Q: When Is Trash Not Trash? A: When It’s Recyclable Mixed Debris.

I just returned from a few days of site visits on college and corporate campuses. I found a very common situation: open top rolloff containers that were being used for the mixed debris from onsite construction and cleanup projects. When I complimented their mixed debris recycling, I got the same response almost every time. “The rolloff is trash, not mixed debris”. But when I looked, every rolloff held mixed debris that could be recycled by Ben Harvey or ERRCO or New England Recycling or another regional facility.

Either I have been doing this way too long or this is a glass half full thing. When I think trash I think commingled commodities that can’t be recycled. MSW, municipal solid waste, the stuff in my garbage can at home. What I saw in these rolloffs wasn’t trash. It was combinations of wood, metal, brick and block, insulation, roofing, gypsum, often some furniture, lots of cardboard. Trash cannot be recycled effectively. Mixed debris, the stuff that I saw, can be recycled easily. Here in New England trash costs more to landfill or incinerate than mixed debris costs to recycle. Mixed debris can significantly increase a school or company’s recycling rate; trash reduces the recycling rate.

With a little effort to keep out the worst contaminants, all of these “trash” rolloffs would be mixed debris recycling containers. Environmental benefit, waste diversion, cost savings, increased recycling rates – am I missing something here, or are a lot of campuses trashing a lot of recyclables.