Your orange bags haven’t gone to Salt Lake City since 2018. Here’s what happened

If you’re a Boisean who has recycled plastics in an orange bag recently, they probably didn’t go to Salt Lake City and get turned into diesel fuel as you were once told they would.

Renewlogy, the company that was supposed to process Boise’s bags, has had a major backup that city officials attribute to delays caused by equipment upgrades. That means the company hasn’t been processing the bags or their plastic contents since at least the end of 2018, said Colin Hickman, spokesman for Boise’s Public Works department.

That’s more than half the time the program has existed.

Instead, for more than a year, bags have taken a different path after leaving your home. Some have simply been stored at Western Recycling in Boise, awaiting a time when they could be “recovered” (not recycled) rather than landfilled.

Others have been sent all over — California, Louisiana, Texas, even Canada. They’ve mostly been burned in cement manufacturing plants, in place of coal as an energy source in the production process, Hickman said by phone. Still others have been used to make plastic pallets, park benches, and railroad ties.

Renewlogy was supposed to resume operations in January after it got new machinery from China, he said. The machinery is supposed to be able to better handle the flimsy plastics that get put into the orange bags without the plastics gumming up the machinery. But the new machines have been delayed, and Renewlogy now expects them in late summer or early fall, he said.

“This is a really complex problem, and we’ve been testing markets throughout the country to find a solution,” Hickman said.

A news release from the Public Works Department said Reynolds Consumer Products and Dow Chemical Co., which administer Boise’s program and find the markets for the plastics, found several backup options after Renewlogy’s facilities went down. But the cement industry is the only one able to continually accept the bags.

Boise officials want to look into the actual environmental impact of using the materials in cement production. The city has commissioned a “life-cycle analysis,” a study that looks at the cumulative environmental impacts of an action. Hickman said the analysis will consider factors like air quality and how much energy is used to ship the plastics.

“The city will make a policy decision regarding the program and potential destinations and markets for Boise’s EnergyBags” once that analysis is done, the release said. Hickman said the goal is to eventually start sending bags back to Renewlogy.

Until then, the bags will continue to be stored alongside bundled paper in a corner at Western Recycling, 1990 S. Cole Road, where two months’ worth of bags make a pile twice as tall as a person. Hickman told the Statesman that no bags have been sent to a landfill.

The city shifted to the orange bags just after China said it would no longer accept American plastics in 2017. For years, China had accepted millions of tons of plastic, much of it just piling up.

“We as a city have been shifting the conversation on how we manage our plastics,” he said. “The city is working on rolling out new policies to help change the conversation even more.”

That includes a new “Reduce and Reuse” program from the city. The program will focus on cutting down on city government waste “and developing initiatives, policies, and community partnerships to help citizens and businesses reduce the waste they create and conserve our finite natural resources,” the release said.

The city still wants Boiseans to take part in the orange bag program. While experts look for new ways to recover or reuse the plastics, Hickman said consumers won’t see a difference in how they are handled.

He said that costs are also not expected to change, either, although Reynolds Consumer Products ultimately decides on prices. There is no charge to Boise residents except for what they already pay for trash pickup and recycling and for the cost of buying the bags at a store.

The materials accepted also remain the same. Paper, metal and plastics marked No. 1 or 2 still get recycled normally, while plastics labeled No. 4 through 7 go in the bags. PVC or No. 3 plastics go in the trash.

What to put in orange bags

▪ All plastic bags for bread, chips, snacks, fruits, vegetables, salads, pet food, pet treats, groceries

▪ Plastic tubs and lids for dairy items such as yogurt, butter and sour cream

▪ Squeezable plastic juice pouches

▪ Plastic single-serving snack packages for pudding, etc.

▪ Plastic dinnerware: Straws, utensils, cups, plates, etc.

▪ Foam products: egg cartons, cups, plates, bowls, meat trays

▪ Packaging: plastic food wrap, meat and cheese packaging, candy wrappers, food storage bags, plastic bottle caps

▪ Packing and shipping materials: plastic bubble wrap, air packs and pillows, shrink wrap, plastic envelopes

▪ Bathroom items: empty toothpaste tubes, empty deodorant sticks, plastic tubes for lotions and creams

This story was originally published March 9, 2020 at 4:00 AM.

Hayley Harding

Idaho Statesman

208-377-6481

Hayley covers local government for the Idaho Statesman with a primary focus on Boise and Ada County. Her political reporting won first place in the 2019 Idaho Press Club awards. Previously, she worked for the Salisbury Daily Times, the Hartford Courant, the Denver Post and McClatchy’s D.C. bureau. Hayley graduated from Ohio University with degrees in journalism and political science.If you like seeing stories like this, please consider supporting our work with a digital subscription to the Idaho Statesman.