The Daily Tar HeelWednesday, April 1 8, 1 9905 v
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Engineers, others work to include plastics in recycling campaigns
: By CHRISTINA NIFONG
Staff Writer
By 7:15 in the morning, Earl Fen
nel, Stevon Strudwick and Ronnie
Crosland are already tossing around
papers and breaking glass.
AH three are collectors for SunShares
Recycling in Durham, and every Tues
day through Friday, from 7 a.m. to 3
p.m. or until they finish their routes,
they drive around in special blue trucks
with recycling labels plastered on the
side.
' In Durham, SunShares reaches about
16,000 homes semiweekly, but Tom
Tarlton, operation supervisor for Sun
Shares, said people in unserviced
communities called every day wanting
to have their recyclables picked up.
"It's the hottest thing," he said.
m For many reasons, however,
recychngplastics is not the hottest thing.
Larry Kehrer, recycling system man
ager at SunShares, said plant capacity
created a problem with adding plastics
to the current collection.
He also said collecting plastic, was
expensive because it was so bulky and
light. Since processors pay for re
cyclables by weight, not volume, it
takes a lot of space to collect enough
plastic to make recycling pay off. "A
lot of it is a question of cost," he said.
Jeffrey Peirce, civil and environ
mental engineering professor at Duke
University, identified other problems,
including finding a market for recycled
products and plastic mixtures in prod
ucts. "There are problems all along the
way," he said. One industry bought a
grinder to recycle some of its wastes,
Peirce said, but the grinder's opening
was1 too small to take the large pieces,
which would have been the most prof
itable to recycle.
:' Peirce said he wanted society to deal
with recycling collectively. Environ
mental concerns became prominent
when the public realized that its water
was polluted. Now the government
regulates clean water. The government
also has assumed the responsibility of
cleaning the air.
But the third problem, solid waste, is
still being handled as a personal, pri
vate problem, Peirce said. "Society has
to start to kick in money and clean up.
"Wouldn't it be nice if Chapel Hill
owned three grinders?" he said. That
way each company wouldn't have to
buy its own grinder, which might be too
small. If one city owned several, then
these could be used for industries and
regional processing.
Peirce also said money was a large
problem. After plastic is melted,
crushed, combined and mixed with glue,
it may be more expensive to recycle
than it is to create a new product. Since
cost is measured on a per unit basis, one
city alone has a hard time being cost
effective, he said.
It compares to washing laundry. "It's
better to save all the dirty clothes until
you have one big load. You have to use
the same quantity of soap and water,"
he said.
Give an engineer anything, and he
can find a way to recycle it, he added.
But companies must be concerned with
how much can be recycled and at what
cost. "I may not be able to handle 17
truck loads of it," he said.
Mark Chilton, co-chairman for Tar
Heel Recycling Program (TARP), said
the main problem with recycling plas
tic was that it didn't get recycled it
got reused.
Plastics, because they can be melted
at high temperatures, can transfer dan
gerous chemicals to food, he said, and
thus the Food and Drug Administration
(FDA) will not allow recycled plastics
to hold or wrap food.
Chilton's answer is to stop using
plastic bottles. "Precycle it instead of
recycle it." There are parts of the coun
try where every bottle gets recycled, he
added. Use plastics for reusable, per
manent things instead of disposable
things, he said.
"And to the extent that we're forced
to use plastic recycle it."
Plastics are extremely lightweight,
so transporting them conserves energy.
That's good for the environment. Chil
ton said the best alternative would be to
recycle plastics completely, but current
technology prohibits that.
One man, however, seems to have
the answer to all these problems. Barry
Appelget, president and founder of
Environmental Recycling Inc., is a
chemical engineer who may revolu
tionize plastics recycling.
"We've done things no one else in
the country has done. We've done things
people have said were impossible."
Plastics take up 15 percent to 20
percent of landfill waste, he said. He
agreed that because of plastics' ma
keup, they were difficult to recycle. It
takes 70 milk jugs to make a pound. It
is hard to collect, ship and store that
quantity.
Greensboro, the home of Appelget's
first recycling plant, will start a trial
program of recycling plastics in June.
Collection will take place semiweekly
at all residences.
Appelget overcomes the obstacle of
collecting plastic curbside by using a
normal garbage truck. All of the re
cyclables will be collected and then
separated at the plant.
The plastic will cushion the glass, so
that the recyclables can be compacted.
This does away with the need for an
expensive, specialized truck, as well as
the need for more space which would
be necessary to collect plastics.
The problem with demand?
Appelget said that only about 1 per
cent of the demand for recycled plastics
is being met. One could sell 16 billion
pounds of recyclable plastic but now
only 30 million pounds is recycled.
Appelget said they turned plastics
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Plastics soon may join the piles of aluminum cans and glass bottles waiting to be recycled
DTHC. Nifong
into egg cartons, cassette tapes, auto
motive parts, bleach bottles, flower pots,
carpet backing, paint brushes, the black
cups on the bottom of soda bottles and
fiber fill the material that goes into
sleeping bags and coats.
He also is building one of the few
styrofoam recycling plants in the coun
try. He said he could afford this be
cause he had designed this plant to cost
90 percent less to build than the classi
cal systems.
He said his research and innovations
would allow more plastics recycling.
But, he said, "We're not just doing this
out of the goodness of our hearts. We
hope this will be profitable."
A little closer to Chapel Hill, Blair
Pollack, the solid waste planner for
Orange County, said the Orange Re
gional landfill budget might allot an
estimated $15,000 for plastic recycling
drop-off sites.
He said that in the Orange County
landfill, plastics made up 2.5 percent of
the 30,000 to 40,000 tons of residential
waste each year. "There is plenty out
there to capture," he said.
Things are looking up for plastics
recycling on campus, too. Rhonda
Sherman-Huntoon, campus recycling
coordinator, said she was working on a
drop-off site at the University.
Collecting plastics is not set in stone,
she said. It appears to be one of the
smaller volumes, but the Orange Recy
cling Services, the recycling company
with which UNC has a no-fee contract,
is willing to collect plastics, she said.
"We're getting there."
Getting involved in the environment: a guide for acting locally at UNC
By LAURA WILLIAMS
Staff Writer
People say they think recycling is a
good idea. Sure it's a good idea to clean
up the air, water and land. B ut worry ing
about the issues is a long way from
solving environmental problems.
' It should be an "earth day, every
day" attitude, said Kate Shappley, a
member of the Student Environmental
Action Coalition (SEAC).
' Bumper stickers encourage people
to think globally and act locally. How
ever, most students don't know where
to begin. Students can do many things
every day to help save the earth.
1 D Recycle those cola cans
Students can make a habit of depos
iting their aluminum cans in the blue
bins in the residence halls and Student
Union. The Tar Heel Aluminum Recy
cling Program (TARP), a branch of
SEAC, is the group responsible for
setting up the bins. A private company
picks up the cans and takes them to the
recycling center, said Mark Chilton,
cb-chairof TARP.
"It's not just a matter of recycling
cans, but wondering why you create so
much trash in the first place," he said.
SEAC focuses on not creating so much
trash in the first place. But once trash is
made, it must be recycled, he said.
"Those two working together will
solve a lot of our problems."
B Carry your own cup
SEAC encourages students not to
use paper disposable cups and offers
green plastic SEAC mugs as an alterna
tive. The mugs have become a fad
around campus, tied to bookbags and
around dog's collars. Many Chapel Hill
businesses offer discounts with the
mugs.
Students can purchase a mug for $1
in the Pit this week, and at the Campus
Y and Sadlack's Heroes on Franklin
Street.
Simi Batra, coordinator of the SEAC
mug effort, encouraged students to use
glass cups in the dining halls.
Mary Beth Powell is the state recy
cling coordinator for the Solid Waste
Section of the Department of Environ
ment, Health and Natural Resources.
D Recycle your used motor oil
Beginning April 16, 1990, the Or
ange County Landfill on Eubanks Road
will recycle used motor oil. Residents
of Orange County may take up to two
gallons of used motor oil to the landfill
to be recycled Monday through Friday,
7:30 a.m. to 4 p.m. and on Saturdays,
8:30 a.m.-1 1 :30 a.m. Although there is
no charge for depositing the oil, it must
be in closed containers. The oil will be
used as industrial fuel.
Used oil dumped on the ground or in
sewers will pollute lakes, streams and
soil. A gallon of used oil can ruin a
million gallons of fresh water a
year's supply for 50 people.
B Get involved on campus
UNC is headquarters for the Na
tional Network of Students' Environ
mental Groups. SEAC-UNC has many
branches, including the Marine Action
Committee, the Rainforest Action
Group, and the Tar Heel Aluminum
Recycling Program.
These programs offer ways for eve
rybody to get involved. The groups try
to educate students and have visited the
N.C. School of the Arts and Chapel Hill
High School to show slides about their
programs.
Members of SEAC traveled to
Washington, D.C., in April to push the
Clean Air Act.
B Think about what you buy
Students can buy and use only prod
ucts that are the least harmful to the
environment. Batra said students should
not buy many disposable items. He
added that students could buy things in
. bulk quantities.
Some products, such as deodorant,
that come in small bottles are often
packaged in small cardboard boxes to
help them stand out on the shelf, Batra
said. This leads to extra packaging that
ultimately ends up in the landfill. The
larger size items do not require as much
packaging, he said.
B Plant a tree, or even two
People can plant trees with an organ
ized group or on their own.
SEAC has planted more than 1 ,500
trees in Orange County this year, Shap
pley said. They plant trees on govern
ment land, school grounds and public
parks. The group's goal is to plant
10,000 seedlings by Earth Day, April
22.
B Buy recycled products
The biggest problem with recycling
is trying to find a market to buy re
cycled goods, Powell said.
"If you can't find a market for the
recycled goods, then you aren't closing
the gap. For recycling to occur, it has to
go full circle."
She said people tended to think that
once they set up a recycling program
they had solved the problem. But that's
not the case.
Copytron on Franklin Street sells
recycled paper for 6 cents a sheet, Batra
said. Earlier in the semester, the price
was 8 cents, but teachers and students
requested recycled paper so much that
the business lowered the price.
Batra said demand for recycled goods
will ultimately drive the price down.
B Carry your own grocery bag
Students can carry their own bags to
the grocery store when they shop and
eliminate the excess cutting of trees to
make disposable bags.
Even the new bio-degradable bags
are not proven to degrade in the landfill
when acted upon by light and other
natural elements, Shappley said.
fl Conserve water
When shav ing or brush i ng your teeth,
turn the water off, Batra said. This
leaves more water for fanners to irri
gate their fields.
Also, some people put fixtures on
their shower to limit the amount of
water that comes out. Although this is
impossible for dormitory residents,
students living in apartments should try
to save water this way.
B Take the Earth Day pledge
For the last two weeks, SEAC
members have been in the Pit educating
students about their programs. Mem
bers encouraged students to sign an
Earth Day 1990 Green Pledge.
The pledge states that an individual
will pledge to do his or her share in
saving the planet by recycling, con
serving energy, saving water and using
efficient transportation.
All pledges collected will be mailed
to Washington, D.C., and will be as
sembled into Earth Day art.
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