Recycling coordinators, MRFs and others tend to refer to material in different ways. Draft specifications from an industry group aim to help put all parties on the same page.
The Institute of Scrap Recycling Industries (ISRI) Board of Directors will consider specifications defining what two important municipal recycling terms mean and what materials they encompass. The phrases in question: “Inbound residential single stream” and “inbound residential dual stream.”
The board will consider them during its winter meeting on Feb. 21 in Nashville, Tenn.
Both the single-stream and dual-stream specifications refer to recyclables that are left by households in receptacles for pick up. They both cover recyclables generally allowed in local programs, disallowed contaminants and absolutely prohibited materials.
The purpose is to give materials recovery facilities (MRFs) and municipalities “a common vernacular to negotiate the items that comprise the material stream” in single-stream and dual-stream collection programs, according to an ISRI press release.
ISRI’s MRF Committee approved the specifications in July 2019, and the group’s Plastics Division approved them in September 2019.
