Garrett C. Fitzgerald, Jonathan S. Krones, and Nickolas J. Themelis are co-authors on a paper entitled “Greenhouse gas impact of dual stream and single stream collection and separation of recyclables,” to be published in Resources, Conservation, and Recycling in December.
This paper examines the greenhouse gas emissions, or “carbon footprint,” of recycling systems before and after a community or municipality’s transition from dual stream to single stream recycling. The authors concluded that single stream recycling collects on average 50% more recycled tonnage than dual stream and results in 710 kg CO2-equiv. avoided emissions per MT of single stream recyclables.