Trash vs. recycling: What gets recycled and what gets thrown out?

LAS VEGAS (KLAS) — As we celebrate Earth Day, sustainable habits are at the top of our minds, including recycling, but how much of what we recycle actually gets recycled?

Republic Services serves almost 620,000 households throughout Clark County. The center can process 70 tons of mixed recyclables an hour and 270,000 tons a year.

“We take in an average of 800 to 1,000 tons of material every single day and as you can imagine what you’re throwing in the curb is all mixed together. Our job here is to separate those materials into light commodities,” Jeremy Walters, the Sustainability Ambassador for Republic Services, explained. “Recycling has grown over the last several years, when they first opened the facility in 2015, we were taking in anywhere from 650-750 tons per day and now we’re doing an upwards of 1,000 tons per day.”

What you recycle ends up at the Republic Services Southern Nevada recycling center.

“Depending on where we live in the valley, some areas recycle better than others and we can see 20% contamination in a recycling bin,” Walters remarked.

Unfortunately, other items like trash thrown in your recyclables also end up at the center. That’s why it’s so important to recycle correctly.

“Once something goes in the trash can, we do not sort through it so if you’re throwing recyclables in there thinking that we sort through it, we physically can not do so,” Walters added. “Additionally it’s way too contaminated to even be recovered in the first place, think about the food waste and wet waste that goes in there.”

After the recyclables are dumped by trucks, the material is sent through machines to separate paper, cardboard, plastic, and other items. Workers on the assembly line also discard trash that’s mixed in.

All plastics are baled before it’s shipped out to a secondary recycling center. All of the bales weigh at least 1,800 pounds.

While plastics are sent to the polymer center nearby, manufacturing companies receive the other baled items which can be turned into new goods.

Walters says what actually gets recycled depends on what we’re doing as consumers.

“You might think, I’m one person I don’t really make that much of a difference but when we think about it from a collective experience how many millions of people live in this town, we can all do a better job at recycling and ensure we’re saving valuable resources,” Walters said.

Republic Services also takes recyclables from Lake Havasu City, Arizona and St. George, Utah.

To learn more about recycling, click here.

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