Treat contamination as a process defect
Use DMAIC to define, measure, analyze, improve, and control a recycling contamination problem.
The move: stop saying "people contaminate recycling" and define the defect. Define before you train DMAIC starts with definition because a vague problem creates vague countermeasures. In recycling operations, define contamination by material, stream, place, time, and acceptance threshold. "Food residue in office mixed recycling above MRF tolerance" is useful. "Bad recycling behavior" is not. Measure with a repeatable sample Measure the same way each time: number of carts, time window, defect categories, and evidence method. Photos, cart tags, rejection notices, and scale tickets are better than memory. Baseline data lets you see whether a countermeasure actually changed the process.…
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