Recycling Glass, Tin, and Plastics

Description

Like homes, boats and the marinas at which they are stored, produce many recyclable waste streams. But unlike most municipal neighborhoods, marinas often do not recycle these products because the service is not provided to them by local municipalities. Recognizing this, the aim of this BMP was to properly dispose of these solid wastes by privately providing recycling facilities for tin, glass and plastics.

Implementation

Standard 96 gallon recycling totes were provided to two of the participating marinas by two different private waste disposal contractors for the collection of tin, glass and plastics. The two marinas were of similar size (248 and 256 berths). Both marinas placed the totes at the head of their main piers, and adjacent to the dumpsters used for disposing of non recyclable solid wastes. All recycling totes were labeled with what they were designed to collect.

To further educate marina tenants on the use of the facilities, the second marina distributed additional educational flyers to each of the tenants (see Appendix E of hard copy). Evaluation of this BMP was done by monitoring the volume of material collected prior to the weekly emptying of the totes.

Evaluation

Cost: The cost for providing recycling of glass, tin, and plastics averaged to $32 per week, per facility.

Pollutants Collected: The two marinas averaged 1.95 full 96 gallon totes per week or the equivalent of 16.25 percent of a standard six yard dumpster's capacity.

Cost Effectiveness: This practice is effective in preventing re-useable materials from being permanently discarded in landfills. However, it cost substantially more to recycle the material using a private waste hauler than to simply have disposed of it using the dumpsters that were already available. For example, the average cost to provide and empty a standard six cubic yard dumpster was $36.00 per week. When you consider that it cost $32.00 per week to recycle what could have been disposed of in the dumpsters for $5.12 (16% of price based on volume of recleables collected), it becomes obvious that although recycling is the environmentally preferred disposal method, it may not be cost effective in certain installations.

Lessons Learned/Recommendations

• Recycling is the environmentally preferred disposal method for reusable materials.
• Check to see if your municipality will provide the service at no cost or at a reduced fee. If not, try tackling the task in-house.
• Although the practice has proven environmentally effective, due to the fact that private service providers tend to be costly in the provision and emptying of recycling facilities, this method is economically inefficient.
• Recycling of tin, glass and plastics can be economically efficient if its cost can be made compatible with the fee for standard disposal.
• Sufficient receptacles can be privately purchased and properly labeled for a nominal fee.
• Of the survey respondents not recycling, 50 percent felt that the process took up too much space onboard their vessels and was too time consuming; therefore, try to simplify the procedure by providing commingled collection bins.
• Recyclables can then be disposed of at no charge by either bringing them to municipal collection sites or by encouraging local ÒscrapersÓ to collect the metals.

Return to BMP Case Studies Main Page