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Photo by Sarah Finnegan.
Birmingham Recycling and Recovery workers sort through paper recyclables.
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Photo by Sarah Finnegan.
Mural at the Birmingham Recycling and Recovery plant in Avondale.
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Photo by Sarah Finnegan.
Blocks of crushed aluminum cans sit, awaiting pickup at the Birmingham Recycling and Recovery plant in Avondale.
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Photo by Sarah Finnegan.
Corrugated cardboard blocks await pickup at the Birmingham Recycling and Recovery plant.
Recycling has been at the forefront of the “green” movement for many years. It’s been proven to help maintain environments while reducing the waste that goes into landfills, and has been accepted by communities around the world.
Waste Management Public Sector representative Mike Mitchell also noted that while it may be an amenity, it’s not free.
“In most cases, especially now the way commodities recycling is, recycling may actually cost more than putting it in the garbage,” said Mitchell. “But recycling’s not always about just saving money. Recycling, the majority of the time, is really about being green and doing the right thing.”
And a majority of those living in Mountain Brook are “doing the right thing” by recycling. Both Mitchell and city manager Sam Gaston estimated somewhere between 70 and 75 percent of residents take part in weekly recycling.
Mitchell said Mountain Brook recycled more than 1,400 tons of materials while throwing away around 1,200 tons in 2017. The tonnage of recycling fluctuated over the years, reaching as high as 1,522 in 2012 and dropping to 1,080 in 2014, according to Birmingham Recycling and Recovery data. BRR is a commercial recycling facility to which 25 municipalities deliver their recycling.
But Mitchell said Mountain Brook’s recycling rate was still “exceptionally high” for a city.
“There is very good participation,” he said.
The differences between years could be due to any number of variables, and Mitchell cited fluctuation on recycling education or promotions, changes in the economy and online shopping as possible reasons.
“Sometimes, being green is huge, and then it kind of lays back,” he said.
Waste Management handles the garbage and recycling pickup in Mountain Brook and looks for specific recycling bins along their routes. The bins designate the materials should be picked up. Everything — trash, garbage and recycling — is picked up on the same day, one day per week, depending on the neighborhood.
Gaston and Public Works director Ronnie Vaughn said the city puts out a flyer each year with details about the different waste pickup options for residents, which includes what is permitted under each designation. The information is also available on the city’s website.
Acceptable trash is typically brush and larger items, such as small piles of limbs, bagged grass and leaves, furniture and appliances, clothing, paper products and moving boxes, yard work supplies and metal. Large amounts of leaves are also picked up about four times per year and used to create compost — which residents can use — at the city’s Public Works Department.
Garbage is described as only kitchen and bathroom waste.
The city of Mountain Brook previously listed telephone books as recyclable, but that has since changed. The city also listed No. 1 through No. 7 plastics as accepted recyclables, however BRR will only work with No. 1 and No. 2 plastics at this time. Newspapers, aluminum, steel and other metal cans, magazines and cardboard are also acceptable, although everything put in the recycling bin should also be cleaned of any food particles to avoid contamination.
Mitchell said the Waste Management drivers are typically aware of what the residents put on the curb and are able to discern what goes in which truck.
“If it’s in the recycling bin, and it’s one of the commodities, we pick it up,” he said. “We have to use a little bit of common sense with it,” he explained for the things that won’t fit in the provided 18-gallon bin. “If there’s multiple [boxes] next to the bin, we’re going to pick them up and recycle them,” he said.
But despite efforts to “go green,” Leigh Shaffer with Birmingham Recycle and Recovery said each load of residential recycling has, on average, 20-40 percent contamination.
“Pretty much every load has some sort of contamination in it,” Shaffer said, adding, “I don’t know if we’ve ever rejected a residential load.”
If a load has a higher contamination rate, Waste Management is then charged a fee based on contamination. If they notice a recycling bin is heavily contaminated, Mitchell said workers will pull the items and leave a note for the resident.
Commodities that are accepted at BRR are then sorted into mixed paper, aluminum, steel fibers, cardboard, plastics and bottles by machines, magnets and people who stand along belts that carry items throughout the facility. Some items, such as plastic bags, can damage the equipment and are thrown away.
But at the end of the day, the sorted materials are then bundled and sent off to mills and other companies to remake products.
Glass falls under the designation of “trash” and is not recyclable. Both Gaston and Vaughn said glass has not been accepted for about 20 years now, which is partly due to the lack of a market for it.
“We have some people that will call out of the blue and ask why you’re not picking up glass,” Vaughn said, citing industry standard. “Glass is next to impossible to get rid of.”
Mitchell said glass also has to be separated based on color and is very dangerous to handle.
Previously, Leadership Mountain Brook worked with the city and local restaurants to try to implement a glass recycling system, but Gaston said there wasn’t a big market for it, echoing the reason residents can no longer put glass in their recycling. Shaffer said too that BRR is planning to work with municipalities to help them educate residents on how to better recycle, and after realizing that Mountain Brook was still stating all plastics were recyclable, Mitchell said he is reviewing the city’s informational flyer with BRR for accuracy.
For those who wish to still pursue an option to recycle glass, there are some local options.
The Alabama Environmental Council, or AEC, accepts glass. Although their machine is currently out of operation, customers can still bring in their glass for when the machine is repaired. AEC also offers walk-up recycling, where people can bring in certain unwanted items that they don’t want to simply throw away.
Target also offers glass recycling, and residents can bring in bottles or windows before the company ships it back to their warehouse to be recycled.
For more information about recycling in Mountain Brook, visit mtnbrook.org. For more about recycling in the Birmingham region, including the BRR and AEC, visit alabamarecycling.org.
Materials accepted for recycling
*Accepted by Birmingham Recycling and Recovery
‡Accepted by Alabama Environmental Council
► Junk Mail*‡
► Magazines*‡
► Cardboard*‡
► Newspaper*‡
► Paper*‡
► Detergent Bottles*‡
► Shampoo Bottles*‡
► Milk Jugs*‡
► Paper Egg Cartons (not Styrofoam)*‡
► Water Bottles*‡
► Aluminum Cans*‡
► Paper Board*‡
► Soup Cans*‡
► Small engines‡
► Empty propane tanks‡
► Corks‡
► Steel/mixed metal‡
► Copper‡
► Brass‡
► Steel cans‡
► PUR/Brita water filter products‡
► Electronics (including computers, televisions and cell phones)‡
► Ink/toner cartridges‡
► Wood‡
► Batteries (rechargeable, single use and auto)‡
► Appliances‡
► Textiles‡
► Cigarette waste ‡
►#6 rigid plastic cups‡
Birmingham Recycling and Recovery, 9 41st St. S., is open to the public 7 a.m.-4 p.m. Tuesday through Friday. Alabama Environmental Council, 4330 First Ave. S., is open 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. Tuesday through Friday and 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. Saturday.
