About
A public research project on where Peterborough's recyclables physically end up, who buys them, what the town gets back, and what the environmental math says.
Recycling is a thousand local arrangements. The honest answer is material specific and changes town to town, so this site works one material at a time and every claim carries its source. The tone is level and data-first. This is not a fight.
How it started
A post on a local Facebook thread asked whether there's an actual reason to keep recycling. Four claims came up. Here's how each one checks out against the records.
| Claim | Verdict | Why |
|---|---|---|
| Glass never gets recycled. | Half right. | Real routes exist: NRRA ships pooled glass to a fiberglass plant near Montreal. Peterborough's stream disqualifies itself by mixing in ceramics, and most likely becomes local road aggregate instead. |
| Plastic recycling ended. | Mostly right nationally, wrong locally. | Under 10% of plastic gets recycled in the United States. But 17 tons of Peterborough's #1 plastic sold to a real buyer in 2023, and film goes to composite lumber. |
| Metal and cardboard are the real ones. | True. | 206 tons of scrap and 116 tons of cardboard sold in 2023, with metal earning more than every other commodity combined. |
| Paper is better burned or rotted. | The weakest claim. | Mixed paper still sells. Rotting paper makes methane. Burning pays the tipping fee anyway and destroys the fiber. Those costs are invisible, not absent. |
Secondhand claims, logged but not verified
From a 30-year injection molding veteran who supplied the auto industry. Kept here because they're checkable, not because they're confirmed. Secondhand
- Antrim's transfer station allegedly hasn't sold plastic in 25 years and its separated plastic rides with the trash. Checkable: Antrim files the same annual facility reports with the state.
- Automakers wanted the green label but refused recycled resin in the parts they bought. Consistent with recycled resin failing in the strictest-spec segment while succeeding in loose-spec products like decking, benches, carpet fiber, and bottle-to-bottle PET.
- Reprocessed resin runs badly and raises scrap rates; virgin is usually cheaper. Mostly true. The market exists where buyers pay a premium or the spec tolerates recycled grade.
How sure is each finding
- Confirmed
- A record or a named source says so.
- Likely
- The evidence points one way. Not yet confirmed.
- Open
- Unknown. A records request or a call is pending.
Where each claim comes from
- Town data
- Published by the Town of Peterborough.
- State data
- NHDES, NRRA, or state law.
- Press
- Reported in the Monadnock Ledger-Transcript.
- Background
- General industry or science context, not specific to Peterborough.
- Inference
- Reasoned from the records. Not confirmed.
- Secondhand
- Something a person said. Not verified.
How it gets updated
A records request to NHDES for five years of the facility's Annual Facility Reports is pending. Those reports will either confirm destinations or, by leaving glass out, support the conclusion that glass is crushed and used on site. Either outcome gets logged. Calls to the recycling center and a look behind the building are on the open questions list.
The full research dossier and the source archive live in a public repository, so anyone can check the work.