At home, we face a recycling challenge every week. I sort, prepare and clean our recyclables to ensure that what goes in the bin actually gets recycled.
My husband just tosses items in blue recycling bags. Everything you could imagine goes in. Some examples include unrinsed cans with labels attached, loose plastic bags, plastic bottles, Styrofoam meat trays with plastic wrap still on it or the absorbent pad still stuck on the bottom, paper, cardboard and once in a while an apple core. Really!
I could go on, but I think you get the picture. When we talk about these first-world challenges, his response is, “It shouldn’t be such a fussy chore to help save our planet.”
If sorting our household recycling can be frustrating, imagine doing it with large volumes of waste.
Thankfully, our motto at Davidson Environmental is “Chuck it in the Bucket.” This includes food waste and its packaging. We believe waste systems need to work in the real world.
Commercial kitchens, grocery stores, restaurants and food processing facilities are busy places. Asking employees to stop and separate packaging from food waste is not always practical. There are time pressures, competing priorities and, yes, human beings involved.
That is why we look for ways to make waste diversion easier. “Chuck it in the Bucket” means food waste and its packaging can go together. Employees don’t have to spend valuable time separating them.
We let machines do that work.
The best waste diversion system isn’t always the one that asks people to do more. Sometimes, it is the one that makes doing the right thing easier.
