Where Does Your Garbage Go?

Most of us don't give our garbage a second thought. We put it in the can, take it to the curb and then its forgotten about. 

In 2010, Franklin Lakes residents generated 5,384 tons of garbage. For a town of 10,590 people, that comes to an average of slightly more than 1,000 pounds per person.

Patch wanted to know: Where does all that garbage go? So we decided to followed the trail and find out.

From Curbside to the Landfill

On Mondays and Thursdays (or Tuesday and Fridays, depending on where you live in town) in the spring and summer, the Gaeta Recycling truck stops at your curb to pick up your garbage. The contents of garbage cans and bags are tossed into the truck and taken to a transfer station managed by Interstate Waste in Garfield or High Burn, N.J.

According to Anthony Gaeta, Jr., president of Gaeta Recycling (and a Franklin Lakes resident) from there, your trash is taken either to a landfill in Pennsylvania or an incinerator that shrinks 100 tons of garbage into 25 tons of ash and byproducts. Since disposal rates are set by the ton, incinerating garbage before bringing it to a landfill cuts costs.

Once the garbage makes it to Pennsylvania, the solid waste decomposes, generating methane gas, which is collected using giant fans.

“Years ago, there used to be fires at the landfills from all the gas created during decomposition,” Gaeta, a third generation garbage man, explained to Patch. About 30 years ago, they figured out a way to capture the gas, using giant fans, and which can then be sold to electric companies for energy.  

Eventually, the landfills — typically abandoned coalmines — are filled to capacity and sealed off. To cap them, the dump is first covered with a liner, then dirt and then capped off. If done properly, Gaeta noted, the land can them be reclaimed as parkland and even developed. (For a local example, look to Meadowlands Stadium). 

(Re)Made in China 

On Wednesdays, year round, two to four Gaeta trucks wind through the borough, street by street, collecting comingled and paper recycling. Here's where our waste turns into a valuable commodity. In the first quarter of 2011, paper recycling generated $22,000 in revenue for the borough.

At Clifton-based Green Sky Industries, the company that handles Franklin Lakes’ paper recycling, paper is sorted by grade, baled into cubes and shipped. Higher grades of paper, such as office paper, will go to a paper plant, such as Marcal, where is it recycled into paper towels or tissues, Joe McNellis, assistant VP of procurement for Green Sky, told Patch.

About 90 percent of our cardboard ends up in China, where it is recycled, McNellis explained, noting our used paper sells for $50 to $60 a ton overseas.

“China has modern paper mills with upgraded technology,” he said. “Our paper fiber is really good quality. We have better wood, pine pulp mostly, whereas most of China’s virgin paper is made out of rice, which is a thin fiber. They want our materials because it is a strong fiber.” 

Next Stop: Textile Mills

The general rule of thumb in comingled recycling is, if it has a recycling triangle on the container, put it in the comingled bin. Every other Wednesday, Gaeta recycling winds through town collecting glass, cans and assorted plastics

Once these items arrive at the Recycling Center, they are sorted, baled and shipped to their destination, where they will be reborn as something new. While glass and cans are still recycled, these days, plastics are becoming big business, McNellis noted.

Plastics come in seven different grades — that’s the number inside the recycling triangle. Numbers 1 and 2 are the most plentiful, but numbers 3 through 7 are also accepted.

Ones are BET plastics like soda bottles and twos are high-density polyurethanes, such as milk and water jugs, laundry detergent bottles. These are typically sent to Florida, Georgia and South Caroline to become textiles and carpets.

“Ones are very interesting. They are a strong fiber that an be woven into T-shirt material,” McNellis explained. “Threes are low density, thinner plastics, such as garbage and shopping bags, which are used to make plastic decking composite” such as Trex.

Other plastics, such as fours (PVC piping), fives (polypropaline, yogurt containers) and sixes (polystyrene containers and trays) are melted down and reshaped into something new, but similar to its previous life. Recycling number seven represents “odd ball stuff” that doesn’t fit into any category, most of these are sold overseas.

“There has to be an end-market and use for the recycled materials in order for them to be worth anything,” McNellis said. “As the technology improves — like the paper recycling machinery has — the more you can recycle. … [but] for people to invest in the technology, there needs to be a market for the end product.”