Single Stream Recycling versus Multi Stream

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Single stream recycling versus multi stream recycling
The urge to re-use most products and develop products that have less negative impacts to the environment has led to increased levels of recycling (Kinnaman & Takeuchi, 2014). Environmental conservation and the calls to have a green environment and use products that have minimal environmental impacts have led to the increased levels of recycling. Recycling is the process of collecting and converting used products to usable and quality products. If not recycled the used products could be taken as wastes that could contaminate the environment since most of them are inorganic. Recycling of products has been existent for a long time, but the eye-catching action in recycling is the evolution of the recycling systems or methodologies (Goodship, 2009).

The need to get high quality recyclable materials which are less contaminated led to municipalities developing systems that could allow the sorting of these wastes right away from the consumers of the products at their homes. This process of using multiple waste-deposition units or carbs in the places of waste collection is referred to as multi-stream recycling. Multi stream recycling is the process of recycling where the recyclable materials are placed in different carbs by the depositor and this sorting is maintained from the collection point up to processing facility (Lehmann & Crocker, 2013). This process is highly preferred by the material processors since it eliminates the initial contamination and reduces the cost of sorting out materials that can be recycled. It also involves much initial layout of the collection carbs since multiple trucks and bins are needed to ensure different wastes are placed in different deposition bins. The need to reduce the recycling costs and other costs related to recycling led to development of single-stream recycling. Single stream recycling which also referred to fully commingled or single-sort recycling is a recycling system where all recyclable materials including paper, plastics and metals together with glass are placed in a single truck at the depositor points and taken in this mixed form to the material recovery facility where now the separation is done (Worrell & Reuter, 2014). It is a different and cost effective method of recycling as compared to multi-stream recycling since all material are placed in one bin separation does not occur at the deposition point and cuts on the cost of transportation since all materials are transported to the recovery facilities via a single truck.

The choice of which process of recycling to use has brought about a major challenge to all the players involved in the recycling processes. Municipalities are the major players involved in waste collection and transport to the recycling centers. Other players are the material recovery facilities (MRF) which are involved in the sorting and identifying of the recyclable materials from the wastes collected and process them to get re-usable products (Goodship, 2009). Single stream recycling programs were first put into use by the municipalities in the state of California in early 1990s due to the need to reduce the cost of the recycling process and by 2012 there were more than 250 materials recovery facilities that worked sunder the single stream recycling program (Morawski, 2009). Each of the two recycling processes has its cons and pros that determine its usage in the recycling process. The factor about the cost of collection and transportation together with the processing costs at the recovery facilities has been a major factor in determining which of the two processes to use in recycling.
Recycling in the United States has been through a very long way and evolved separately in different states. For instance New York used multi-stream recycling which is referred to the old-fashioned recycling where separate bins for paper, glass and plastics were used to collect the wastes for recycling. At the same time North Carolina was using single-stream recycling method where all waste were placed in single bins and taken to recovery facilities in single trucks and separation between the recyclable and non-recyclable materials done there. Since early 1990s most municipalities have been turning from multi stream form of recycling to multi stream recycling process (Event Safety Alliance, 2014). This has been necessitated by the need to cut on the costs of placing the bins in the residential places together with the transport and sorting process costs. In single stream recycling all the recyclable materials are placed in single containers without sorting and the comingled or unsorted materials are placed into trucks and transported to the material recovery facility where the sorting and processing of the recyclable materials is done.
Each of the recycling processes has its advantages and drawbacks. There is the need to consider all the aspects which affect the recycling process to settle on the efficient method to use for recycling of materials. Some of these aspects include the cost of recycling, convenience to all the participants in the processes, ability to recover useful materials from the waste and the rate of collection at the deposition sites (Kinnaman & Takeuchi, 2014). For instance in single stream recycling there is need for the development of a collection system that is designed for single stream recycling and development of material recovery facilities with processing systems that are specially designed and able to handle unsorted and commingled materials. This is important for the recycling processes to be able to sort and recover re-usable materials of the unsorted materials and waste (Morawski, 2009).
The invention of single stream recycling has aided in maximizing on the amount of materials that can be recycled. For instance, in the United States, the recycling methods used in 1990 managed to recycle over 35 tons of materials and the amount rose to almost 90 tons by the end of 2011 (Goodship, 2009). This was due to the maximization of collection of waste materials by using the single stream recycling process. The major reason why many municipalities have switched from multi streamed recycling to single stream recycling is the need to increase the volumes of materials collected for recycling and also the need to reduce the high costs of material collection when the collection is done via multi streamed processes. The use of single stream recycling has helped cut the costs of waste collection by a very favorable 20% (Morawski, 2009). Single stream recycling process is more convenient to the residents since it eliminates the need to sort the wastes before putting them on the collection bins. This way more materials can be collected since with only one bin available for deposition, the residents are encouraged to put more stuff in the bins for collection. This has led to the increased amount of collected was...