CRRA2019

President

Ms. Collins has been the President of the Container Recycling Institute since 2009. She leads the Institute’s research projects and works with environmental organizations, businesses, and governments around the world to educate on the benefits of packaging recycling. Prior to CRI, Ms. Collins was a consultant.  She. has served on the Boards of the CRRA and NRC, and has degrees in Manufacturing Engineering and an MBA.

Ms. Collins has testified before eleven state legislatures and has been heard on National Public Radio, BBC radio, the New York Times, Wall Street Journal, Los Angeles Times, Boston Globe, Resource Recycling, and others.

Markets

We've all heard about how contamination is affecting the availability of recycling markets in the United States. But what is the overall cost of contamination, and what can be done to reduce those costs? In 2018, the Container Recycling Institute lauched a new, sweeping series of research projects to look at the cost of contamination through the lens of a deep dive into the handling of each material type. We have examined material handling from the moment the recyclables leave the consumers' hands to the point where manufacturing facilities make them into new products, carefully tallying material losses and costs along the way. Our early estimates are that we collectively waste at least $500 million each year just from having to clean contaminants out of otherwise usable recyclables. Overall, we've previously estimated that at least 25% of the weight of items placed in curbside recycling bins are never made into usable products. This widespread, high rate of contamination has resulted in a tremendous amount of inefficiences, lost economic potential (including a loss of U.S. competitiveness vis-a-vis manufacturers in other countries), and environmental externalitites. This session will divulge the "hows" and "whys" of more efficient recycling, and will give attendees a much deeper understanding of the post-MRF stages of recycling. The hope is to redesign the front end of recycling, in order to dramatically improve recycling's overall output and results.