Jim,

The MRFs put the Boy Scouts out of the paper collection years ago - as long as it is on the curb the MRFs own it.  Yet when waste paper prices went up often people would save the paper for the Boy Scouts and pick it up from the front porch - so the MRFs initially didn't benefit as much from the high paper prices as they thought they would.

The real challenge to utilizing household separation is the efficiency of the recycling truck.  If you have 9 compartments on a truck for different plastics, white paper, brown paper, newspaper, glass, etc.., then the truck needs to return to the depot when one compartment is full.  It is also much more time consuming as well as causing wear and tear on recycling company employee to put the material in 9 different compartments.  Where I live we have a large rolling bin (usually full every week) and it gets lifted up by the truck and dumped.  A potential solution to this is having drop-off points for the recyclables as they do in some countries, the challenge is changing consumer behavior.

Having worked in mills for ~20 years of my ~29 years in industry I wholeheartedly agree that source separation is the way to go - it also means that the mill doesn't have to pay a high cost to dispose of the gross rejects (plastics, metal, glass) that are expensive to dispose of. 

Note that I work for a paper recycling equipment manufacturer - so I do have somewhat of a vested interest in mills requiring additional equipment.  However - I also have a vested interest in customers operating viable mills.

Neale Fetterly

Sr. Applications Engineer