New Hampshire recycling company is hoping to revolutionize the industry through new program
PORSMOUTH NH - There has been a major push in recent years to get people to recycle. Nearly every town or city in the state has a local program. Unfortunately, so little plastic is recycled, with some estimates as little as 10% of all plastics thrown in the blue bin are actually recycled and reused.
Increasing the rates of recyclability is the lofty goal for Cyclyx, a Portsmouth, N.H. company. Christine Paustian is a project manager for Cyclyx. "Each plastic has its own challenge," she told WBZ-TV as she sorted through various items thrown in a blue bin.
Sorting through all plastics
From strawberry containers to plastic bottles and pieces of foam to flower pots, Cyclyx sees all types of plastic in their laboratory. She even points out the plastic shopping bags that can clog regular mechanical recycling machines.
"No two plastics are the same," she said. "We're finding the plastic that is not recycled, and we are diverting it from the landfills to companies or places that can recycle it."
This process takes a whole lot of science. Cyclyx lab director is Anita Augustyniak. It's her team's job to find out the chemical composition of the plastic.
"We do a lot of burning here," she said. "In order to get the elements, the chemical elements out of the plastic, to analyze them, we have to burn it."
That's just one of the many ways Cyclyx analyzes plastics, all in an effort to properly categorize it.
"We're taking something that otherwise will end up in a landfill," Augustyniak told WBZ-TV. In a way, making trash into treasure.
"We are different"
This 'treasure' would only be possible with their 10-to-90 All Plastics Recycling Program recently launched in Houston, Texas.
The premise is pretty simple: take all your plastics, throw them in a bag, and they'll do the rest. They say that's the only way they'll hit their objective of increasing recyclability to 90%.
"We do look at plastic differently because we are different," said Gabriella Smith, Cyclyx Senior Marketing Manager. "We're not here to say plastic is good or plastic is bad. Right now, a lot of this plastic that is needed to increase the recyclability is not readily available. That's where we come in."
Right now, Cyclyx just works with the city of Houston and their recycling program, but they do hope more town and cities implement their program nationwide and even globally.
