwest and North America
- 34% recycled in Asia
Detailed below is the breakdown for destinations of commodities during Summer 2021. All glass and metals are recycled in the Northwest, and 75% of cardboard.
| Commodity | Destinations |
| OCC – Cardboard | Tacoma, WA Toledo, OR Port Townsend, WA Taiwan Vietnam Indonesia |
| SMP – Mixed Paper | Longview, WA Tacoma, WA Indonesia Myanmar Malaysia India |
| HDPEC – Color (Detergent Bottles) | Canada (British Columbia) |
| HDPEN – Natural (Milk Jugs) | Canada (British Columbia) Pennsylvania |
Aline Bloch is the owner of Aline’s Cardboard and Out of the Box Eco-Store and a Central Park resident. Photos provided by Aline.
