Cross contamination triggers need for clearer recycling guidelines in classrooms

When one tosses a sheet of paper, aluminum can, or drinking cup into the recycling bin, it is expected that it will be taken to a recycling plant, broken down, and then reincarnated as a new product. If you are throwing away a recyclable item at West, there’s a fair chance that it might not go on such a journey. 

Unbeknownst to many people who put their recyclables into blue bins in classrooms across the school, the materials collected in these locations are often combined with the school’s garbage and taken to the landfill, never being given the opportunity for a second life as a different product. Although the boxes, cans, and other packaging materials that pass through the school’s food service are properly recycled, many of the recyclable materials disposed of in classrooms are simply thrown away. 

Junior and Green Alarm president Emmy Reichenberger thinks the school should be recycling the materials that are able to be disposed of in this way. 

“I feel as though we as a school should be able to recycle things properly given the fact that we have so many amazing resources to do so,” she said.

Head custodian Brett Wolff believes the school strives to properly dispose of the recyclables collected in classrooms, but that contamination from food, drinks, and non-recyclable items often forces janitors to throw away the materials collected in recycling bins.

“What ends up happening is that a lot of people put things in the recycling bins that aren’t recyclable,” he said. “You throw a coffee cup with a little bit of coffee in it still or some food in there, and it gets on everything. So as soon as that gets in there, we can’t recycle it anymore.”

Because it is so easy for contamination to occur, throwing away recyclable materials is a wide-spread problem.

“We’re contaminating more recycling bins than we’re not,” Wolff said.

Kelly Reyer, the Education and Outreach Specialist for Winnebago County Solid Waste, claims there are many ways that contamination prevents recycled materials from being made into new products. 

“It’s a cleanliness issue for the staff who are on the material lines and are hand-separating recyclable materials,” she said. “The food or product residue can also contaminate other clean materials.”

In addition, contaminants can prevent specialized machinery at recycling facilities from correctly identifying the materials they are in place to sort.

“If there is liquid or food remaining in the container, it will be too heavy to be read by the machines and will end up on the residual line headed to the landfill,” Reyer said.

Difficulty managing contamination of recyclables is not a problem exclusive to West. This issue prevents recyclables in school districts across the state from being properly disposed of. 

“I will say, being new to this district and coming from other districts, this is not a concern just in this district,” West Principal Lewis Malczewski said. “Literally every district I have been in, and there’s been three of them, every single one has this same problem.”

Students and staff are becoming increasingly aware that recyclables in classrooms are often combined with garbage. Sophomore Annabelle Schmitz reports having noticed this taking place and recalls being confused by the experience.

“I saw the janitor dump the recycling into the garbage one time, but I assumed they would sort through it later,” she said. 

Recycling is an opportunity for individuals and organizations to reduce their environmental toll and to support their local economy. Reyer observes that sending recyclables to landfills wastes valuable opportunities to contribute to the health of the environment and the Oshkosh community. 

“Without exception, recycling is the top action society can do to simultaneously improve the environment, the economy, sustainable manufacturing and to prevent waste from going into our waterways,” she said. 

Reyer highlights the local impact of recycling, pointing out that there are several production plants across the Fox Valley that use the mixed paper collected in the region’s recycling facilities to create goods like printing paper and bathroom tissue. 

Schmitz agrees that recycling is important to supporting sustainable environmental practices.

“It saves resources,” she said. “It will help the planet in the long run.”

Knowing about the school’s struggle with this issue has made Schmitz see recycling at school in a new light.

“It’s kind of weird,” she said. “I think I’m doing something good, and then I find out that, actually, that’s not happening at all.”

Reyer points out another disadvantage to being unable to recycle these materials,  and it could be more expensive for the school.

“Tipping fees, paid by organizations disposing of waste, are higher for landfilling recyclables as trash versus sending recyclables to the material recovery facility for processing,” she said. 

The root of this problem is the need for more education and better attentiveness to what is being placed in recycling bins.

“Whether it’s educating students or staff to make sure we’re not putting inappropriate things in the wrong bins, or whether it’s policing it more, or people not paying attention to what they’re putting in the different bins—I’m not sure the true answer to all of that,” Malczewski said. “It’s probably a combination of everything.”

Solving this problem will require the combined work of students, teachers, and other school staff. School administrators and janitors are in the process of developing strategies to better dispose of the waste collected in classrooms by making sure recycling bins remain uncontaminated in the future.

“Over the summer, we’re going to get labels made and printed and put on all the garbage cans to try to make it easier for people to identify what should go and what shouldn’t go in these different recycling bins,” Wolff said. “That’s something that we’re going to hopefully be able to implement going forward that will be able to solve that issue.”

Many students and staff hope to see the school community improve in this regard in the future. Reichenberger believes that West has a duty to revise its approach to recycling.

“I do think that it's important for us as a student body and staff to do anything we can to improve our school's carbon footprint,” she said.

by Aria Boehler

Published May 20 2024

Oshkosh West Index Volume 120 Issue VIII