Where do Kitsap's recyclables go?
Recyclables collected in Kitsap County are sorted at Waste Management- JMK Fibers, a Materials Recovery Facility in Tacoma. Machines and workers sort the recyclables into similar materials, bale them together and sell the bales to manufacturers.
Domestic and international buyers bid on the bales on an open market. Buyers inspect each bale and pay a higher price for clean materials without contamination.
When recycling markets are good, you receive a recycling rebate on your recycling bill. If sellers cannot sell a bale of recycling, they may have to pay the processor to take the bale. Or they may re-sort the bale to remove contaminants. It is much easier to sell recyclables if the quality is good from the start. Quality begins in your home.
What do recyclables become?
Plastic bottles, jugs, jars, or dairy tubs are primarily sold to a sorting facility in Canada. This facility is a "secondary sorting facility," where plastics are sorted again to increase the quality of the materials so they're easier to sell to re-manufacturers around the world. Recycled plastics become a wide variety of plastic goods. However, when the price of oil is low, manufacturers are less likely to use recycled plastics and more likely to use virgin plastics.
Corrugated cardboard is turned into a variety of paper products. The majority of cardboard is recycled at paper mills in the US. If the cardboard is purchased by Port Townsend Paper Company in Port Townsend, WA, for example, it will become the raw materials used to construct new cardboard boxes or pulp used to make new paper.
Mixed paper like office paper, mail, magazines, and paperboard boxes has some local (WA state) markets and some goes to countries in Asia. Paper becomes a variety of paper products, like packaging, tissues, and paper towels.
Metal cans are 100% recyclable and can be recycled an unlimited number of times. Steel (tin) cans are often recycled at Nucor Steel in Seattle. They melt and manufacture steel scrap into a variety of steel products. Aluminum cans are often sent to aluminum smelters in the southeastern US. It takes only a few month for a aluminum can from your recycle bin to make its way back to the shelves as a new can.
Glass bottles and jars are crushed during the sorting process to minimize the abrasive impacts on the sorting machines. Crushed glass is often sold to manufacturers of composite materials, sandblasting medium, aquarium gravel, landscaping materials, and more. It is also used as an "alternative daily cover," a material placed on the surface of an active landfill cell to control pests, fires, odors, and blowing litter. Ardagh Group, a packaging manufacturer in Seattle, uses recycled glass to produce wine bottles.
