"Outside E.L. Harvey’s single-stream recycling and sorting plant in Hopkinton, Ben Harvey points to stacks of nearly 3,000 bales of mixed paper that he doesn’t know what to do with. He’s not able to ship it overseas to Asia like he’s done for decades.
That’s because China recently imposed strict guidelines that make it nearly impossible for recycled materials to be shipped out. For the past two months the 2,000-pound bales are being stacked up in the parking lot.
“We’ve got a building full. We have trailers full,” Harvey, president of the company, said Wednesday afternoon. “We are pretty much maxed out with our storage capacity; we don’t want to store material that doesn’t have a market.”
Single-stream recycling allows consumers to collect all recyclables in the same bin. Harvey’s operation sorts the materials and prepares them for shipping."
Continue reading the article online (subscription may be required)
http://www.milforddailynews.com/news/20180104/mountains-of-paper-stacks-up-after-china-says-no-more
This topic is not a surprise as it was covered in the DPW update to the Town Council in the December 2017 meeting reported on here. The presentation doc covers trash/recycling beginning on page 21 after providing an update on the sewer system.
http://www.franklinmatters.org/2017/12/live-reporting-dpw-presentation.html
Franklin can do its part to help improve its recycling. The current contamination rate is about 6%, the industry average is 14%, and the new regulations require less than .5%.
For additional info on what to recycle and what not to check out the Recyclopedia
http://www.franklinma.gov/recycling-solid-waste/pages/recyclopedia-what-do-i-do
or this site provided by Waste Management
http://recycleoftenrecycleright.com/
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