WM is the largest recycler of post-consumer materials, managing more post-consumer recyclables than any other company in North America.

The types of materials we manage are changing constantly as a result of consumer behavior, education around recycling, and legislation in the U.S. and abroad. As demand for post-consumer recycled materials grows, WM is investing in new and innovative solutions to expand access to recycling, enabling more materials to be repurposed and reimagined as a resource.

Circularity

Recycling gives materials new life — even enabling them to be used more than once by the same household. The process begins when a consumer places an item in a curbside bin and is completed only when a material is converted into a new product. For this process to remain circular, every step matters. Not only must goods be recycled properly, but there must also be markets for recycled materials that allow them to reenter the value chain. WM is committed to helping develop and promote these end markets. Manufacturers across the globe rely on recyclables from our recycling facilities as material inputs for their products. Significant opportunity remains to expand these markets further, and WM is looking for new ways to generate demand among customers and within our business.

Developing Recycling Infrastructure

WM has the largest network of recycling facilities across North America, and we are growing this network to help expand access to recycling services for communities and customers. We are investing in our recycling infrastructure — building new and upgraded facilities and leveraging advanced automated equipment such as optical sorters to gain higher-quality capture of more material and improve the efficiency of our operations. We are also working with national brokers to provide services in areas where we do not currently have facilities.

Managing Recyclables Responsibly

We are committed to growing domestic markets for recycled commodities. In 2020, WM issued a policy stating plastics collected on residential routes and processed at our single-stream recycling facilities will not be exported outside North America. WM has found customers share our vision for circularity, and we are proud to be able to find domestic outlets for recycled materials. Our objective is to find domestic customers for a variety of plastic types as well as paper and cardboard. We focus our efforts on recycling materials with responsible end markets while educating consumers on what materials can and cannot be recycled.

Paper/ Fiber

Cardboard and paper make up approximately half of the material processed at our single-stream material recovery facilities, and the opening of new paper mills that rely on recycled inputs has created more domestic recycling opportunities. These changes give us reason to be optimistic about sustainable recycling in the future.

Plastic

In recent years, demand for post-consumer recycled plastic has increased, as a result of the development and implementation of legislation and adoption of sustainability-related goals. At the 2020 America Recycles Summit, the U.S. EPA announced a goal of increasing the national recycling rate to 50% by 2030, recognizing the importance of strengthening the markets for recycled materials in achieving this objective. Additionally, many states are considering minimum recycled content laws for certain products, which will further encourage businesses to make the shift. As we’ve embarked on our journey to better understand the many issues around plastic, we’ve developed our own knowledge base and perspectives; we’ve since taken an active role in working with stakeholders along the supply chain to develop solutions for the complex challenges involved in managing plastic in a circular economy.

The same features that make plastic so convenient — including its durability, versatility and weight — also make it problematic to manage at end of life. Although it is lightweight, plastic can be expensive to process and transport, and the varied resin types that make plastic so versatile often confuse consumers because they cannot always be recycled. Plus, residual food or other products become contamination in the recycling process. In fact, only a small fraction of the plastic ever made has been recycled. And because it degrades so slowly, plastic that has not been recycled, or burned for energy, is still in the environment or in a landfill.

To address these challenges, WM has examined the types and amount of plastic in the waste and recycling stream. We have also compared plastic to other materials in the waste stream to understand their relative life cycle impacts.

WM does not weigh in on the value of using any specific packaging material; instead, we focus on the most responsible way to manage materials when our customers are finished with them. There is no doubt that nongovernmental organizations and shareholder advocates will continue to push for further corporate action around plastics. We will continue to focus on responsible management of plastics and other materials, including supporting the circular economy and development of new technologies that meet the needs of our customers while maximizing environmental benefits.

Improving Recycling Quality

While individual and business behaviors have largely shifted to embrace recycling, many misconceptions remain around which materials can and cannot be recycled. Customer confusion leads to contamination, or unacceptable items being mixed with recyclables. For example, a major source of contamination is plastic grocery bags and bagged recyclables, which cannot be recycled when collected in curbside recycling programs but are often placed in recycling bins. These bags become tangled in recycling equipment. When this happens, operators are forced to stop processing lines to extract bags and other forms of contamination from equipment. Clearing contaminated material can result in significant lost time every day. The irony in consumers placing items like plastic bags in their bins, hoping they can be recycled, is that less recycling ends up taking place. We call this practice “wishcycling” — and it’s not just bags. WM facilities report a staggering variety of contaminants brought into recycling facilities, from holiday lights and garden hoses to tires and clothing. While contamination is an ongoing challenge, we are making steady progress to address it.

Reducing Contamination through Education

One of the most important ways we are working to reduce contamination is by educating consumers on the right way to recycle through our Recycle Right program. This program educates consumers on proper recycling rules and principles to help reduce contamination and ultimately create a cleaner recycle commodity for reuse. In addition, we are making investments in multiple forms of technology and training within our collection and processing operations.

WM collection truck drivers are critical players in helping us solve the problem of contamination. We educate drivers and introduce them to the basic rules of Recycle Right through a Guide to Contamination and a Recycling FAQ. The FAQ is designed to help drivers identify problem materials and to accurately answer common customer questions.

On a regular basis, we conduct surveys to assess drivers’ recycling knowledge and understanding of common contaminants on routes. The results of these surveys allow us to target educational materials around a problem contaminant or address barriers that prevent drivers from identifying and tagging contamination. Before we roll out a new tagging and enforcement campaign, we use training videos — posted on our intranet and available in English and Spanish — to ensure that drivers know how to correctly identify and report contamination.

Reducing Contamination through Technology

One promising initiative WM has developed to reduce contamination is our Smart Truck^SM technology, where cameras mounted on collection trucks take photos of contamination in bins. Photos are then reviewed by a Smart Truck^SM team, and customers are directly notified of any issues. These instances are recorded on the truck’s onboard computer so that WM can track contamination patterns using AI technology. Our research confirms that giving customers immediate, specific feedback about contamination in their carts is the best way to improve the quality of recyclables collected for processing.

Post-Consumer Recycled Material in Our Supply Chain

As part of our commitment to supporting sustainable demand for recyclables, WM committed to the Association of Plastics Recyclers (APR) Demand Champion Program, pledging to increase the use of post-consumer resin (PCR) in products we purchase, starting with our residential carts. We partnered with Cascade Engineering to test and purchase EcoCarts, which are made with 10% PCR. This innovation helped earn a Design for Recycling Award from the Institute of Scrap Recycling Industries in 2021.

Expanding upon this, in 2021 WM announced the nationwide debut of employee uniforms made from recycled PET plastic. One of the largest purchasers of PET from WM’s material recovery facilities is Unifi, a company that uses PET to create a textile fiber known as REPREVE.

Hard-to-Handle Materials

Homes and businesses may generate waste that cannot be recycled or disposed of in a traditional manner. Households discard paint, automotive products, swimming pool chemicals, cleaners, flammable and combustible items, garden chemicals, batteries, consumer electronics and items containing mercury, such as fluorescent lamps. These types of items require additional handling, and therefore should not be placed in regular waste bins.

At Your Door Special Collection® Services

WM’s At Your Door Special Collection® service provides collection of materials including paints, household cleaners, swimming pool chemicals, garden products, automotive fluids, batteries, consumer electronics, and other items in certain states where this service is provided. Additional information can be found at https://wmatyourdoor.com/.

Tracker Services

For commercial customers, WM Tracker Services enables customers to dispose of universal and special wastes through a simple, safe and compliant mail-back method. This comprehensive program includes recycling kits for fluorescent lamps and bulbs, lighting ballasts, batteries, electronics, aerosol cans, thermometers, thermostats and smoke detectors. Containers, such as the patented Mercury VaporLok® packaging for fluorescent lamps, are specifically designed for safe storage and shipping via national carriers. Customers can obtain kits through our website and receive certificates that provide proof of recycling compliance via email. WM Tracker also offers bulk or pallet pickup programs for larger volumes of universal and related waste for recycling.

Textiles

Trends in global manufacturing and consumer behavior have made textiles, mostly clothing, one of the fastest-growing segments of the U.S. waste stream. As the largest post-consumer recycler in North America, it makes sense for WM to engage in initiatives to create a more circular supply chain for apparel. Therefore, we are working to develop this promising new market. Much like recycling of other materials, this depends on developing the infrastructure to collect materials, the availability of technology to sort materials, and the presence of viable end markets for recycled materials.

The Secondary Materials and Recycled Textiles international trade association¹ reports that 85% of clothing and textiles end up in a landfill, even though 95% can be reused and recycled. Textiles are often sent to landfills due to a lack of convenient recycling and donation options for consumers, as well as a lack of awareness regarding the textile industry’s environmental impact. This represents an opportunity for WM as our existing collection and processing capabilities could potentially be adapted to the needs of textile recycling. WM’s Corporate Development & Innovation (CD&I) group built internal teams, assembled a portfolio of supply chain partners and tested the market through a variety of pilots to help encourage the growth of end markets for pre- and post-consumer textiles. WM continues to collaborate with a variety of organizations to leverage existing approaches to managing textile waste, while also creating new strategies based on advanced processing and recycling technologies and emerging supply chain collaborations.

We’ve helped customers develop programs and solutions for recycling uniforms at end of use, including upcycling uniforms into different products and de-branding them for sale in new markets. WM’s Tracker mail-back program, which manages the certified destruction and recycling of apparel into new fiber, has expanded in recent years. For example, WM expanded our Tracker services to support uniform recycling for local governments.

E-Waste

Electronic waste material (e-waste), such as old or broken computers, printers and mobile devices, is a topic of significant environmental concern. WM delivers electronic recycling solutions that are convenient to use, cost-effective and environmentally responsible. Our electronics recycling services can meet an organization’s specific needs, with secure transport options from any point in the U.S. or Canada. We are supported by a comprehensive network of third-party processing centers certified and independently audited to the highest standards.

All processing partner locations are audited to meet e-Steward®, R2®/RIOS certification standards and are obliged to:

• Prevent hazardous e-waste from entering municipal incinerators or landfills.
• Prevent the exportation of e-waste to developing countries.
• Provide for visible tracking of e-waste throughout the product recycling chain.

Products can be refurbished and resold for value or managed at the end of their useful life for commodity recovery. Commodities such as gold, silver, copper, plastic and others are recovered, while byproducts such as mercury, lead, barium and cadmium — the inherently hazardous byproducts of electronics — are carefully managed.

Cathode Ray Tube (CRT) Glass Management

CRT glass, used in “tube” televisions and monitors, was once recycled into new CRTs. Although new flat screen technology has eliminated the demand for the recycled CRT glass, older equipment containing CRTs still accounts for around half of the TV’s recovered by WM transfer, landfill and recycling operations. WM has implemented robust management practices to track the end disposition of CRT glass, vetting all CRT processors and recyclers and tracking CRT volumes to end disposition. Some of the newer applications for recovery are non-leaded panel glass for base material and asphalt paving and funnel glass used in a glaze for tile manufacturing.

Coal Fly Ash Recycling

Fly ash, a coal combustion byproduct, can be used as a cement replacement in concrete production instead of being disposed of as waste. However, increased carbon levels from the methods used to remove mercury from flue gases negatively affect the durability of concrete. WM’s patented Carbon Blocker fly ash treatment system has successfully been implemented within utilities to mitigate these negative effects, making it suitable for recycling in concrete product applications.

1. Source: Secondary Materials and Recycled Textiles