Well if people stopped putting trash in recycle bins, this wouldn’t be an issue. Recycling facilities can’t handle certain things, and sending them trash can contaminate a whole bunch of stuff, or leave them with huge piles of stuff they can’t process. My roommate’s girlfriend puts my compost in the trash, and tries to recycle plastic bags covered in paint. Recyclable bottles and cans go in the trash... It’s not difficult to not be an idiot.
Seriously, it’s not difficult. Most recycling bins have a label on the top that give you a general idea for what’s recyclable and what’s not. Dallas’s Sanitation even sent out a flyer describing a bunch of stuff that isn’t recyclable. (I didn’t know our system doesn’t handle plastic bags.) Part of your waste disposal is properly disposing of waste.
I’m not big on government doing a lot of stuff, but they are the one providing the service (albeit through a contractor). You don’t need extra gov employees doing this, but it makes sense for the guys picking up recyclables to make sure that what they’re picking up is actually recyclable. And if not, leaving a note/not picking up what’s actually trash (it’s separate from recycling!) is what should be done.
Please do me a favor and read this article. It might change your opinion a bit.
https://www.nytimes.com/2015/10/04/opinion/sunday/the-reign-of-recycling.html?_r=0
Thanks
I just came across this article. I think it gives an even better argument than the first does. It’s a highly reasoned, conservative and even handed treatise on why recycling makes little to no economic sense and how we’ve been lulled through some level of fraud into believing that it’s good, no matter what the cost.
Let me know what you think of it.