“The importance of recycling reaches beyond the curbside recycling bin,” says Veolia North America COO Bob Cappadona. “Recycling extends to waste streams generated by corporate offices, industry, large-scale commercial operations, governmental agencies, and small businesses.”
At Veolia, Cappadona supports the company’s hazardous materials management businesses in the US and Canada. Earlier this year, he and Veolia North America president and CEO Bill DiCroce discussed the chemical reclamation challenges, solutions, and trends they were observing.
This week we caught up with Cappadona on the heels of Keep America Beautiful’s America Recycles Day, a program dedicated to promoting and celebrating recycling across the country. He shares why recycling is crucial for corporate sustainability leaders, and offers insights into developing an effective recycling strategy.
Why do you think recycling should be a priority?
Corporate sustainability leaders, whether in the company headquarters or onsite at a manufacturing facility, may come across a unique waste stream or material they believe is only suitable for landfill or waste-to-energy disposal.
Very often this waste stream or material doesn’t fit into any traditional recycling category. Also, keep in mind that this waste needs to be managed in a compliant, safe, and efficient manner. But with some extra elbow grease — and sometimes the help of a reliable, experienced partner — corporate sustainability leaders can find other options including recycling to manage these unique materials in a cost-effective, safe, and sustainable way.
What are common hazardous materials and solvents in a corporate office setting?
Non-hazardous and hazardous materials alike can become hazardous to the environment if not managed responsibly. Fluorescent light bulbs, for example, contain several components including aluminum, phosphorus, glass, and mercury — the latter being harmful to human health and the environment when not contained. Batteries, from the rechargeable kind to what powers a television remote, can also be hazardous when handled inappropriately. Even if you think a battery is dead, it could have some remaining juice and start a fire.
What are the biggest challenges businesses face when looking to recycle hazardous materials or solvents?
When businesses are considering recycling hazardous material or solvents, a recurring question we are asked is how do we facilitate a reverse distribution channel for all potentially recyclable materials?
For example, you take a quart of oil in a plastic container and send that to five people. There are other companies also selling oil in a plastic container possibly made of a different type of plastic. How do you collect the quart of oil and the plastic container it came in when it’s done being used? How do you segregate the different plastics for recycling? How do you know your plastic container is being handled properly if it’s not coming back to you?
Price remains a challenge, too. The value of recyclables continues to be decided by market volatility. The price of commodities such as metals like copper and aluminum and the price of oil can dictate how easy or difficult it is to recycle a material.
Could you share examples of effective corporate recycling strategies?
Companies, facilities, organizations, you name it, are all looking to reduce overall waste-related costs, meet corporate sustainability objectives, and extract value from waste byproducts while maintaining core business operations and hitting their targets.
An effective recycling strategy includes components such as a dedicated project manager that can be based at your site to manage your recycling program, additional labor for recycling and sorting, byproduct transportation, and regulated waste management activities.
This also includes willingness to do a baseline of your current recycling strategy if you have one. How have you handled total waste management in the past? Have you used internal employees? Would you consider an external company to help? Are there financial and environmental drivers to manage this waste stream a different way?
One customer we work with utilizes our RecyclePak service on every floor. When a fluorescent light bulb needs to be replaced, the employees know to place it in the RecyclePak bucket so that, when full, the bucket will be sent to us for proper waste management. There’s already a plan in place before the light bulb burns out.
Have you seen changes this year in the way business leaders view hazardous materials recycling?
Businesses are beginning to realize the benefits and cost savings tied to recycling hazardous materials. However, while it may cost money up front on recycling and not generate significant revenue on the recycled commodity, the cost may actually be less than the cost to dispose that material.
Where do you think corporate recycling in North America is heading?
In the future, the public will demand more efficient and reliable recycling solutions. This will include acknowledgement that recycling, although at a cost, is the better option from many perspectives including cost efficiency and environmental responsibility.
