Climate Fixers: Curbside recycling is broken. In Kensington, Rabbit Recycling will take anything

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Inside a former metal fabrication shop in East Kensington, two women are sorting through piles of immaculately clean trash. Behind them looms a mountain of bundled plastic. In front of them is a row of what they call “cuties.”

“Here’s a cute little goose,” said Vicki Liantonio, “a couple of rabbits, of course, we’ve got little cop toys, a little VW Bus, quirky, vintage stuff. And this is the second time we’ve gotten this, but it’s a huge coin. It’s heavy, made of some kind of metal. Like, ‘What is this, and why does this even exist?’”

Liantonio works at Rabbit Recycling, a service that promises to recycle all your household trash for a fee. Their tagline: “Zero Waste in a Bucket,” refers to their innovative model to fix curbside recycling, most of which actually ends up incinerated or dumped in a landfill, especially when it comes to plastics. In Philadelphia, the recycling rate hovers around 8% of total trash collection.

Keeping trash out of landfills helps the climate in several ways. Decomposition releases greenhouse gas emissions, and finding a reuse for plastics can significantly reduce the need for more plastic manufacturing, which relies on fossil fuels.

Customers pay per container for curbside pick-up by one of Rabbit’s trucks. A standard 18-gallon storage bin is $26 per container for on-demand customers and $22 per container for subscribers in the city. They also serve residents of Delaware and Montgomery counties for a slightly higher fee of $30 and $26, respectively.

Co-owner Matt Siegfried said the idea began when his brother Bryan had an idea back in 2018.

“He had this thought that there are places you can take materials to be recycled that are typically hard to recycle, such as you can take your plastic bags to a Target or a Home Depot, and there’s a container to drop off,” Siegfried said. It’s the same with recycling batteries and light bulbs. “What if there was sort of a one-stop shop or a business that had solutions for this material and provided a convenient way for people to recycle that material and also give them peace of mind? Because part of our motto is, if you’re a customer of ours, you can ask us where the material goes.”

The Siegfried brothers talked to businesses and people in their neighborhood and decided to give it a try.

“There isn’t a model that we were able to mimic,” Siegfried said.

One of the most important things about ensuring trash gets recycled is thoroughly cleaning and drying everything before putting it in the bin. Siegfried said most people don’t know that a greasy pizza box, or even a rinsed-out tomato sauce jar with a little residue, can contaminate an entire truckload of recycling. So everything must come in thoroughly washed. And if it doesn’t, the staff have to do the washing. It’s a testament to the cleanliness of the trash that there are no issues with rodents or pests at the warehouse.

“We don’t get critters,” Siegfried said.

Not only is everything immaculate but it’s also categorized. Plastics are sorted into their various numbers depending on the type and use. Styrofoam is either packing or food grade. There are piles of aluminum, steel, brass, and copper alongside bins for blister packs, juice pouches, candescent and LED light bulbs and even a shelf for old trophies, magnets and photo albums. (Yes, they come with pictures).

Today, Rabbit Recycling has close to 2,000 subscribers who, either weekly or monthly, send them lots of plastics, along with electronics, clothes, toys, or whatever else one would discover in their parents’ basement.

“It’s kind of like a mini version of American Pickers,” said Liantonio. And while they don’t know the people who send them trash, Liantonio said it’s fun to make up stories about them.

“There’s the guy who eats a lot of energy bars, and then suddenly there were more (wrappers) so we were like, I think he has a girlfriend,” she said.

Once the trash is sorted, the company finds places that will take or reuse all the different plastics, paper, and glass. Siegfried said that once he has enough volume for a particular item, such as soft plastics, he ships the bales out to a facility that processes or reuses that material. For example, some fabrics will go to make “shoddy,” he said, which is used as stuffing for stuffed animals.

Rabbit Recycling has a section of the warehouse that looks like an electronics repair shop. It’s full of old cell phones, computers, cameras, calculators and video games.

Siegfried said they test and validate the condition of the electronics. Some they will sell on eBay, but others will be sent to certified companies to dismantle and reuse all the materials.

They even have a place to send old candles.

Rabbit Recycling will also give away items, especially to artists looking for materials such as broken ceramics to make murals, or bottle caps.

“We had somebody come by looking for only pink things,” said Siegfried. “They love pink. Whether it was a straw or a spoon, they didn’t care. They wanted pink stuff. So we went around and looked for pink stuff. And that was great.”

“It is more economical and sustainable to have people reuse and give the material a second chance,” Siegfried said.

Teachers often come looking for art supplies for their students, local gardeners come for plastic containers to start seedlings, and some unhoused people come for clothes, shoes or soap. Unopened utensils go to shelters.

There are things Rabbit will not take, including anything that has radiation, such as smoke detectors, hazardous materials, or potential explosives like propane tanks.

Liantonio said she became a customer before she began working at the shop. But seeing all the trash that comes in has changed how she consumes. However, when it comes to plastics, she said they’re just so hard to avoid.

“It just shows you that even people who are trying to be conscious and trying to be good and trying to be healthy, the byproduct is still a waste. They’re eating berries. They’re eating salad. They’re eating right, but eating right makes waste.”