Durham is about to do something most residents would rather not: open up bags of household trash and sort through the contents. The city hopes the unpleasant exercise will show how much recyclable material is still headed to a landfill—and how much “recycling” is actually trash in disguise.
Durham has hired Kessler Consulting to examine what residents are throwing away and what is ending up in recycling bins, with results expected in roughly two months, according to the Raleigh News & Observer. The city has also contracted with Waste Management for recycling management as it tries to cut contamination and stretch the life of disposal facilities.
Durham’s Recycling Stream Is Nearly One-Third Trash
A 2024 city performance audit found that nearly one-third of Durham’s recycling stream consisted of material that did not belong there. Contamination hovered around 33%, while the city’s target is 15%, and the extra sorting and disposal cost Durham approximately $199,722 through April of fiscal year 2024, according to the City of Durham’s audit.
The problem is not just a few rogue pizza boxes. Plastic bags, food residue and other “wish-cycled” items can be pulled from the conveyor belt and sent back to the landfill, while bagged recyclables may be discarded without being opened because processing facilities do not have the time or space to inspect every bag.
Durham’s Trash Takes A Long Ride South
Durham does not operate a local municipal landfill. Its trash is transferred from the city’s waste center and hauled to Sampson County, about 95 miles south, while recyclable material travels to a Raleigh-area facility for processing, as detailed by The Indy Week.
That long-distance system makes every avoidable ton matter. A 2016 Durham study found that about two-thirds of household trash could have been diverted from landfills, including recyclable materials and food waste, while the city’s current sorting contract is estimated to cost between $40,000 and $80,000, the News & Observer reports.
North Carolina Has Capacity But Not Everywhere
North Carolina’s landfill crunch is real, though it is not quite a countdown to a statewide trash apocalypse. The North Carolina Department of Environmental Quality estimates roughly 20.9 years of remaining municipal solid-waste capacity at current disposal rates, but warns that capacity is unevenly distributed and that some landfills could reach capacity within four to eight years.
Durham’s new study is intended to replace old assumptions with a current look at what is actually in local waste streams. The city’s 2024 audit identified food waste and low-grade paper as among the biggest opportunities for additional diversion, while also recommending stronger education, clearer targets and a new waste-characterization study.
For Durham residents, the takeaway is fairly simple: the blue bin is not a magic portal where anything vaguely plastic disappears forever. The city is now trying to measure the cost of getting that decision wrong—and determine how much of Durham’s trash can stay out of Sampson County’s landfill in the first place.
