Even for those who are on board about recycling in McLean County there’s confusion about what can be recycled — and perhaps some laziness about contamination.
Those are among the results of a survey by the Stevenson Center for Community and Economic Development at Illinois State University for the Ecology Action Center [EAC] in Normal.
The survey involved 663 McLean County residents. Graduate students Kat Johns and Sierra Mack-Erb also did long interviews with other residents, both urban and rural, to find out what they know about recycling and contamination in recycling. The two methodologies provided a check on the results. There also was a quiz about recycling knowledge.
Johns and Mack-Erb said respondents did pretty well. The average was 11 out of 14 questions right, though there are gaps that could help explain contamination rates in the recycling stream in the county.
“They knew that paper and aluminum was recyclable, people had a hard time with scrap metal. Iced coffee cups was the biggest one people got wrong. Iced coffee cups are not recyclable. And then hot coffee cups were also closely behind that. Those are also not recyclable. Starbucks, iced coffee, or Dunkin, people were getting that wrong. They were recycling them,” said Johns.
Of those surveyed, 92% said they do recycle, though the pool did skew heavily toward educated white women. Even so, Mack-Erb said the results showed there is a culture of recycling. Most people did not say they faced major barriers to recycling.
“Within that culture, there were high levels of confidence in people’s recycling habits, but those did not necessarily correlate to the quiz we tested them on in contamination,” said Mack-Erb. “And we found that was consistent across our interviews, too.”
There was a lack of knowledge of which plastics are recyclable. People aren’t aware of variations in recycling plastic particular to McLean County.
“People were talking about recycling the weird plastic containers that their kids’ toys came in. Sometimes people would talk about recycling yogurt cups. The Ecology Action Center will say, ‘Bottles, tubs, jugs, and jars.’ A little yogurt cup couldn't really be recycled. But if you had a big tub of yogurt, that could be recycled. To a lot of people that doesn't necessarily make sense,” said Johns.
And when they had a question about whether something is recyclable, people don’t necessarily go to the right place to find out. Some go to Reddit, Mack-Erb said, though there are regional and local variations in what recycling is available. That generates disagreements on Reddit threads and can steer people the wrong way. Some people admitted throwing up their hands and recycling items because it’ll probably work, or just in case.
“We lovingly refer to that as ‘wish-cycling.’ The EAC says if you don't know, don't recycle it. Throw it away,” said Johns.
Respondents tended to know how to define contamination and what single stream recycling means. And, they’re willing to recycle.
“Then where's the disconnect? Why are we still seeing so much contamination in recycling? What our survey starts to hint at is ... what people aren't recognizing is how damaging that is to our recycling system, that contamination really is an issue,” said Mack-Erb.
Johns and Mack-Erb said one of the takeaways for the EAC is to develop ways to make it easy for people to get information about what is and is not recyclable. The center already does some of that work. More marketing is needed.
“The Ecology Action Center has an app called Recycling Coach people can use to type in what is and isn't recycled. That app will tell you right away whether you can or cannot recycle it. What we found in our survey is that 75% of people have never heard of that app,” said Mack-Erb.
Even some local information is incorrect. Mack-Erb noted the signs on the dropoff bins in Normal that offer directions are out of date and incorrect. The Ecology Action Center is in the process of replacing those with more current guidance. The EAC has had extensive education efforts for years. including school class tours through the center with material on recycling.
“Without that, we wouldn't have the 11 out of 14 score that we have. But it's still not quite reaching,” said Johns.
Practices change too and public knowledge may not keep up.
“Pizza boxes is an example. It used to be you can't recycle your pizza box if it has any grease on it. Now you can. The message changes and so does recycling in general. That's why it can be so confusing,” said Johns.
Johns and Mack-Erb also recommended more research to generate data from a broader section of the community. The Ecology Action Center will use the data to form new recycling education initiatives.
