Ever feel like you’re having a conversation with an empty vessel?

No, not the person you were arguing with on Facebook, I’m talking about that drink bottle you just finished. You look closely at the packaging: Can you be recycled? Where will you go? Are you really going to be remade into a new item? Looking over the bottle you see the three-arrow symbol and a number, but what does it mean?

Ask around locally about recycling and you’ll hear differing answers ranging from praise for local efforts to theories that none is actually recycled and instead burned. Does anybody really know the answer, or is all this talk about recycling just trash? Starting with what we do know, those three twisted arrows in a triangle are a mathematical concept called a Mobiüs strip. Designed for an Earth Day competition in 1970, they have come to represent the “Three R’s” of recycling: Reduce, Reuse, Recycle. Different variations of the symbol include numbers which indicate whether the packaging or product is recycled, recyclable, or made from something that must be disposed of in another manner.

On plastics, when there is a 1 in the center it indicates PET (polyethylene terephthalate). Used for many common products like water bottles and peanut butter containers, it is generally recyclable in curbside bins. There are seven plastic recycling codes in the US, and several paper, glass and metal variations. So, do you need to memorize these symbols before you start sorting? In short, no. Thanks to local efforts, what can be put in which bin is fairly easy to find.

In Kill Devil Hills, Bay Disposal runs the curbside service, and they accept “office paper, envelopes, forms, catalogs, magazines, phone books, newspapers, aluminum cans, wrapping paper, plastic bottles (1&2), steel and tin cans, paper bags, and glass bottles.” At the local collection facility, a much larger selection of items is accepted. From oyster shells to tires, electronics to yard debris, the list can be found on the town’s website (kdhnc.com). A few of these items require a dry trash drop off permit, which can be acquired by KDH property owners. If you are wondering about something specific, just call or check your local area’s waste management department’s page.

Now, where does this recycling go? Your empty bottle’s destination is a bit complicated. Much like what goes in the bins, where the bottle goes and what happens to it is also dependent upon your locality. Each area’s local government contracts with one or more waste management companies for services which may include recycling. As mentioned earlier, Bay Disposal handles Kill Devil Hills’ curbside recycling. Nags Head just switched to Tidewater Fibre Corporation, a Chesapeake, Virginia based company, and Duck currently has a bid open for “Solid Waste and Recycling Collection Services,” though they currently use TFC.

Left: The Island Guesthouse and Motel in Manteo proudly paved its driveway with crushed glass, from just around the corner at the Dare County’s main recycling center on Roanoke Island. Right: Candy Boyd, Recycling Specialist and 17-year employee for The Town of Kill Devil Hills. Candy is a popular fixture at the KDH Recycling Center and welcomes inquiries from the community, adding “If you have a question, just ask.”

Each area has their method of residential recycling via centers and/or curbside and container pick up, as does unincorporated Dare County, and each of these localities’ websites have a graphic which show accepted materials. Currently many of the towns use a subscription service for residential pick up. Largely due to a drop in the overseas market for recyclable material, there has been shift of some of the curbside bin AKA “single stream” recyclables being sent to “waste to energy” facilities (AKA incinerators that produce steam energy) instead of being broken down and made into new products. With concurrent price hikes, towns like Nags Head and Kill Devil Hills ask residents to subscribe for curbside, while still offering their local, centralized recycling centers’ services.

Above: On the Outer Banks, repurposing of Christmas trees can be very advantageous for sand dune restoration. The trees quickly decompose and provide nutrients for their seeds. The seeds then begin to germinate, and vegetation takes off. When we plant vegetation, this can reduce the impact of wind and water.

What is done with the recycling picked up is largely dependent upon which company handles the distribution and the current state of the market for Material Recovery Facilities, which handle processing the materials. Bay Disposal uses several avenues including the aforementioned waste to energy. They also use the Hampton Roads Recovery Center for converting recyclables located in Virginia Beach, the closest MRF to the Outer Banks used by Bay. Per their newsletter, in 2020 they recycled 1.78 million tons and have a goal to almost double that by 2033.

TFC uses a facility of their own in Portsmouth for material recovery, and it boasts recycling 91 million water bottles, 50 million aluminum cans, and 59 million tons of cardboard between January 1st, 2022 and October 31st, 2022. Therefore, some materials are being recycled at proper facilities and incinerating reduces the amount in landfills while creating energy, but neither are closely located, so the materials must be transported hundreds of miles round trip. If all that doesn’t sound very efficient, you are correct. So why persist? Since the market for recyclables has dropped, so have the incentives for operating these companies, but communities want and need to reduce what goes in their landfill.

So, is there any truly local recycling? Yes! Dare County itself operates an in-house recycling program for certain materials. This process is a little more straightforward. Each area has a local site where they can drop off certain recyclables and then the county processes them accordingly. This form of front end sorted recycling is much more efficient than the “single stream” recycling in the curbside bin, as commodities can immediately be weighed and sold to interested MRF companies, and those proceeds support in house processing and labor.

Glass Crushing Machine at the Roanoke Island recycling center on 1018 Driftwood Drive in Manteo, set up to repurpose bottles. After being crushed glass pebbles are tumbled to round off sharp edges. Popular repurposing uses include decorative mulch for flower beds, pathways, fire pits, rock gardens, driveway surfaces and for general backfill.

Properly collected yard waste becomes compost and mulch that is free for locals and homeowners at certain centers. Dare county also operates its own glass recycling program in Manteo using North Carolina’s only county owned glass crusher that creates a free glass mulch that could be used for flower beds, pots, arrangements, arts and crafts, and much more. Much of this glass comes from a local ABC permit holder rule requiring all of those holding Alcoholic Beverage (ABC) permits to recycle their glass.

Other local programs target Outer Banks specific needs. For example, the oyster shell collection efforts go directly towards the sustainability of the local bivalve in the creation of reefs. Also, after the holidays, trees are collected for building up dunes on the beaches. It seems that thinking outside the curbside bin is the surest way to lessen your impact, but even this method will reduce the amount of waste headed towards a landfill in a likely diesel vehicle.

Thanks for loving the Outer Banks and leaving only footprints!

Recycling is part of the environmental trifecta of: Reduce, Reuse and Recycle.
5 Ways to Reuse What You Can and Reduce Your Impact on the Outer Banks
• Installing water filters/refillable spring water
• Using reusable grocery bags/food storage containers
• Buying bulk and dividing
• Choose reusable and sustainable products
• Composting food waste
5 Resources for Sustainably Enjoying
the Outer Banks
• Ocean Friendly Establishments NCCoast.org
• Outer Banks Catch NCAgr.gov
• OBX RAW RawOBX.com
• North Carolina Coastal Federation
CoastalReview.org
• North Carolina Department of Natural and Cultural Resources NCDCR.gov

Author: Jes Gray