Get Full Government Meeting Transcripts, Videos, & Alerts Forever!
Get email alerts on the Recycling Audit topic
No spam. Unsubscribe anytime.
Greensboro recycling audit shows contamination down to about 20%; auditors warn batteries, bagged recycling remain problems
Summary
At a recycling-audit demonstration at Greensboro City’s solid waste transfer station, presenters said the city’s contamination rate fell from roughly 40% in 2021 to about 20% now and urged residents to avoid bagging recyclables and to keep batteries out of curbside bins to reduce fire and contamination risks.
A recycling-audit demonstration at Greensboro City’s solid waste transfer station showed how auditors sample, sort and weigh curbside material and reported a decline in the city’s recycling contamination rate.
"Since 2021, our recycling contamination rate has gone down, from around 40% to now around 20%," the presenter (S1) said, attributing the drop to outreach and process improvements. An auditor on site (S2) said the composition study covers both residential and commercial streams and helps the city target education and improve the value of recyclable material.
The segment demonstrated the audit process: trucks delivering collected material are staged separately, a random sample of routes (about half of the city’s routes) is selected for audit, and a random patch of the tipped pile is pulled and mixed by a skid steer to produce a representative sample. "We grab a random sample from the pile from the truck and that random sample is taken to be audited," S1 said.
Auditors lay the sample on a tarp, remove large contaminants such as metal tanks, then move the material to a sorting table inside a tent where it is hand-sorted into categories (plastic bottles, plastic tubs, corrugated cardboard, mixed paper, aluminum and steel cans, and others). Each category is weighed and the weights are used to compute the final contamination rate that, the presenters said, affects how much the city pays the recycling center for processing.
S1 flagged two recurring problems: bagged recycling and loose batteries. "Bagged recycling is a big thing we see," S1 said, explaining that material put into plastic bags cannot be opened at the processing facility and therefore cannot be reliably recycled. S1 also warned that batteries "cause fires in recycling centers" and in transfer stations, making battery removal a safety priority.
S2 emphasized the broader purpose: "We are doing a recycling composition study for the city of Greensboro" to identify what is in the stream so the city can design targeted outreach. The presenters said cleaner material typically earns better market value and lowers collection and processing costs, creating a strong fiscal incentive for improved public education.
No formal actions or votes were recorded during the recorded demonstration. The presenters said the audit findings feed education and operational decisions intended to lower contamination and reduce processing costs for Greensboro City.
