Recycling is not a foreign concept in America. Thanks to consumer recycling efforts that began in earnest in the 1970s, recycling is something we have grown up with. And yet, we do so little of it. Ditto for reducing, reusing, and repurposing. We could probably do better if we zeroed in on the number one key to success: keeping things simple.

Human beings have a tendency to make things more complicated than they need to be. Think about it. The introduction of the personal computer was supposed to make us more productive and efficient. Perhaps we are, but at what cost? The task of keeping the world’s computer systems up and running is extremely complicated. And it only takes one crash to break everything. Just ask CrowdStrike.

Simple systems are more reliable. They are easier to maintain and less susceptible to catastrophic failure. What is true in the world of computer science is also true in the recycling world. Keep it simple and you will find success. Make it too complicated and you are destined to fail.

Newspapers and Glass

When I was a kid back in the 1970s, my siblings and I would join my father in his pickup truck to drive around town on trash day and pick up discarded newspapers and glass bottles. We recycled them and used the money we earned to pay for family trips. Fortunately, city residents made it easy on us.

Curbside recycling wasn’t mandatory back then. But everybody knew about families like ours. So they bundled up stacks of old newspapers with either twine or paper grocery bags. They would put the stacks out to the curb with their trash. As for glass bottles, they would box them up and put them to the curb as well.

For us, recycling was as simple as can be. We just snagged the stacks of newspapers and boxes of bottles. We took them home and stacked them in different corners of the garage. When we had enough of one or the other to take a load to the recycling plant, we did. It was simple, easy, and profitable. So profitable that our family of thirteen was able to travel quite a bit.

Post-Industrial Plastic Recycling

What my siblings and I did 50 years ago is still being done today by companies like Tennessee-based Seraphim Plastics. Seraphim travels to customer sites in seven states to pick up their postindustrial plastic scrap. Seraphim does not sell plastic to a recycler – they are the recycler. They buy plastic scrap the same way that local recycling plant purchased our paper and glass so many years ago.

Ultimately, the industrial plastic waste Seraphim purchases is sent through a series of grinders and magnets to reduce it to small pellets. Those pellets are sold to manufacturers. They are mixed with virgin plastic pellets to create everything from plastic car parts to computer cases to children’s toys.

Post-Consumer Recycling Isn’t Simple

Post-industrial plastic recycling is very simple. That is why it works. On the other hand, post-consumer recycling has failed because it is too complicated. States and municipalities tried to make it easy on consumers with the whole curbside recycling concept. But that only made things more complicated for the recyclers. It is now so complicated that making a profit is very difficult.

It doesn’t matter what it is you want to recycle. Whether it is paper, glass, plastic, or something else entirely, the key to making it work is simplicity. Keep things simple and you are likely to succeed. Make things too complicated and failure is almost guaranteed. That is just the reality of life.