Commentary
Thank your aerosol can
for its service…
I am both a hoarder and a minimalist. These two factions of my personality battle it
out in my head at least a few times a week. I like to acquire clutter and I also like to
get rid of it. Both activities give me a warm and fuzzy feeling.
I stream reruns of “Hoarding: Buried Alive” and “Hoarders” more often than I care
to admit while I wait impatiently for the oft-promised Season 10 of the latter. I recently
became enamored of a kinder, gentler Netflix version of these shows called “Tidying
Up,” where a sweet, goofy, Mary Poppins-esque Japanese woman named Marie Kondo
descends on messy households and not only teaches the family to clean and de-clutter,
but also encourages them to thank their discards for their service. She also encourages
her clients, as well as the viewers at home, to thank their house for protecting them and
for cooperating in the cleaning process.
I can’t tell you how disappointed I am that there are only eight episodes.
When I clean out my house, I make sure all discards go to the proper place. Books go
one place, household items another, clothes another. I sort and rinse my recycling even
though my town doesn’t require it. I only recycle aerosols when they are empty.
Now I get (finally) to my point. Back in 2016, the Consumer Specialty Products Association
(now the Household & Commercial Products Association or HCPA), the Aluminum
Association, the Can Manufacturers Institute and the Steel Recycling Institute
sponsored a study called Sustainable Packaging Coalition: 2015–2016 Centralized Study on
Availability of Recycling for Aerosol Containers. The study showed
that about 70% of U.S. residents have access to curbside or
what used to be a “recyclable” product in the U.S. (and other countries) to now go into
a landfill.
This is a real cause for concern, but I can’t help but feel, in my own Mary Poppinsesque
way, that this may be an opportunity to usher in a new era of recycling, to change
our mentality once again about packaging, how it’s sourced and where it goes once a
consumer is done with it. What if the U.S. didn’t need China to buy huge amounts of
its discards? Maybe the U.S. can find a use for all of it right at home, all the while reducing
trash in the first place.
Coming up in a future issue, look for our coverage of the Metal Matters recycling
initiative in the UK. In the meantime, keep reducing, re-using and recycling everything
that your municipality will allow you—while not contaminating the stream with what it
doesn’t allow. Not sure what your town will take? Call them or check their website.
And remember to thank your discarded aerosol cans for their service.
6 Spray February 2019
SPRAYTechnology & Marketing
Cynthia Hundley
Publisher
chundley@spraytm.com
Ava Caridad
Editorial Director
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Assistant Editor
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Technical Editor
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Vice President, Administration
scarver@spraytm.com
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National Sales Manager
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Donald Farrell
Production
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Graphic Artist
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Reader Service Coordinator
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Circulation
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Volume 29, No. 2, February, 2019
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drop-off recycling facilities that recycle empty aluminum
or steel aerosol containers. More than 222 million
people in the U.S. (72%) have the ability to recycle
aluminum aerosol containers and more than 214 million
(69%) have the opportunity to recycle steel aerosol
containers. Only about 10% of the population
is served by programs that explicitly or implicitly
prohibit the recycling of aerosol containers.
Also back in 2016, China processed at least
half of the world’s exports of waste metals,
plastic and paper. The U.S. exported 16 million
tons of recycled waste to China that year, worth about
$5.2 billion.
However, as of Jan. 1, 2018, China has closed its
borders to several types of imported waste, causing
Editorial Director