Waste Reduction Resources

08/29/2025

Did Fayetteville, AR Environmental Director share this report with the City Council before they voted to trash a collection method that provided the city with income from marketable recyclables? If staff did not share this report, voters need to be asking, why not?

- One Third of Single Stream Collected Aluminum Cans Not Getting Recycled!! -

New studies show that almost 1/3 of aluminum cans collected via single stream are "lost". That means they do not get recycled.

Container Recycling Institute report, pages 15-17 discuss MRF contamination and losses:
https://www.container-recycling.org/images/2025/CRI_Aluminum_Beverage_Can_Recycling_Final_Report_2025-01-30.pdf

Single stream is also called mixed recycling, cart based recycling, single source, all-in-one recycling.

MRF is a Material Recovery Facility. It's where recyclables get baled. If mixed, it's where they are first "sorted" then baled.

UBC means Used Beverage Container. Aluminum cans are used for beverage, soda, beer, etc.

08/15/2025

CALL TO ACTION:

In the last month the Fayetteville City Council hastily voted to change from one of the best, cleanest curbside recycling programs in the nation to single stream recycling. They did this by voting to accept a Trash Collection Rate Study (that we paid over $111,000 for), with obvious holes in its data. Questions were raised by citizens, and even by City Council member Teresa Turk, but went UNANSWERED before the vote was cast. But Ms. Turk was able to slow the process a little bit this week by getting the agenda item of approval for ordering single stream trucks pulled off of the consent agenda, so that it will have to be voted on in a regular meeting (where YOUR voice can be heard). In addition - and most importantly - she has added a Resolution for Tuesday's meeting to request a new Recycling and Trash Master Plan be initiated, or the existing plan updated, to address all of those unanswered questions and the questionable data included in that rate study. In essence, regular city procedure to use a rate study to develop a Master Plan to act on was NOT followed, and she's requesting that they back up and do it correctly.

There are two ways you can help with this:
1) Email City Council members - put this in your own words: Why was the normal process of adopting a new program not followed, and why the rush? Please follow the regular process by updating the existing Recycling and Trash Master Plan, or draft a new one to address all the unanswered questions and fuzzy numbers presented at the last meeting. (You can find their emails here: https://www.fayetteville-ar.gov/247/City-Council)
2) Show up at the City Council meeting this coming Tuesday, 8/19 to voice your concerns, and to support Ms. Turk in her efforts towards responsible governance.

Send a message to learn more

07/28/2025

IF Single Stream is so Great why the Rush and Resistance to Due Diligence and Transparency?

1. Fayetteville Legal and Accounting Departments need to explain the Fort Smith lawsuit, and how citizens can be assured that it won’t happen in Fayetteville. Fort Smith got caught landfilling single stream collected recycling. Arkansas Supreme Court allowed it because garbage and recycling are charged as one line item. Does Fayetteville bill for recycling and garbage separately, so if fraud is committed a law suit can be won by those who want an honest/transparent recycling program? Can individual city employees or Council members be sued for fraud?

2. Council needs to pass a recycling transparency/accountability ordinance. Fayetteville currently has a resolution. It needs to be revised, updated, and turned into an ordinance.

3. Staff also needs to provide The Council with said ordinances from all the NWA cities currently using single stream recycling.

4. Staff needs to provide the history of single stream in “progressive cities” - Portland, Seattle, Asheville, Austin, etc. Also copies of recycling transparency/accountability ordinances. And information on how they determine contamination rates.

5. Fayetteville staff needs to explain how Fayetteville determines contamination rates at both the curb and the dropoffs. A former alderman from Ward 4 was told contamination rates were figured at Fayetteville drop off centers after contaminants were pulled out. Was that a joke?

6. Staff needs to provide contamination reports from all NWA cities using single stream. The report needs to include the separate contamination rates of each item collected.

7. Markets: Brian Pugh needs to do a presentation on markets. He has been dealing with them for decades and can explain how changes in collection systems have affected contamination and prices paid for materials. He can explain seasonal contaminants, cross contamination, why the Chinese cut off recycling from the U.S., and the affect mergers and acquisitions have had over all.

Council members are already swamped, so they can send their Garbage Geeks to Brian’s presentation. It should also be open to the public. I sent all the Council members packets asking that they give them to someone who really has time to study and learn about waste reduction/recycling. I asked Mayor Molly to send packet copies to each Council member for their own files. There should also be a public copy (vertical files) in the Reference section at FPL.

8. FINANCES do matter, so The Council needs documentation regarding what other communities are being paid for their recyclables, especially since the report calls for decreasing Fayetteville revenues.

9. The Council needs to be provided with a glossary and pictures so they can see the difference in trucks. The fewer compartments on a truck, the more contamination and danger to workers.

Did Mayor Molly run a “quiet” campaign platform promising to implement single stream within the first six months? Wish she’d run on a transparency/due diligence platform.

- Louise Mann

Send a message to learn more

07/13/2025

Not So Fast on that Single Stream Vote!
Heads up that the Fayetteville City Council will be voting on 2 trash/recycling items THIS Tuesday night, and Single Stream is on the agenda:

The Arkansas Supreme Court has ruled that it is legal to collect recycling curbside, throw it in a landfill, while deceiving residents and charging them for recycling. The trick or legal technicality is to charge for recycling and garbage collection as one fee. This and other significant issues are not addressed in the Fayetteville resolution to switch to single stream. Expect City Council to vote to switch to single stream this coming Tues., July 15. Attend and object if you believe residents should be informed about this big switch.

Single stream is the collection method whereby the recycle TRUCK has a single compartment in which different type recyclables are mixed together. Lots and lots of energy is expended to try to un-mix the mess. Which communities using single stream have a recycling transparency/accountability ordinance? How much are communities being paid for the recyclables being collected via single stream? Exactly how is data collected to report contamination percentages of each type recyclable? Where are the recyclables going after they leave the curb? What is the final destination of recyclables? How much space in the Tontitown landfill has been taken up with recyclables collected via single stream?

Single stream was thrust upon communities by mega size garbage hauling companies attempting to regain volumes lost to those pesky environmental groups that had begun pulling items from the garbage stream and selling them. The environmentalists were collecting recycling in such a way that glass, aluminum, newspaper, junk mail were marketable. How marketable are recyclables that have been mixed with unlike materials?

Certainly we all want recycling employees to be safe on the street and inside a recycling facility. We also want the materials collected to actually get recycled. That means they get made into something new and returned to the market place. We also want Fayetteville to be a leader in transparency. Fayetteville has a recycling transparency/accountability resolution that I initiated while serving on the Environment Action Committee with Dr. Sarah Lewis and John Coleman. But it’s stale and must be updated before a vote to switch to single stream is taken. Many communities have been caught trashing recycling that was collected via single stream. See collage on OMNI bulletin board.

Why is the staff rushing a vote and avoiding a serious community conversation? URGENT!! Contact your alderman and tell them not to rush a vote on switching to single stream. There are many, many questions that need to be asked and answered in a community conversation, not at a sanitized staff presentation where public concern is squelched.

To learn about single stream please visit www.WasteReductionResources.com - I am retired so the website is outdated, but the Single Stream section is a great primer for those who need to know the whole story behind single stream.

If the collected recyclable isn’t turned into new item and returned to the market place then your recycling program is nothing more than a publicity stunt.

NOTE: Next city council (Tuesday July 15, 5:30 pm at city hall) there are two Trash and Recycle items on the agenda related to this – a study and a rate increase adoption proposal. Please attend the city council meeting and make comments on these proposals if you are able!

04/22/2024

https://www.cnn.com/interactive/2024/04/climate/plastic-pollution-ocean-cnnphotos/

Plastic pollution is piling up. Despite efforts to rein it in, only 9% of it is actually recycled.

04/18/2024

A must read.

Only 5 to 6% of plastic waste produced in the U.S. is actually recycled. A new report accuses the plastics industry of a decades-long campaign to "mislead" the public about the viability of recycling.

02/22/2024

is back and once again, this year’s top corporate plastic polluters are , Nestlé, , , and , and .

It’s time to end single-use plastics, switch to reuse systems now!

Visit 👉 bit.ly/ba2023report for more information

02/07/2024

One of the challenges with recycling glass is that it is heavy, which makes it expensive to transport.

01/05/2024

Milestone achieves goal set in 2022 to make it easier for customers to use reusable cups and help Starbucks reduce cup waste sent to landfill.

12/28/2023

We applaud the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency for including vinyl chloride in its list of chemicals for priority risk assessment!👏👏🏾 We know chemical and plastics industry opposition will be FIERCE. 👉Please join us in urging Congress to support the EPA's decision and encourage a total ban on this known human carcinogen as quickly as possible.☣️Act: https://bit.ly/congress-vinyl-chloride

12/26/2023

So what do you think is in the Tontitown, Arkansas landfill? DO you think there could be stuff that should have been reused, repaired, composted, recycled, repurposed? Too bad there wasn't an Urban ORE https://urbanore.com at the entrance to the landfill. Too bad the landfill wasn't publicly owned. Maybe it's time to start talking honestly about waste? We'll resume the blog on this FB page and update the www.WasteREductionResources.com website in late January. Time to come out of retirement and talk truth to trash, cuz people are doing harm to Ma Earth while making money promoting superficial sustainability.

Restoring faith, efficiency, and effectiveness in your waste reduction programs.

12/06/2023