Until recently the green hamper held miscellaneous small toys in the garage. Last week, this round container joined a rectangular, white version in our children’s room. Less to sort on laundry day as they grow older and help more with household chores.
Sorting takes time whether the subject is laundry or recyclables. Miss a tissue, pick the fluffy bits out of the dryer. Miss a foreign item or two and the bale of cardboard may be rejected. At home separating skirts from shirts or at the Keep Alliance Beautiful Recycling Center deciding whether a can is steel or aluminum, it is a necessary step to complete the process.
All the sorting at the recycling center is manual, no conveyor belts, electronic eyes or magnets. A dozen types of materials head out the door on the next leg of a journey to start life as something new thanks to conditioned eyes and busy hands. Though there are some subtleties in what is acceptable within each category, the gist of the process is easily learned. The companies that market our recyclables offer feedback and let us know when something changes.
On certain occasions, such as curbside routes, we expect a mixed bag — one co-worker’s job is to go through those bags every day with others helping as time allows. People who stop at our 107 ½ Cheyenne Ave. door bring separated materials about as often as bags with a little of everything. Our trailers in Alliance and Hemingford feature signs on the doors as to what items should be placed within. Most recyclers put what they should in its respective location and follow the posted guidelines however not everything we find matches the labels. The least amount of time processing comes from more than 60 Box Butte County businesses where KAB picks up cardboard (primarily). If these locations have anything else waiting it is usually sorted or an expected part of the load, such as some paperboard with the cardboard.
There will always be individuals tossing recyclables where they do not belong in a KAB trailer or including trash in a bag that is otherwise acceptable. The best foundation for people to want to recycle responsibly is education on what services can be found locally. A good place to start may be: what does KAB accept? Materials and volumes (in pounds) for the second quarter of 2021: newspaper 680, cardboard 113,000, No. 1-7 plastic 9,658, milk jugs 0 (9,341 first quarter), office paper 2,298, steel/tin cans 2,502, aluminum cans 2,174, paperboard 14,240, magazines/books 2,056, mixed paper 35,411, glass 11,634, Hefty Bags 2,100 for a total of 199,550 pounds — or nearly 100 tons. KAB also accepts ink cartridges and household batteries.
In addition to bringing clean and dry materials, the tips that come to mind when sorting at home:
> Cardboard vs. paperboard — Corrugated cardboard is a wavy layer between two sheets, like shipping boxes, compared to paperboard’s usually thinner single layer.
> Plastics — All types labeled No. 1-7 are accepted. No. 2 milk jug (opaque colored) plastic is gathered and baled by itself. Bag Hefty Orange Bag items such as plastic shopping bags, bottle caps, etc. instead of placing them loose in trailer bins.
> Cans — Thin aluminum cans and bottles do not mix with tin and steel cans. Heavier aluminum, catfood cans and disposable baking pans for example, belong with tin/steel. Aluminum foil is not accepted.
For information, call the recycling center, 308-763-1410.