“are they burning the refuse in a steam-generating energy-producing facility? And, do we still have to separate?”
To answer your question: Yes. Garbage separation was never intended for ‘recycling’, at least regarding paper and plastic (since they sent it all to China to burn), it was simply a POWER PLAY by the Left, to show their control over you. No different than the Left demanding the right of perverts to shower with little girls.
[To answer your question: Yes. Garbage separation was never intended for ‘recycling’, at least regarding paper and plastic (since they sent it all to China to burn),]
Actually, it is recycled in China. There are people who make a living there from collecting garbage off the sidewalks - cardboard, cans and glass and plastic bottles. I have read that this is a perennial gripe among homeowners there. The garbage pickers leave a mess after grabbing the stuff they can sell. It makes sense to take American garbage because it’s fairly well-sorted and China-bound shipping rates are cheap since US-bound container ships have to go back mostly-empty to Chinese ports. Xi’s clampdown on US garbage is illogical and stupid, like a lot of Communist Party policies. But when you’re sitting on a gold mine of some of the highest average IQ people on the planet, you can be an insane arsonist and still show economic growth, especially when it’s catch-up growth based on adopting somebody else’s inventions.