Did you ever wonder what happens to your recycling when it leaves your curb?

Does your plastic milk jug transform into another one? Does the paper from today's newspaper eventually show up on your doorstep in another edition?

And what about the stuff that's improperly recycled? Glass that gets mixed in where it shouldn't. The plastic wrapping on a newspaper that wasn't read but is thrown away anyway?

Today we begin an occasional series examining what happens to what you put on the curb.
Miriam Widman has this first look at the garbage trail.

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Andrew Dean, better, known as AJ, has been picking up garbage and recycling for about two years with the Pride Disposal Company.

AJ: "I've seen diapers every once in awhile. I've seen one hyperdermic needle. You get some garbage sacks -- people think they can recycle their garbage. Dirty glass jars -- I think people think they can put their dog poop in there. People think they can recycle some weird things."

Pride Disposal is one of two main residential haulers in the city of Tigard.

AJ says some people try to hide their used motor oil by covering it up with recyclable newspapers. That really messes up his truck.

AJ: "You dump it in there and it leaks out the back. You have to call a mechanic to clean it all up."

AJ's supervisor at Pride Disposal, Rose Bowles, explains how you should dispose of motor oil.

Rose Bowles: "Oil has to be kept separate -- it has to be contained into a milk jug so that we can see it. We have to visually see that it's motor oil -- because a lot of time people will try to recycle antifreeze and other type of material -- and those are not acceptable. We cannot recycle them."

Film plastic, like the ones that wrap your morning newspaper, are also a problem.

In the span of about 10 stops, AJ picked up unread Oregonians from three households that dumped the discarded paper -- complete with its plastic wrapping -- into the recycle bin.

Miriam Widman: A lot of people who don't read their newspapers and just leave them in the plastic."

AJ: It seems that way.

Garbage industry experts say they don't care if you read your newspaper -- just take it out of the plastic bag before you recycle the paper.

Glass is also a problem. It breaks and that makes the recyclable paper less useable.

Plus it's hard for the drivers to find.

AJ: "When I grab the bin I shake it before I dump it. And I got the sound of what glass makes. So and if I hear that I'll look for the glass -- but if not, I'll just dump it on in."

Glass is tough for another reason, according to Pride Disposal's Driver Supervisor Rose Bowles. It can injure drivers.

Rose Bowles: "We have had a driver get cut by glass before because it's been broken because he's reached in and he cut his finger by the side of it."

AJ has never been cut by glass, but recycling experts say when consumers forget to separate glass from the mix, they could be endangering someone else. And they are certainly making it tougher for the recycling chain.

But besides glass and motor oil, you don't probably have to worry about much else.

In most areas in Oregon you can mix -- or commingle as the garbage industry says -- other recyclable materials. That means you can put your milk jugs together with your newspapers and rinsed out tuna fish cans all in one bin.

Pride Disposal's AJ explains how the recyclables he picks up should look.

AJ: "Everything in one except for the glass. Separate the glass -- cause I'm just going to dump it in.

"That's what I'd prefer -- I'd rather lean over once and grab one bin than have to lean over 4 times to pick up everything that's sorted out when I'm just going to dump it in the same spot. It just makes it easier on my body."

For consumers, solid waste officials and garbage haulers, commingling has been a success.

The city of Portland, for example, says two years after commingling was introduced, it collected just over 48,000 tons -- a 10.4% jump.

Last year that figure rose to 49,500 tons.

And some municipalities are hoping for greater recycling increases with the adoption of a Ro-Cart -- a 90-pound collection tub.

These are already in use in Marion County and will be on the curb in Tigard next year. The city of Portland is thinking about using them too.

Pride Disposal's Rose Bowles: "We can get a lot more materials in a rocart than we can in a recycling bin and everyone can put everything in there and keep it dry because there's a lid on it. It'll keep the material from blowing all over."

But commingling hasn't been without its challenges. The tri-county Metro is planning an advertising campaign aimed at educating the public about the right way to recycle.

Source: http://www.opb.org/