Agnostic about Recycling?

Some Bard students are recycling skeptics. "I watch the Aramark workers, and they just shove everything into the same bag!” Laurie (Department of Environmental Resources Head) assures you earnestly they have a separate paper recycling bag within their big plastic bag. Appearances can be misleading!

Other Bard students complain recycling is energy-inefficient. “All our recycling is shipped ridiculously long distances. In the long run, it creates more carbon emissions than the creation of new materials!” one Bard student told me, saying this was the result of his research during a think tank internship.

Well, let's see if transparency will convince the naysayers. What really happens to those valuable recycled materials once Aramark leaves them on the curb? A couple of very nice guys named Fred and Paul load the bags into their truck and bring them to the Bard recycling yard. Perhaps you have stumbled on this fenced area near SMOG, haunted by crows joyously feeding on compost. Under the eerie cries of the crows and in the haze of overwhelming stench, these materials accumulate in thirty-yard bins. Then the Royal Carding trucking company takes them away to Ulster County Resource Recovery agency.

Whence from there? The cans go to Kingston, where “Millens & Son, Saving the Planet since 1888,” salvages them. Besides providing the full array of metal recycling services, Millens & Son preserves the memory of “Gus, the Safety Dog,” whose photo features prominently on their website. Posed in front of an American flag and a panoramic view of Earth from space, this adorable puppy with a brown squished face tells us to “Live Green.”

Mountain View Recycling in Little Falls, NY takes the plastic bottles. Some plastics and whatnot go to K.C. International (located in the glorious town of Brick, New Jersey) but most of the paper goes to a plethora of little recycling companies scattered all over New York State. For example, Sierra Recyling in Clifton Park NY takes our newspapers, magazines, and paperback books. The only out-of-state paper recycler is North Shore Recyling in Salem, Massachusetts.

However, for a few tricky materials more complex than paper, we seemed force to rely on Haycore Canada Inc, in Russell, Ontario. Some would argue, doubtless the carbon-spewing trucks should not have to drive all the way to Canada. But its a natural result of Canada's more advanced recycling infrastructure. Recycling has long been mandatory for quite a few towns in Ontario. Maybe someday New York can hope to attain Canada's level of sophistication.

Moral of the story: the recycled materials do travel around, but not as much as you think. The vast majority of it seems to stay in New York. Making paper from paper still probably consumes less energy than making paper from virgin timber ripped from the land. So keep on dumping those essays in those friendly little red bins....