EDCO Does Its Part To Help The Environment

Tag : HDPE Material
One of the easiest ways to help the environment may be throughrecycling household items such as aluminum cans, plastic bottlesand cardboard. Fortunately for Imperial Beach residents, localwaste and recycling company EDCO has made the once burdensome choreof recycling easy.

In the past, recycling required cleaning out containers and sortingthem into separate bins but now EDCO uses a simplified processcalled comingling. Its large blue recycling containers can holdevery type of recyclable material including tin, aluminum, glass,plastic, paper and cardboard.

Imperial Beach resident and mother Rachel Brackett appreciates theease of recycling. “Just a few years ago my family used tolive in condos at Eastlake and they didn't have any type ofrecycling program. The EDCO blue bins are great and since it's soeasy to do we make a concentrated effort to put every kind ofrecyclable material in there,” she said.

For the Bracketts and many other local residents, the job ofhelping the environment is done after they place their blue bins onthe street. But what happens after that? After trucks pick up theirloads of recyclables they drive to EDCO's state-of-the-artrecycling processing plant in Lemon Grove.

Since recycling has become so popular in the last decade, EDCO hastaken great steps to improve the way recyclable materials areprocessed. “EDCO is more of a recycling company now than justyour local trash collector. Through our 41 years in business wehave evolved into a waste and recycling company and we are pleasedthat the awareness for recycling has grown not only within ourcompany but within our communities,” said EDCO director ofcommunications Yvette Snyder.

At the Lemon Grove facility, the recycling process begins whentrucks dump their loads and the materials are loaded onto aconveyor belt screening system, which is the heart of EDCO'soperation.

“This facility processes about 500 tons of recyclables a dayand of that, 92 percent makes it to the bailing and shipping phaseof our system. It's really incredible when you stop to think aboutit,” said Snyder.

Nearly a quarter mile of conveyor belts divide the comingledrecycling into separate recyclable materials. Larger materials andnon-recyclables get pulled out in the beginning of the conveyorsystem, known as the pre-sort line, through a machine and humanscreening process. As the conveyor system moves along, the screensget smaller and recyclables like small pieces of glass and paperare identified and placed in their respective bins.

The first recyclable screened is cardboard. EDCO recycles 100million pounds of cardboard a year. The system then removesnewspaper and mixed paper such as junk mail. Newspaper is the mostcommon recycled material and in 2007 EDCO processed nearly 130million pounds of it.

A large portion of local recycled paper and newspaper comes frombusinesses. “We are always trying to get the message out, notonly to residents but to businesses. A lot of times we will hear ofchallenges customers face trying to recycle, such as space issuesor tenant education, but no matter what the situation, we'll find asolution. That's why our company slogan is ‘We'll Take CareOf It,'” said Snyder.

After paper and cardboard are removed from the conveyor stream,EDCO workers remove various hard materials such as tin, plastic,glass bottles, pieces of glass and aluminum cans. The conveyorsystem uses a magnetic belt to remove tin products from thecomingled stream of materials. Tin comes from items normally foundin the grocery store such as canned soups, vegetables, coffee cansand pet food cans. In 2007 EDCO recycled more than four millionpounds of tin.

The next step in the conveyor system is the removal of plasticsusing a high-tech, computerized optical-eye sorter that removesplastic with strong puffs of air. The optical eye reads thethickness of the plastic and identifies plastics such as waterbottles. Polyethylene terephthalate plastic is the most common formof plastic and can be recycled into things like fleece jackets,food containers, carpet and back into new bottles.

High density polyethylene No. 2 plastic containers consist almostexclusively of one-gallon milk and water containers and can berecycled into things like toys, kitchenware and piping.

Colored plastics, also known as HDPE No. 2, are typically thingslike detergent bottles and juice containers. Since they alreadyhave a pigment imbedded, manufacturers are more limited as to whatmatters they can be recycled into.

One of the few remaining challenges for home recyclers isdetermining what type of plastics can be recycled. “We acceptplastic containers marked with chasing arrows 1 or 2. Sometimespeople aren't sure and want to play it safe so they just throwother plastic containers in the recycling cart and that's OK, too.As materials are sorted through our facility, plastics that are notrecyclable will get pulled out. We'll process and recycle otherplastics when possible, but long term markets for these others arenot secure,” said Snyder.

In 2007, EDCO processed and shipped out more than five millionpounds of PET plastics and more than four million pound of HDPE No.2 plastics. The last materials to be processed are aluminum cansand glass bottles. Most of the aluminum cans that go through theEDCO system will be back on store shelves within 60 days.

A large portion of aluminum cans and glass bottles are redeemed atEDCO Buyback Centers, allowing customers to have a little pocketchange while also helping the environment. “We always takeour cans and bottles to a recycling facility. It's fun for the kidsand we enjoy the money we get back from it,” said Brackett.

EDCO's Buyback Centers collect several million pounds of materialevery year. After the recyclable material has gone through theconveyor system it is bailed and placed in holding or directly ontrucks and shipped all over the U.S. and to foreign countries.

From the time recycled materials leave Coronado and Imperial Beachto the time they go onto a container for shipping is about threedays. “Most of the glass recyclables are going to Mexico.Paper and plastics usually go to Asia and aluminum primarily staysin the U.S.,” said Snyder.

On top of recycling residential household materials, EDCO offers anextensive program for construction and demolition (C&D) recyclingin Coronado and Imperial Beach. EDCO is one of a handful ofcompanies in southern California to tackle the difficult task ofC&D recycling.

According to EDCO, nearly 35 percent of waste in landfills is C&Ddebris. “Our goal is to divert C&D from landfills and weaccomplish that through our C&D recycling facility. We takematerials like concrete, wood, metal, drywall, plywood, carpet andcardboard,” said Snyder. The process is similar to theresidential recycling conveyor system. Materials arrive by truckand are sorted by workers and by the screening system.

The recycled materials can be used in multiple ways. Wood can betaken to power plants to be used as a fuel source to generateelectricity. Carpet padding is processed and made into new padding.Scrap metal is melted down and used again in many differentproducts. Drywall is broken down and used as soil amendments andother dirt and debris is used as cover for landfills.

From the time the collection trucks pick up waste bins to the timethe semitrailers arrive at the landfill, EDCO's entire operation isabout conservation. Trucks leave Coronado and Imperial Beach andare sent to EDCO's transfer station, EDCO Recovery and Transfer,located just outside National City's city limits. The smallercollection trucks dump the waste on the floor of the transferstation and it is sorted to identify any recyclable materials thatcan be diverted for recycling.

The waste that remains is then placed into a semitrailer whichtakes the waste to the landfill. “Before it goes to thelandfill we pull as much recyclables out of the waste stream aspossible,” said Snyder. For more information on recycling,including an interactive video on how recycling works, visit www.edcodisposal.com .