Talking trash: New Hanover County wants to recycle more waste, but that's easier said than done

AI-assisted summary
• Recycling helps extend the life of the county landfill, a major benefit as landfill space decreases.
• The economics of recycling can be challenging, with commodity prices fluctuating and processing costs high.
• Public education is crucial to ensure residents understand what can be recycled and to counter misinformation about recycling practices.

The loader picked up a pile of cardboard-heavy recyclables and dropped it on the conveyor belt.

Up it went into the material recovery facility, or MRF, to be flattened, smashed, cleaned of contamination like plastic bags if possible, and sorted into different piles before being combined into large bales.

From there, bales of cardboard would head to a paper plant in South Carolina to be broken down into pulp and remade into new boxes and other packaging materials. Other bales full or aluminum and plastic would be loaded into trucks and head in the other direction on U.S. 17 north to Jacksonville to be sorted at another Sonoco Recycling facility, the private contractor that runs the recycling facility for New Hanover County.

"What makes this work is the partnership we have with the community," said Joe Suleyman, director of the county's recycling and solid waste department, as a truck full of recovered cardboard pulled out of the recycling facility on U.S. 421 North. "Sure, we have the facilities and the processes to recycle a lot of things. But without them wanting to do the work to collect and package their recyclables, we wouldn't be able to do this."

Roughly a dozen miles to the east in the Murrayville area of New Hanover County, Martha Wilson dumped a bucket full of empty soda cans and glass into one of the giant blue dumpsters situated on the north side of the Lowes Foods parking lot after tossing an armful of broken-down cardboard boxes into another dumpster.

When asked why she made the effort to collect and transport her recyclables to one of the county's seven recycling drop-off centers − New Hanover doesn't offer curbside recycling pick-up, although Wilmington and some private trash haulers do − Wilson thought for a bit.

"Well, it's the right thing to do for the environment and for our children," she said, noting the need to ease the pressures on the world's natural resources. "But I just hope that this stuff is actually recycled and doesn't just end up in the landfill like the rest of our trash."

And that sentiment is just one of the challenges facing the continued growth and success of the county's recycling program.

Saving landfill space

Recycling isn't really a moneymaker, with New Hanover County turning a roughly $45,000 profit during a good year on its recycling operations, Suleyman said.

But removing waste from the waste stream does come up with obvious benefits beyond making people feel good.

For New Hanover County, that's primarily pushing out the lifespan of the county's landfill.

Suleyman said the county's sprawling landfill near the Pender County line on U.S. 421 North probably has about 23 years of space left − a figure he'd like to see extended out to 30 years by increasing recycling and other proactive measures.

"When the landfill is full, that last cubic yard of space will be priceless," he said. "But it will be too late for that."

Several decades ago New Hanover found itself in a situation where it needed space to dump its trash after community anger and regulators forced the county to shut down "orphan" landfills, like Flemington and one in Carolina Beach. But neighboring counties declined to accept the county's waste, prompting the opening of the large, lined landfill north of Wilmington.

But the clock is ticking, and Suleyman said it's all but certain New Hanover won't have the space to open a new landfill once the current facility fills up.

"When we have to hang a "closed" sign on the gate of the landfill, we're going to be subject to the whims of others, and that's not a good situation to be in," Suleyman said.

The tough financial realities of recycling

While state law requires communities to keep certain items out of landfills, like old tires and hazardous waste materials, whether to offer general recycling services is very much a local decision often driven more by politics and public sentiment than economics.

Wilmington's recycling program, for example, is a voluntary curbside collection program that's provided as part of the city's trash collection service at no additional charge for residents.

In 2018, the EPA reported that the U.S. produced about 292 million tons of waste, or about 5 pounds per person. Of that amount, 69 million tons were recycled and 25 million tons were composted.

In 2020, the U.S. recycling rate was 32% − mostly consisting of food and building materials. The EPA has a goal of boosting that to 50% by 2030.

But political will and people wanting to do the right thing for the environment only go so far.

Recycling is also a dollars-and-cents business.

During and after the Covid-19 pandemic, the commodity market for recyclables tanked as supply chains collapsed and consumer demand eroded. Rising inflation and labor costs created more problems. With recycling a money-losing endeavor, municipalities either had the option of subsidizing their recycling operations or ending them. Several N.C. communities took the latter option.

The N.C. Division of Waste Management reported that 10 municipalities ended curbside recycling in 2020-21, bringing the total number of programs statewide to 312.

But things have bounced back since then. Commodity prices are up, and the amount of material residents are recycling also is surging. Suleyman said five years ago New Hanover County used to recover about 6% of the waste headed to the landfill.

"Now that figure is closer to 11%," he said. "Having nearly doubled our recycling rate is something to be proud of, but that still means we have 90% of our trash out there that goes into the landfill. But I really feel we're making progress, and that's a testament to our residents."

Offering people alternatives

To try and make recycling as easy and attractive as possible, New Hanover has several programs to streamline the process. Besides the drop-off recycling sites, a mobile "HazWagon" also makes regular trips around the county to pick up household hazardous materials like paint and electronics − materials that also can be dropped off anytime at the main recycling center on U.S. 421 North.

The county also accepts old appliances (white goods) and is working on a swap station where items like bicycles, electronics and appliances that just need a little tweaking by crews to get back in working order can be picked up for free by residents.

"If you don't want something in a landfill, you have to offer people alternatives," Suleyman said. "That's what we're trying to do."

With the surge in residents ordering items online, officials across the country have seen a surge in boxes and other packaging materials appear in the waste stream.

While officials have plenty of experience in recycling cardboard, other packaging materials are being developed before the recycling industry knows what to do with them.

"That lag is a bit of a problem, but we're getting there," Suleyman said, noting that some state officials are pushing rules to limit how much packaging one shipped item can contain.

Another issue officials often have to deal with is the perception, often driven by incorrect information on social media, that items marked for recycling actually just end up in the landfill.

While sometimes some recyclables are contaminated, often with plastic bags, and unable to be salvaged, Suleyman said that is very much the exception, not the norm. Still, when someone sees a truck dumping what looks like recyclables at the landfill and then tells a friend or posts online about it, the story can spread quickly.

"It's an ongoing battle to tell people that's not the case, but we understand their concerns and their frustration about why they're making the effort to separate their recyclables if it's just going to end up in the landfill," Suleyman said, noting that the county offers tours of the recycling facility so people can see how the process works.

Back in Murrayville, Wilson finished dumping some soda and cereal boxes into one of the giant blue bins.

"It does make me feel good, like I'm doing a little something to help our environment out," she said. "I just wish we could do more."

Suleyman said his department is always looking for ways to reduce the flow of garbage to the landfill, with recycling more items top of that list − as long as it makes political, economic and practical sense.

"We have the process and the facilities to do more, but it's not going to work without our partners," he said, referring to the community and those businesses interested in using recycled materials. "But if we were so busy here recycling stuff that I needed to add a second shift, that would be a great problem to have."

Reporter Gareth McGrath can be reached at GMcGrath@Gannett.com or @GarethMcGrathSN on X/Twitter. This story was produced with financial support from the Green South Foundation and the Prentice Foundation. The USA TODAY Network maintains full editorial control of the work.