The most effective way to set up viable recycling programs is using a method that I call parallel access. Recycling bins for most commonly-discarded materials should be located next to but be visibly different than the trash bins. The decision the guest makes of whether or not to participate in the recycling program should only take a fraction of an instant and the effort required to do so shouldn’t take much longer. For example, if your guest has a trash bin in their room, but has to walk down the hallway to get to a recycling bin, that is going to limit the number of people who participate in your program. Conversely, if it takes the same effort to recycle as it would have to throw something into the trash, more of your guests will recycle more often. It may seem obvious but it’s often overlooked: recycling bins in the absence of waste enclosures will result in more contamination.
No matter why you undertook a recycling program, one of the most important parts of establishing such a program is the realization that recycling collection is nothing new. You are still taking out the same trash that you would have taken out even if you weren’t recycling. That’s true whether you separate recyclables into one bin or 10 bins. All you are doing differently is just separating it into different containers so that folks “further downstream” can use those materials to manufacture new products.
Thus, for your recycling collection to work most effectively, it shouldn’t be significantly harder than taking out the trash. That’s true for anyone in the system. If it is significantly easier to throw recyclables into the trash than it is to recycle them, somewhere in your collection chain, too many recyclables are going to end up in the trash too often. Is it easier for your guest to put something into the trash bin than to recycle it? Is it easier for the housekeeping, custodial, and or grounds staff that is emptying those bins throughout your facility? Is it easier for the hauling company picking up your stuff? Or even after it leaves your facility, have you collected such a heavily contaminated and marginal quality product that it is easier for the recycling mill or intermediate processing facility to discard your material as trash rather clean it up to the point where it can be recycled into new products? If the answer to any of those questions is yes, some of your recyclable stuff is going to end up in the trash. The degree to which the answer to any of those above questions is yes will determine how much of that stuff ends up in the trash and how often.
Include Housekeeping, Custodial Team in Decision Making
Remember, your recycling program is not adding to the amount of trash your housekeepers or custodial staff remove. The same stuff is there to be picked up regardless of whether it all goes into the trash or it gets separated for recycling. If you were able to pick up the trash before with your existing staff, you shouldn’t need an entire new collection crew just because you decided to separate some of that material for recycling (it is unlikely that the revenues received from the sale of your recyclables will fully fund another whole collection crew anyway). All you should need is to make a couple modifications to your housekeeping cart or trash collection cart. That might mean replacing one large trash bin with the applicable number of smaller bins, or designing a way to hang saddle bags for certain materials off a central bin. Be sure to include your housekeeping and custodial staff in the decision-making about this. Some of the best housekeeping and custodial cart designs I have seen over the years have been stuff jury-rigged by staff.
There are a lot of really important reasons to recycle. And there are a lot of benefits to doing so. But giving guests parallel access to both waste and recycling will allow them to recycle more effectively. Aligning the process of servicing your bins with waste collection will make for a more effective program overall through your staff.
Roger Guzowski has spent more than 20 years in the recycling field and has managed award-winning recycling programs in both Massachusetts and California. Throughout that time, he has been a prolific public speaker about recycling across the country, having presented in almost every region of the country and for a broad spectrum of organizations. He has played a leadership role in several state and national collegiate recycling councils, and has been actively involved with a variety of recycling organizations including MassRecycle, the California Resource Recovery Assn., the Northeast Resource Recovery Assn., and the National Recycling Coalition. Guzowski is also a resident expert for Prestwick Limited, which manufactures waste and recycling solutions.
