In 2009, only 7 percent of discarded plastics were recycled in the United States, according to the Environmental Protection Agency.
Why? Why can’t we recycle every kind of plastic, including those labeled with recycling Nos. 1 to 7, in our curbside recycling bins? Why can’t we throw old plastic toys in, too?
It’s a long complicated story, said Matt Stern, Waste Management’s Northwest director of recycling operations.
But there’s good news: Plastic recycling technology is changing, quite dramatically, in the Northwest.
Someday you may actually be able to recycle the sun-stained toddler-size picnic table you couldn’t even unload for free at your garage sale.
Waste Management, the largest garbage and recycling hauler in Snohomish County, is working closely with Agilyx, a Tigard, Ore.-based company that has found a way to turn all plastics, no matter what type, into something valuable: synthetic crude oil.
That’s oil that can be refined, in this case in Tacoma, into fuel for automobiles, a far different fate than the dead end of a landfill.
“All of the Agilyx technology is very intriguing and potentially very powerful in the terms of the way we think about recycling,” Stern said.
Agilyx, founded in 2004 and formerly known as Plas2Fuel, already has produced and sold more than 120,000 gallons of crude oil, recovering more than a million pounds of plastic that would otherwise have been landfilled or incinerated.
But don’t expect to throw your child’s broken scooter or sled to the curb for recycling any time soon.
It’s going to take years, Stern said, to bring the benefits of the new patented technology to residential customers in Snohomish County.
Waste Management must first set up recycling centers that can process such plastics to meet Agilyx’s standards for recycling.
Businesses, not residential consumers, will likely be the first to rely on the new technology.
“We’re just at the beginning of a long journey,” Stern said. “There are steps or pieces to the puzzle that have to be put in place.
“You have a glimpse into the future of where we’re headed.”
Plastic, which is made from petroleum, is not melted or ignited in the Agilyx recycling process, Stern said.
“It’s converted from a solid to a liquid to a gas, and then it is condensed back into crude oil,” he said.
Agilyx, which claims to be the first company to economically convert plastics to oil, announced in March that it had secured $22 million from inventors, including venture capital firms and other interested parties, such as Houston-based Waste Management.
Stern said Waste Management would use the technology for hard-to-recycle scrap plastics, not commonly recycled plastics such as drink bottles.
What can you do for now? Recycle plastic soda bottles and milk jugs. Ask for recycling services at businesses that don’t offer them. Use less plastic.
In 2009, only 28 percent of soda bottles and jars, and 29 percent of milk and detergent jugs were recycled, according to the EPA.
Sarah Jackson: 425-339-3037, sjackson@heraldnet.com.
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