E ver wonder what happens to those recyclable items — the

newspapers, pickle jars, tuna fish cans and soda bottles —

you leave, each week, in backyard bins? Other than the fact that our des-

ignated garbage collector hauls those recyclables away, most of us don't

give our recyclables — or our trash — a second thought. Joseph Lametta,

Weston's director of public works, says the town collects some 900 tons

of recyclables per year and that in terms of separating out items that can

be saved, "the residents are pretty good. The state of Connecticut wants

to get to a 50-50 ratio between garbage and recyclables," Lametta adds.

"Right not the town's ratio is 75-25, which is still good for a small town."

Weston enforces backyard pickup as opposed to curbside, because like

other image-conscious Fairfield County towns (including Greenwich and

Westport), it considers garbage and recycling bins unsightly. That only

increases the out-of-sight, out-of-mind mentality.

Here's the deal. The garbage collector dumps the newspapers and

other paper recyclables into one bin, and the "comingle," or cans, jars and

bottles, (which must be clean) into another and then carts them off to the

Weston Transfer Station. As the name implies, the transfer station is just

a way-station on the way to the items being broken down for reuse. There

is a bin for corrugated cardboard, one for cans and bottles, one for news-

paper and one for magazines. The station, says a spokesperson, charges

the garbage collectors about $79 a ton. These are later shipped to

Fairfield County Recycling (FCR) in Stratford for sorting.

There, says Weston resident Ed Gargiulo, who manages the facility, their

biggest problem is that homeowners put into recycling bins items that don't

belong, thinking that more is better. "The only plastic items that should be in

bins are those with a clearly marked recycling symbol with a number one or

two inside," Gargiulo says. "Anything else we just put back in the garbage."

At FCR, the grouped recyclables are sent via a moving belt into an

enclosure where workers pick through the items by hand. A machine with

a magnet pulls the metal cans off the belt automatically, while workers

are each assigned to one particular type of recyclable — one finds clear

milk containers (otherwise known as high-density polyethylene or HDPE),

another searches for pigmented containers, another for plastic bottles

marked with the number one, like soda and ketchup bottles (made from

GREEN

7 6 I S S U E 3 7. 2 00 9

by Brita Belli

FOLLOW THE CANSWHERE ALL THOSE RECYCLABLES GO

green37 3/26/09 1:38 PM Page 76

polyethylene terephthalate or PET). The plastic,

says Gargiulo, is made into bales and sent to

Envision Plastics in South Carolina where it is

pulverized into pellets for reuse. The soda and

water bottles made of PET are sent to Mohawk

Industries in Georgia, which turns them into

carpet. The aluminum goes to beer giant

Anheuser-Busch Companies, while the glass —

separated by color — is sent to Container

Recycling Alliance in Massachusetts.

Fairfield County Recycling currently handles

the recycling for 19 area towns, but its relation-

ship with Weston may change when the town's

contract with the company ends in June. Right

now, says Lametta, Weston can drop off its

recyclables to FCR for free, but it can't benefit

financially from the reusable materials.

Lametta says they haven't made any decisions

yet, but there's a possibility that the town's

recyclables could provide a little extra income

for town coffers — even if only about $10 or $15

per ton. The only problem, he says, is that with

the financial collapse, the market for card-

board and used paper that once received top

dollar in China has all but disappeared.

Brita Belli is the editor of E/

The Environmental Magazine

at www.emagazine.com.

7 8 I S S U E 3 7. 2 00 9

"The only plastic items that should be in bins are those with a clearly marked recycling symbol with a number one or two inside"

W

CONTACTS:

Guide to Recycling in Weston: www.westonct.gov/media/file/RecyclingGuideRevised2008-2009.pdf

Weston Transfer Station: 237 Godfrey Road East; 222-2668

Fairfield County Recycling, Inc.: 1410 Honeyspot Road Ext., Stratford; 203/378-8558.

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