November 15 is ‘America Recycles Day’. It is the only nationally recognized day dedicated to promoting and celebrating recycling. But on the Monterey Peninsula, a group of graduate students got a head start with their annual “Trash Bash.”
“Oh, there’s something mushy in there,” exclaimed Sophie Doddimea, as a group of students examined a pile of trash that had just been dumped in front of them.
“There were definitely some… some big surprises,” exclaimed Sydnie Miller.
“Honestly, I was prepared for anything,” Jack Anderson noted.
The graduate students will attend the Middlebury Institute of International Studies in Monterey. They are all members of the institute’s Sustainability Council and on this day they all took part in an event called Trash Bash. It is an annual audit of campus waste.
“We tried to sort all the trash on campus to find out if people are recycling properly: if they’re throwing things in the trash the right way and if they’re putting things in the compost the right way,” says Doddimea .
But it is a challenge. A report released in January 2024 by the Recycling Partnership describes the U.S. residential recycling system and identifies some significant gaps in the system across the country.
The report includes data for California. It noted that 95% of Californians have access to recycling, but the state’s recycling rate is 37%. Additionally, California has more waste in landfills than any other state.
The Middlebury Institute wants to change that by diverting 65% of its waste from landfills this year. Trash Bash tracks progress.
Once a year, volunteers put on protective jumpsuits, gloves and masks. The volunteers spread out across campus and collect all recycling, compost and trash bins.
They then gather at a large tarp spread out on the sidewalk and dump the contents of the bins onto the tarp to conduct analysis and re-sort the waste.
“I actually thought it was going to be a mixed bag, no pun intended,” Anderson smiled.
The students found compost in the trash, plastic in the compost, and recyclables in both compost and landfills.
“A lot could have been recycled, and especially a lot could have been composted,” Miller noted.
A recurring major problem concerns plastics. Not all plastics are valuable enough to recycle.
Often plastics are placed in recycling bins that are covered with food scraps or contain liquid. That destroys a lot of valuable paper intended for recycling.
There’s also the issue of throwing food or other organic matter into landfills. These organic matter sit and rot, producing methane, a powerful greenhouse gas.
After the dumpster dive, the team gathered at the nearby Dust Bowl Brewing Company for beer and pizza. There they offered to share some tips for our viewers.
“Basically I’m trying to make sure you use less plastic, and also think about what you buy in the store, so that you end up throwing away less,” says Doddimea.
“Take five seconds for the trash cans and sort your trash,” Miller added.
Visit the CalRecycle website to find out how you can recycle in your community. They have local recycling information for every city, county, and unincorporated areas.
Devin Fehely
