Capturing more bottles at large venues of concerts and sporting events could be a key strategy in increasing recycling rates for PET and HDPE, according to Leslie Lukacs of SCS Engineers.
Lukacs addressed attendees of the inaugural Recycling Today’s Plastics Recycling Conference & Trade Show as part of a panel discussing methods of collecting more plastic for recycling. She discussed the efforts of the Venues and Special Events Recycling Council (VSERC), which sponsored a venues recycling bill that was signed into law in California by Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger in September 2004. The law requires large venues and event facilities to submit plans for solid waste reduction and to report on the progress of their recycling programs to their local governments.
Lukacs pointed out several challenges to recycling at large events, including the large amounts of single-use items and the high percentage of food discards and resulting contamination. However, controlling what is sold at these venues and events is a key step in controlling what kind of material is collected for recycling, she said.
Lukacs said successful collection programs have been implemented at Pasadena Rose Bowl games and at Monster Park, the home of the San Francisco 49ers. Partnering with stadium staff to sweep and pick plastic from material left behind after events, as well supplying collection bags and bins have been successful strategies.
In addition, Tamsin Ettefagh of Envision Plastics addressed attendees on the Association of Postconsumer Plastics’ (APR) efforts to increase recycling rates.
Ettefagh identified rural areas, multi-family homes and office/retail commercial buildings as under-collected areas.
She also outlined the APR’s position on several key plastics industry issues. According to Ettenfagh, the APR supports legislation to ban post-consumer plastic from landfills. The association also supports the expansion of existing deposit collection programs to include non-carbonated bottles such as used water and juice containers made from PET and HDPE when such expansion is proposed by state legislative bodies in states that currently have deposit laws. The APR opposes efforts to repeal existing state deposit laws related to beverage containers, and it supports post-consumer recycled content legislation.
Ettenfagh also outlined several potential projects the APR is considering for 2006, including a “piggy back” collection with paper, a convenience store and out-of-home collection program and stadium/convention venue collection.
Patrick Fitzgerald from RecycleBank offered another solution to encouraging recycling on the residential front—offering financial incentives to participation. RecycleBank partners with national chains and local businesses in its home city of Philadelphia that will redeem “RecycleBank dollars” earned by recycling. Participating residents are issued a RecycleBank container with an RFID tag. At pickup, the container is weighed and scanned and participants are issued credits redeemable at participating retailers of the household’s choice, offering an economic incentive to recycle, in addition to the environmental obligation, according to Fitzgerald.