TYBEE BEACHCOMBER | DEC 2019 33
RECYCLING
ON TYBEE By Monty Parks
Three years ago, a friend of mine was complaining that his recycling
bin was emptied in the trash truck. I did not believe him. But he kept
complaining about the recycling going into the trash, and finally, I started
looking into his claim. He was correct. Recycling material was going into
the trash.
The more I read and researched, the more it seemed that the whole
recycling business was in chaos. The chaos was international. This
international situation reached all the way to Tybee. Now, fast forward
three years to today.
The main problem with today’s recycling market is contamination.
Currently, single stream recycling, the practice of throwing everything
together in one container, results in contamination. Food stains, mixed
material, improper material, and other sources results in rejection of
recycled material by the buyers and recyclables going into the trash.
Even small amounts of contamination results in the rejection of large
loads. Commercial recyclers are frustrated with increasingly difficult
demands by buyers. Shipments overseas are down to less than 5% of
what they were three years ago.
Here on Tybee, our problem was also that 100% of the material
from the beach, tons of material, was all going into the trash. All those
aluminum cans and plastic water bottles from summer weekends on the
beach, all of it was going into the trash. We pay for that to be hauled off
island as trash.
So, just a few weeks ago, we opened a recycling center at the DPW
area here on Tybee. This new recycle center is our response to the
international situation with recycling. The center is also our response
to the fact that all the material off the beach was going into the trash.
We have gone small with Tybee’s recycling center. We are sorting all
material carefully. We are also asking residents to sort material before
dropping it off. Once we have verified that material is clean and sorted,
we are then baling the material on site. The goal is 100% clean, sorted
premium recycle material. The goal is that no more residential recycle
material goes into the trash. We also aim to recover tons of material off
of the beach. Plus, we will provide a recycling option for those residents
in the condos that have no recycling today.
There are now drop off trailers for residents located at the entrance
to DPW, next to the fire station and next to the life guard shack by the
pier. The ultimate goal is to stop charging Tybee residents for recycling
services and stop the single stream recycling with Atlantic Waste. We
want to bring the recycle business back in house and under Tybee
control.
I am asking residents to start using the trailers provided to drop
off material. I am also asking businesses to use the trailers. There is
a Facebook page, TybeeRecyles, which has information and details.
We need your recyclable material to feed the baler, to feed the Beast.
There will be volunteer opportunities for anyone interested in helping
this program.
This is an exciting direction for Tybee. This is new, this is different,
and already, we have seen that this approach works for our community.
Thanks for your help as we move Tybee forward.