Breaking Down the Bin: How to Treat Waste Without Trashing the Planet
Where does all our waste go? Sorting, recycling, incineration, landfill… We’ll break down the process of household waste.
For over 30 years now, we’ve been sorting our waste: the yellow bin for paper, cardboard, and plastic packaging; the green bin for glass; and the gray bin for everything else. And since 2024, a new bin has been introduced: the brown bin, for food waste.
We’re diligent, but do we really know what path our waste takes once it’s thrown away? Is it all recycled? Where does it go? Before you answer, here are some figures: on average, you produce 780 kg of waste per capita per year. The annual budget for processing all our household waste is billions of dollars.
1. A First Re-sorting
For our yellow bins and glass collectors, the first step is to go to a sorting center. On long mechanical conveyors, our waste undergoes automated sorting based on weight and size, followed by a final manual sorting. Waste of the correct size and material will be recycled, while the rest will go to the incinerator or landfill.
2. Recycling
The scraps of glass, plastic, and cardboard that pass the sorting stage are sent to recycling centers scattered throughout Texas.
The packaging is often transformed into energy or insulation. For example, the plastic is shipped where it is transformed into PCR (post-consumer recycled plastic), plastic beads that produce energy when burned. Only 3% of recycled plastic is transformed back into plastic packaging.
Our recycling capacity is limited by the quantities of materials discarded daily and our expertise. Recycling doesn’t mean remaking plastic packaging from discarded packaging, but rather reusing the material, even if it has a different purpose. Recycling plants require a lot of water and energy, and their economic operation relies on the presence of large quantities of waste.
3. Incineration
42% of our waste is incinerated. With 92 incineration plants in Texas, it’s as polluting as a coal mine.
Our household waste, waste from the gray bin, as well as thin plastics, damaged cardboard, and any other packaging that cannot be recycled, is sent to the incinerator. The goal is to produce Texan, renewable electricity while reducing the volume of non-recyclable waste.
In Texas, we have 92 plants that process more than 11.5 million tons of waste per year, but they only produce 1% of Texas’s electricity. Consuming large amounts of gas to produce the heat needed for incineration, these plants also generate gaseous residues from flue gas treatment, called refiom, which are stored in landfills reserved for heavy waste. While refiom are treated, this is not the case for dioxin emissions, which are persistent pollutants (POPs) because no regulations require their treatment. Yet, these dioxins penetrate our bodies and cannot be eliminated. Incineration emits as much CO2 as coal combustion.
4. Landfilling
22% of our waste is landfilled, with 102 landfills operating in Texas.
When waste is not burned, it is buried; 22% of household waste is landfilled in Texas. An area the size of a football field is excavated, several layers of insulation are laid to protect the soil, and then the waste is dumped. Once the pit is full, it is covered with insulating layers, then with soil, and the waste is left to decompose.
This decomposition produces methane (CH4) and carbon dioxide (CO2); 22% of methane emissions in Texas come from active landfills.
More importantly, once buried, the waste produces leachate, a landfill liquid that seeps into the soil and contaminates groundwater with heavy metals and microplastics, despite the insulating layers placed on the landfills and the leachate receptacles provided.
The decomposed waste will be used to produce road sub-bases. But building a landfill is no small undertaking: an area equivalent to 30 football fields is excavated to cover it with an insulating layer, while 25% of animal and plant habitats live underground and are threatened with each new landfill construction.
5. Anaerobic digestion
Biowaste represents 40% of our trash, or 2 million tons. Previously, it was buried or incinerated. Starting in 2024, it will be anaerobicized to produce biogas.
Collected in a large, sealed tank and mixed regularly, the fermenting waste produces heat and gases that are collected and converted into energy, heat, or fuel. While the original idea is laudable, it remains questionable because anaerobic digestion plants are very expensive to build, whereas naturally composting food waste would be much simpler and would enrich the soil and reduce greenhouse gases.
Furthermore, these plants lack resources and are eager for construction projects that raze forests. In comparison, natural composting is a technique that simply transforms household waste into fertilizer. It’s based on the open-air fermentation of waste with a mixture of dry matter until it becomes a very rich natural substrate for the soil. This substrate acts as a fertilizer but also traps greenhouse gases.
6. When it overflows, we ship it
We’re at the 6th stage of waste treatment: sorting, recycling, incineration, landfill, and yet the government is overwhelmed. It can’t process all our waste. So, sometimes, the only solution for this surplus is to send our waste to countries in Africa, Southeast Asia, or Latin America. It is claimed that these countries have more efficient recycling centers than ours. However, the reality is much sadder, because our waste is piled up and forms mountains of hazardous materials from which vulnerable people come to earn a living by reselling our scrap metal, damaged clothing, and other items.
Waste treatment is an industrial activity with factories, power plants, and transportation networks whose model is based on waste and therefore the mass production of disposable consumer goods. Therefore, we must not only focus on the impact of waste treatment but also on that of the factories that produce the items that will end up in our trash. Today, it is estimated that 90% of biodiversity loss and water stress are caused by the manufacturing of consumer goods. So, it’s time to switch to deposits and bulk purchases, and to value our waste!