As Arkansans shop for Black Friday and cyber Monday deals, recycling facilities are preparing for a projected 10% increase in packaging material over last year's online holiday shopping.
"The forecast for this holiday season includes increases in online shopping and shipping," said Craig Douglass, executive director of the Regional Recycling District in Pulaski County. "That means more cardboard boxes will be showing up on the doorsteps of area residences. It also means an increased opportunity to recycle cardboard."
December has long been a predictably busy time for online retailers and customer service, but the covid-19 pandemic has increased demand further.
"Each person generates 36 more pounds of waste in December than in other month of the year. That's the equivalent of throwing away 58 teddy bears," Plastic Free Little Rock posted last month from the nonprofit Center for Biological Diversity.
With even more cardboard boxes being shipped to area residences than ever before, Adobe Analytics, an online retail research company, predicted the significant bump in online shopping this year.
Regional Recycling will conduct a cardboard recycling education program from Dec. 1-26 to help address how to dispose of the extra materials predicted to arrive on the doorsteps of Arkansans. The program will use television, radio, print and social media to connect with consumers, according to a Nov. 22 news release.
"It's important to understand that cardboard in a landfill releases methane, which is 25 times more harmful to the atmosphere than carbon dioxide," Douglass said.
District leaders hope to inform residential customers about how to prepare cardboard for waste management to pick up. It must be flat, meaning cardboard boxes must be broken down and fit inside the curbside recycling cart for pick up, according to the release.
Douglass added "please don't overstuff the cart, and put all plastic wraps and Styrofoam in the garbage, not the recycling cart."
Cardboard and other recyclables -- aluminum, steel and tin cans; number-one and number-two plastics; paper, cardboard, newspapers and other materials -- are not the only items that show up at Central Arkansas' materials recovery facility, known as "MRF," plant manager Rusty Miller said. The holiday season is an especially interesting time at the Little Rock Recycling Facility.
"It's like Christmas every morning here," Miller said.
He showed off some of the latest finds Wednesday, including a battered violin in its case and a wooden training missile shell from World War II.
"One of the catchphrases now is 'wish recycling' – when you put it in there wishing it will make it through the system and be recycled," but for a lot of reasons, including cost, it can't be recycled with the current system, Miller said.
This time of year, recycling workers start to see old Christmas lights, organic food and yard waste (that can be composted but not recycled), as well as liquid contaminants, he said.
These, as well as other common "non-recyclable" items, like metal from large tires, plastic bags and garden hoses, can all damage the facility's machines. Recycling contamination can also lead buyers to either reject the recycled, sorted materials or buy them at a lower price.
"Those are the kinds of contaminants that we see here that cause a lot of issues," Miller said. "While we don't want to discourage people from recycling -- be telling them we have to keep it clean -- it's necessary to do that to make the system work. And for the most part, the people of Central Arkansas who we get our material from do a very, very good job."
Brittany Nichols, sustainability educator with the city of Little Rock, said residents can also try to avoid packaging waste – recyclable and non-recyclable – by buying local or used products this holiday season.
She said contamination in the area has been up since the summer, based on what's been recovered during cleanups.
"It's good to just think about the life span of that object," she said, referring to the packaging and the actual purchased good. People can also look for ways to reuse items, like plastic containers or cardboard boxes.
Nichols, who is also an organizer with the Little Rock resident-led group Plastic Free, said the group will be talking more about buying and living in an eco-friendly way at a meeting on Dec. 9 at 5:30 p.m.
The Regional Recycling District in Pulaski County works directly with the public works and sanitation departments of Pulaski County and the cities of Little Rock, North Little Rock, Sherwood, Jacksonville, Maumelle and Wrightsville to accomplish integrated waste disposal, reduction and recycling services, according to the district.
For more information on what and how to recycle, contact Regional Recycling at (501) 340-8787, or visit RegionalRecycling.org and FlatCardboard.com.
