The Delaware Solid Waste Authority has declared a test program targeting recycling contamination a success.
DSWA, working with the Town of Smyrna, The Recycling Partnership, and Waste Management last month stated that the state’s first “Feet on the Street” sharply reduced a high contamination rate.
The effort included community-based observers who tagged and provided feedback on trash carts with contamination that includes plastic bags, food residue, batteries and small electronics that have to be separated and can gum up recycling machinery.
Smyrna was selected as the first test in Delaware after a DSWA audit identified high recycling contamination rates.
According to a release, the first scans of Smyrna residents’ recycling carts revealed a contamination rate of 34%. At the end of the six-week-long program, the final scan of the program revealed Smyrna’s contamination rate had dropped to 5%, one of the lowest in the state.
The town plans to continue efforts to reduce contamination which reduces the costs of recycling.
Tagging by refuse haulers is not unknown in Delaware, but is difficult to do, given the need to quickly empty containers, sometimes via robot arms.
