Recycling Diversion Rate and Residual Contamination
Separates a reported diversion rate from the true one after measured inbound contamination.
Example
You enter
- Total tonnage generated (tons) 100000
- Recycling collected (tons) 22000
- Organics collected (tons) 8000
- Inbound contamination rate (%) 18
- Processing fee ($/ton) 75
- Tipping fee ($/ton) 45
- Improved contamination rate (%) 8
You get
- Reported diversion 30.0% -- the number in the annual report
- Residual to the landfill 3,960 tons; 18,040 tons actually recovered
- Recovered (ton) 18040
- True diversion 26.0%
- The overstatement 3.96
- Overstatement share of claim (%) 13.2
- Overstatement above true (%) 15.2074
- Double-handling cost of the residual $475,200 a year to process and then bury it
- At the improved contamination rate 28.24
- And the saving 264000
No published worked example is on file for this calculation. It is checked against a hand-worked derivation of its method and an independent reference test.
Details, formula, and sources
ScopeSeparates a reported diversion rate from the true one after measured inbound contamination, and prices the residual's double handling. The worked community reports 30.0% and truly diverts 26.0%; the 3,960 tons of residual cost $475,200 a year. Improving contamination beats adding tonnage.
Formula or tablereported diversion = (recycling + organics) / total generated; true diversion replaces the recycling tonnage with what survives the measured inbound contamination; residual cost = residual tons x (processing + tipping fees).
Source and editionDiversion bookkeeping. The jurisdiction's diversion definition governs which materials count and whether they are counted at the truck or at the bale; the processor's own contamination measurement governs the residual.
Free accessPublic arithmetic; the contamination rate is the processor's own measurement.
What governsEstimate. AHJ and licensed professional govern.
API field namestotal_generated_tons, recycling_tons, organics_tons, contamination_pct, processing_fee_per_ton, tipping_fee_per_ton, improved_contamination_pct, reported_diversion_pct, residual_tons, recovered_tons, true_diversion_pct, overstatement_points, overstatement_share_of_claim_pct, overstatement_above_true_pct, residual_cost, improved_true_diversion_pct, improved_saving
- Overstatement reported against true is stated BOTH as a share of the claimed figure and as a percentage above the true rate; they are different quantitiesspec-v1796 correction
- Residual the most expensive tonnage in the system -- collected, tipped, sorted, rejected, reloaded, and hauled to the landfill it would have reached directlyprocessor records