Charlotte Dreizen @CharDreizen Twitter profile

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Charlotte Dreizen

2 years

Contamination is the biggest threat to the recycling system. It adds cost, lowers quality, slows the process, and can lead to worker injuries. Here are 12 things you should never put into your recycling bin, dumpster, or chute 🧵:

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Charlotte Dreizen

@CharDreizen

2 years

Plastic bags are the most common contaminant by a mile. Whether it’s a plastic bag alone or recycling placed *into* a plastic bag, they jam recycling equipment and cause facilities to have to shut down multiple times a day for workers to cut out with box cutters.

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Charlotte Dreizen

@CharDreizen

2 years

Food soiled items of any kind. As a rule, items must be clean and dry to be recycled. This means That paper can’t be wet and food-soiled and something like the classic jar of peanut butter must be scrubbed out before recycling. (Recycling Twitter swears by hot water + a shake!)

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Charlotte Dreizen

@CharDreizen

2 years

Anything under 2” x 2”. The recycling system can’t effectively sort items that are very small/under the size of a regular post-it. This means any keys, coins, nails, shredded paper (unless stapled shut in a paper bag), or lozenge wrappers like the ones here can’t be recycled.

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Charlotte Dreizen

@CharDreizen

2 years

Multi-laminate plastic film. Found in lots of packaging applications like coffee and snacks, these are mixes of plastic and metal (and sometimes paper, too). Those complicated layers make them unrecyclable in our primary recycling stream.

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Charlotte Dreizen

@CharDreizen

2 years

No yard waste can be recycled, either. This one always surprises me. But, hardly a morning can go by on a recycling route without seeing at least one bin chock full of leaves, wood, cut flowers, or yard trimmings. While not recyclable, we can compost all of those!

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Charlotte Dreizen

@CharDreizen

2 years

Paper towels, tissue, and napkins… oh my! While made of tree fiber, these paper items can’t be sorted at recycling facilities (and are often wet or food-soiled, on top of that). They all must either be composted or trashed.

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Charlotte Dreizen

@CharDreizen

2 years

“Tanglers”. Aka anything that (much like a plastic bag) can wrap around recycling equipment. Tanglers can be tubing like what’s in the recycling bin here, a garden hose, a bike chain, or strings of holiday lights.

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Charlotte Dreizen

@CharDreizen

2 years

Electronics or anything with a battery. Nothing with a battery nor any electronics should ever be recycled curbside since they’re complex combinations of materials that the recycling system can’t separate. And, importantly, they are huge fire hazards in the curbside system.

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Charlotte Dreizen

@CharDreizen

2 years

Polystyrene. While it’s rare to come across expanded polystyrene foam in DC after the foam ban on food serviceware, you’ll still find it occasionally in meat packaging and egg cartons. And, it can’t be recycled in the curbside system.

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Charlotte Dreizen

@CharDreizen

2 years

Paint. Hella hazardous. It needs to be managed as either household hazardous waste or brought to dedicated paint recycling. Luckily, many cities + states (DC included) requires manufacturers of paint to provide recycling programs for it, like @DOEE_DC :

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Charlotte Dreizen

@CharDreizen

2 years

Propane tanks and fuel canisters 🔥 Much like batteries, any kind of fuel container is a recipe for a fire in the curbside recycling or trash stream and need to be managed as household hazardous waste. My first 60 seconds at a recycling facility ever and one of these appeared.

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Charlotte Dreizen

@CharDreizen

2 years

If I did a super casual ~60 minute “this is how recycling works in DC webinar”, would anyone be interested?

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Charlotte Dreizen

@CharDreizen

2 years

Furniture & textiles. There are some furniture (“bulk”) recycling programs out there and dedicated drop-offs for clothing and textile recycling. But, they can’t be recycled in our normal recycling system. The size, shape, + complexity of their material make-up make them no-gos!

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Charlotte Dreizen

@CharDreizen

2 years

In most communities, DC included, recyclables *cannot* be placed in plastic bags. Plastic bags are our most common contaminant - they jam equipment, causing operations to shut down multiple times/day so workers can cut them out (one of the biggest reasons workers get injured)!

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Charlotte Dreizen

@CharDreizen

2 years

In DC, we only recycle 25% of the paper we produce in the residential waste stream. Here’s 10 paper items we should always recycle here (and in the majority of the US):

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Charlotte Dreizen

@CharDreizen

2 years

Jumbo slice was 100p consumed last night. Almost as satisfying is recycling the pizza box this morning. In DC, pizza boxes *are* accepted for recycling. In fact, 94% of paper mills in the US can process pizza boxes. All pizza needs to be removed, but grease is fine.

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Charlotte Dreizen

@CharDreizen

2 years

The #1 thing you can do for the recycling system is to *not* put your recycling in a plastic bag. Plastic bags jam recycling equipment and recycling facilities get so many that most need to shut down multiple times a day for workers to cut them out with box cutters.

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Charlotte Dreizen

@CharDreizen

2 years

Pizza boxes are rrrrrecyclable! Grease is fine, cheese or pizza is not. More than 94% of paper mills in the US can handle grease, as it can be removed by the same processes paper mills use to remove inks and colorants.

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Charlotte Dreizen

@CharDreizen

1 year

Forget recycling, we need to actually address public trash collection in DC

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Charlotte Dreizen

@CharDreizen

2 years

Envelopes are entirely recyclable! Their plastic windows are very easy for paper mills to screen out and remove, just like staples, and aren’t considered harmful contaminants.

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Charlotte Dreizen

@CharDreizen

2 years

Laundry detergent bottles are made of high-value HDPE plastic and are R-E-C-Y-C-L-A-B-L-E When ready to toss the bottle, no need to wash out any last drops. The soap actually helps plastic recyclers clean the material as it’s ground up and washed during the recycling process!

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Charlotte Dreizen

@CharDreizen

2 years

Who’s ready for curbside composting in DC?! This is a super exciting achievement for so many - including both the dogged stakeholders who have been advocating for composting & for DPW staff who have put together countless plans for pilots over the years trying to find funding.

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Charlotte Dreizen

@CharDreizen

4 months

Confused about plastic recycling? Here’s 12 plastic items we can recycle in DC (and for most of these, the vast majority of American communities) 🧵

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Charlotte Dreizen

@CharDreizen

2 years

FWIW, we’ve been able to reduce contamination in DC’s single-family residential recycling stream from 27% in 2017 to 11% 🙌

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Charlotte Dreizen

@CharDreizen

2 years

In DC, 40% of the plastic that single-family households generate is some kind of plastic film. Here’s 12 kinds of pure polyethylene film (the only kind that the store drop-off stream takes) that I brought to my nearest Safeway this weekend. Maybe you have some of the same!

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Charlotte Dreizen

@CharDreizen

10 months

DC deserves adequately serviced public trash bins.

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Charlotte Dreizen

@CharDreizen

2 years

When we think about the future of composting in DC, we need to think about curbside composting for the 100,000 single-family homes here. But, we also need to think about composting for the 200,000 households in multi-family housing (where 95% of the growth in the city will be).

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Charlotte Dreizen

@CharDreizen

2 years

Something worth celebrating: The contamination rate of DC residential recycling being reduced from 27% to 11% between 2017 to 2021.

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Charlotte Dreizen

@CharDreizen

10 months

If you are to take away one tid bit of recycling advice, let it be = when in doubt, throw it out Contamination is the recycling system’s #1 challenge. It increases cost, risks whole loads being redirected to landfill, + can lead to worker injuries. We think about it in 2 ways:

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Charlotte Dreizen

@CharDreizen

1 year

Mattresses are an extremely common item that’s illegally dumped. Here are 3 ways we could improve this in DC: 1) Require multi-family buildings to give their residents period bulk disposal days. Once a month? Once a quarter? Once a year even!

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Charlotte Dreizen

@CharDreizen

1 year

As a city, we cannot say we’re being serious about preventing litter unless we develop adequate maintenance of public trash + recycling bins.

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Charlotte Dreizen

@CharDreizen

2 years

@carrieella @ErinPalmerDC You make a great point about reuse > single-use! I’m so with you. Not all communities can recycle coffee cups (they’re in the middle tier for acceptance where between 20-60% can). But in DC, we are able to! Along with all other paper items with 1 side of PE coating!

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Charlotte Dreizen

@CharDreizen

2 years

In DC, plastic film makes up 42% of the total plastic we generate in the residential stream. That’s a huge portion! Here are 10 items that we can all bring to store drop-offs to recycle plastic film 🧵

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Charlotte Dreizen

@CharDreizen

2 years

RIP to these recyclables placed into a plastic bag. In virtually every community in the US, including DC, recyclables *cannot* be sorted and processed when in a plastic bag. Plastic bags jam equipment and cause facilities to shut down (multiple times per day!) to cut them out!

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Charlotte Dreizen

@CharDreizen

3 years

Do DPW collection crews (who’ve likely had to work 12 hour shifts on and off since the weekend) a favor and knock the snow of your @DCDPW trash & recycling bins.

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Charlotte Dreizen

@CharDreizen

3 years

Shampoo bottles like these can be recycled in @DCDPW blue bins. A little leftover shampoo actually contributes to the plastic cleaning process. No need to get out every last tiny bit!

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Charlotte Dreizen

@CharDreizen

1 year

Red solo cups are fully recyclable in DC’s system! Only 37% of American communities can recycle rigid polystyrene (which bears a #6 resin identification code), but DC is one of them!

Barred in DC

@BarredinDC

1 year

. @CharDreizen are red solo cups recyclable in DC curbside recycling?

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Charlotte Dreizen

@CharDreizen

2 years

We only get 28% of the aluminum that us DC residents generate into recycling bins! That means we throw almost 6 million pounds into the trash each year. Aluminum cans, pie dishes, and aluminum foil can all be recycled in DC ✅ For foil, it should be crumpled ~fist-sized!

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Charlotte Dreizen

@CharDreizen

2 years

We only recycle 19.5% of aluminum cans citywide in DC. Let’s do better, y’all

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Charlotte Dreizen

@CharDreizen

10 months

It’s America Recycles Day! To celebrate, here are 50 items that we should all be recycling in DC (and most communities in the US) 🧵

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Charlotte Dreizen

@CharDreizen

10 months

We should have a drop-off for hard-to-recycle materials in each ward. We should also have drop-off centers that are accessible by pedestrians. Limiting them to vehicle owners is an environmental justice issue and makes them impenetrable to a meaningful portion of DC residents.

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Charlotte Dreizen

@CharDreizen

3 months

Spotted at @EatAtElle , the most adorable support of the circular economy

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Charlotte Dreizen

@CharDreizen

2 years

Why do I want DC to make progress on its rat problem? Because I’d like to be able to take recycling out after sundown without encountering rodents of unusual size

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Charlotte Dreizen

@CharDreizen

3 years

Now this is what I call glass recycling.

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Charlotte Dreizen

@CharDreizen

4 months

Not only can you recycle 1 pizza box in DC’s recycling system, but you can recycle 4! Grease is not a problem when recycling pizza boxes but actual cheese must be removed. Paper recycling uses chemicals to remove inks/dyes from the paper being recycled + they remove grease too!

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Charlotte Dreizen

@CharDreizen

2 years

When getting to the last dregs of dish soap, don’t worry about washing it out! A little extra soap actually helps plastic recyclers clean the material when it’s being recycled. The same applies for hand soap, shampoo, and laundry detergent!

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Charlotte Dreizen

@CharDreizen

2 years

Eaters beware: no utensil is recyclable, no matter what they’re made of. Because they’re long and thin, they don’t meet the 2” x 2” size requirement to recycle items via our primary, curbside recycling system.

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Charlotte Dreizen

@CharDreizen

2 years

Why is it so important to compost? Organics like food + yard waste generate methane in landfills, an extremely potent greenhouse gas. This is because they’re decomposing in an *oxygen-less* environment. In a composting facility, organics are aerated to be chock full of oxygen!

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Charlotte Dreizen

@CharDreizen

3 years

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Charlotte Dreizen

@CharDreizen

2 years

Deliriously excited that I can now select “no receipt” at CVS. What a low hanging fruit way to reduce waste. All patrons of a business should be able to opt-out of having a printed receipt.

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Charlotte Dreizen

@CharDreizen

2 years

I’m going to eat so much thai food in a hot minute. And after, I’m going to post about how to recycle (or trash) each piece.

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Charlotte Dreizen

@CharDreizen

10 months

Designing for reuse, at its finest

Avyshek Sobhee

@Avyshek

10 months

That’s a great touch.

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Charlotte Dreizen

@CharDreizen

2 years

Coffee cups? Recyclable in many communities, but not all. In DC, we’re good to go to recycle them! We always need to separate the plastic lid from the paper cup since the lid needs to get to a bale of plastic and the cup needs to get to a bale of mixed paper.

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Charlotte Dreizen

@CharDreizen

2 years

My hot take of today - large grocery stores and retailers that sell water filters need to provide drop-offs for those items to be recycled, funded by the manufacturers of filters.

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Charlotte Dreizen

@CharDreizen

3 years

It’s been a privilege working for @dczerowaste @DCDPW and moving onto a new sustainability position after today will be bittersweet! I’m incredibly grateful to have had the opportunity to advance recycling in DC from within. But, I can’t wait to support it from the outside!

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Charlotte Dreizen

@CharDreizen

8 months

Multifamily residents in DC when only single family households get recycling, composting, and bulk pick up provided by the city

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Charlotte Dreizen

@CharDreizen

3 years

How to dispose of your COVID test kit, a thread 🧵

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Charlotte Dreizen

@CharDreizen

3 years

In DC, our recycling has a contamination rate of 19.34% citywide (slightly lower in residential material, 17.8% for single-family & 18.8% for multi-family, and slightly higher for businesses, 22%). If ever in doubt about whether something can be recycled, place it in the trash!

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Charlotte Dreizen

@CharDreizen

2 years

Yogurt cups are made of polypropylene, a high-value plastic. Not all communities can accept polypropylene for recycling, but we do here in DC. Once the foil lid is peeled off and cleaned out, it’s ready to go into @DCDPW blue bins!

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Charlotte Dreizen

@CharDreizen

2 years

Why do we need universal composting for *both* single-family and multi-family residents in DC? Because we throw away more than 90 million pounds of food waste a year.

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Charlotte Dreizen

@CharDreizen

3 years

Did it hurt? When you realized that you’ve been putting your recycling in plastic bags, making it unrecyclable?

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Charlotte Dreizen

@CharDreizen

2 years

Something worth celebrating - we recycle 68% of the paper we produce nationally, up from 43% in 2000.

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Charlotte Dreizen

@CharDreizen

2 years

It is so important that we reduce contamination in the recycling system. Here’s 7 reasons why you should learn what you can and can recycle (and when in doubt, throw out) 🧵

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Charlotte Dreizen

@CharDreizen

3 years

That thing when you can’t stop thinking about how no public housing in DC has access to recycling.

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Charlotte Dreizen

@CharDreizen

2 years

What’s Joe Biden’s plan to get my neighbors to stop putting recycling in plastic bags

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Charlotte Dreizen

@CharDreizen

1 year

We’ve reduced the contamination rate in our single-family recycling from 27% to 11% 🙌

Washingtonian Problems

@WashProbs

1 year

Hey DC, what’s some good news you’ve received lately?

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Charlotte Dreizen

@CharDreizen

10 months

For Christmas, I would like one (1) textile recycling drop-off operated by the city.

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Charlotte Dreizen

@CharDreizen

9 months

DC deserves composting drop-offs accessible 7 days a week in each ward

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Charlotte Dreizen

@CharDreizen

2 years

Why was Sprite switching from green PET to clear PET such a big deal? Because clear PET is even higher value in the recycling market. Green is still recyclable, but lower value (because green can only go back into colored/opaque items, but clear can go back into any kind of PET!)

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Charlotte Dreizen

@CharDreizen

2 years

This is what happens when we don’t either require multi-family buildings to provide bulk collection to their tenants - or straight up collect bulk waste from every household citywide, regardless of where they live.

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Charlotte Dreizen

@CharDreizen

2 years

. @chaiatacos , your tacos were stupendous just now! But, was bummed to not see any recycling bins and only this sole trash bin. Providing recycling is not only the right thing to do, but required by law in DC for all businesses!

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Charlotte Dreizen

@CharDreizen

3 years

Excellent question! Yes, all paper labels would contaminate a plastic item being recycled, so we would want to remove it before tossing into the blue bin 👌

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Charlotte Dreizen

@CharDreizen

2 years

The one, infamous, dirty container to rule them all. Plastic container? Super recyclable, high-value PET. Lid? Recyclable. Re-attach it. But peanut butter must be removed first. Some let it soak overnight. I impatiently scrub with water + soap. If unable to wash it, trash it!

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Charlotte Dreizen

@CharDreizen

2 years

I am a nepo baby (my dad worked at a recycling non-profit in the 90’s)

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Charlotte Dreizen

@CharDreizen

3 years

For the record, as a Ukrainian American, I’m very much advocating for both violence and creative reuse of glass.

Charlotte Dreizen

@CharDreizen

3 years

Now this is what I call glass recycling.

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Charlotte Dreizen

@CharDreizen

1 year

🚨 rainy day reminder 🚨 Wet cardboard is unrecyclable cardboard. In DC, the only recycling that’s permitted to be picked up outside of a recycling bin is broken down cardboard. But if raining, we need to hold off till sunnier skies or ensure that all cardboard is in the bin.

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Charlotte Dreizen

@CharDreizen

2 years

For my birthday, please just for the love of god recycle.

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Charlotte Dreizen

@CharDreizen

1 year

Many pizzas were had. And in DC, all of these pizza boxes can be recycled

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Charlotte Dreizen

@CharDreizen

2 years

What are those numbers on plastic containers? And what do they mean? Hint: it does *not* mean that they’re necessarily recyclable! A thread 🧵

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Charlotte Dreizen

@CharDreizen

2 years

Monday morning reminder that in DC, you can only place cardboard outside of your blue bin once broken down and folded

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Charlotte Dreizen

@CharDreizen

2 years

Out for 2023: providing compostable packaging but not providing compost collection Nothing 👏 composts 👏 in 👏 a 👏 landfill 👏

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Charlotte Dreizen

@CharDreizen

2 years

The answer to over-filled public litter bins… is not to remove public litter bins.

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Charlotte Dreizen

@CharDreizen

2 years

Pizza boxes! Pizza boxes are recyclable, but pizza is not. As long as all of the food is removed, some grease is no problem (and is easy for paper mills to remove with the same processes they use to remove inks and adhesives).

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Charlotte Dreizen

@CharDreizen

1 year

Coffee cups are rrrrrecyclable in DC! Not every community has paper mills that can handle paper cups with plastic coating, but DC is one that does! But, the paper cup *must* be separated from the plastic lid. Only then… *ominous pause*… can both be recycled separately!

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Charlotte Dreizen

@CharDreizen

1 year

The iced latte at @blankstreet ? 10/10 Not having recycling? 0/10 All business in DC are *legally required* to provide recycling. It’s also the right thing to do. Composting for their compostable plastic cold cups would be even better!

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Charlotte Dreizen

@CharDreizen

2 years

Coffee cups can’t be recycled in every community, but we can recycle them in DC! The paper cup and plastic lid must be separated + always make sure to shake out any last drips of coffee!

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Charlotte Dreizen

@CharDreizen

2 years

And last, but not least… drumroll please 🥁 Coffee cups! While not recyclable in all communities, DC can recycle coffee cups just fine (though plastic lids must be removed) and any last drops should be shaken out.

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Charlotte Dreizen

@CharDreizen

1 year

I love your coffee, @GregorysCoffee ! But, was bummed to not see any recycling at your 15th St NW store. Your cups and lids are recyclable! Providing recycling is the right thing to do (and required by law for all DC businesses!)

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Charlotte Dreizen

@CharDreizen

2 years

The plastic windows on pasta boxes don’t harm paper recycling whatsoever! You can totally toss the box into your blue bin, as is. But that plastic windows going to get removed at the paper mill and tossed, so you can remove it ahead of time for extra recycling brownie points ⭐️

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Charlotte Dreizen

@CharDreizen

3 years

How it started: How it’s going:

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Charlotte Dreizen

@CharDreizen

3 years

Friendly reminder that detergent bottles are accepted in @DCDPW @dczerowaste blue bins! And, that there’s no need to rinse out any extra detergent as recyclers actually count on it to help clean plastic in the recycling process. Don’t forget to re-attach the cap!

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Charlotte Dreizen

@CharDreizen

10 months

My hot take? Multi-family residents should have just as easy access to recycling as single-family households do

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Charlotte Dreizen

@CharDreizen

3 years

Walking by a blue bin and seeing that someone’s put their recycling in a plastic bag.

Washingtonian Problems

@WashProbs

3 years

Caption this (DC Edition)

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Charlotte Dreizen

@CharDreizen

2 years

Y’all ask the best recycling questions. Here are 7 that made their way into my DM’s over the past few days 🧵

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Charlotte Dreizen

@CharDreizen

3 years

I’m so grateful that more than 2,000 folks have followed to talk all things recycling. Each and every question genuinely makes my day - it’s so exciting to know just how much enthusiasm exists to make zero waste a reality.

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Charlotte Dreizen

@CharDreizen

1 year

Every public trash and recycling bin in DC should get picked up at least once a day. Period.

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Charlotte Dreizen

@CharDreizen

10 months

To all those downing mini candy for Halloween, little paper boxes like these *cannot* be recycled! Unfortunately, they are too small. In order to be recycled in any American community, all items must be above 2” x 2” to be sorted effectively. Smaller than that? Then trash it!

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Charlotte Dreizen

@CharDreizen

3 years

Do you care about recycling and composting in DC? Do you want to express it's importance to Council and share your thoughts on what you would like to see? To give 5 minutes of public testimony via Zoom at DPW's performance hearing, hold 12pm on Tuesday the 8th!

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Charlotte Dreizen

@CharDreizen

2 years

Never not going to share my favorite steel-can-recycling-tip when making chili, when I’m inevitably slizicing cans of all kinds open: keeping the lid ever-so-slightly attached to the can. If under 2” x 2”, a lid wouldn’t be recyclable on its own and would *have* to be attached.

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