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At the Pennsylvania Resources Council's recycling bin giveaway in Lawrenceville April 21. Some 800 bins left the lot.
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Editorial: Small changes can make a big difference for city recycling

Pennsylvania Resources Council

Editorial: Small changes can make a big difference for city recycling

Curbside recycling in Pittsburgh actually works. Despite widespread skepticism about whether recycling programs in the U.S. effectively keep materials out of landfills, over 85% of the debris that enters the city’s Bureau of Environmental Services recycling program is processed for reuse, according to a recent audit by the City Controller’s office. With a few small changes by both the Bureau and city residents, that percentage can continue to rise.

Generally speaking, the more effort the consumer has to put into recycling, the fewer people bother. Systems that make consumers sort their own recycling get a higher percentage of materials into the reuse system, but they collect less material.

Pittsburgh and most of its suburbs have gone the opposite route, making recycling as easy as possible for residents, but more difficult for processors. These so-called “single-stream” systems collect all recyclables together, but they must be sorted later on.

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The biggest problem with single-stream systems is glass, which breaks easily during the process. The shards can contaminate other recyclables, especially cardboard, making them harder or impossible to process. Broken glass also presents a safety hazard for workers.

City residents can help solve this problem by taking their separated glass to one of three green dumpsters located at recycling centers under the 31st Street Bridge in the Strip District, at McKinley Park in Beltzhoover or at Construction Junction in Point Breeze, instead of including it in curbside recycling. But lugging a trunk-full of glass halfway across town is few people’s idea of a good time. A relatively inexpensive way to make the city’s recycling systems more efficient would be, as the audit suggests, adding glass dumpsters in more locations.

There are already bulk recycling drop-off sites in the East End (Hamilton Ave), Hazelwood (Melanchton St) and the West End (Hassler St), to which glass dumpsters could be added. The city should also scout out a North Side site or two, and a second South Hills site, to spread the dumpsters more evenly.

Other steps city residents can take to improve recycling services include: being careful to put only recyclable materials in curbside bins; leaving their recycling out for pickup the next day if it’s not collected when scheduled; and signing up for the PGH.st app to more easily keep track of the recycling schedule by receiving text message or email reminders, as well as notifications about delays due to staff shortages, holidays, emergencies or weather.

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Pittsburgh’s effective recycling system should be a point of pride. It will only grow more robust if city government and residents work together to improve it.

First Published: September 5, 2023, 9:30 a.m.

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At the Pennsylvania Resources Council's recycling bin giveaway in Lawrenceville April 21. Some 800 bins left the lot.  (Pennsylvania Resources Council)
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