We've had state mandated recycling for more than 10 years and it is a joke. At first our city had a huge recycling yard where we could take our recyclybles and drop them is separate collection bins -- #1 plastic, #2 plastic, glass, aluminum, steel, paper, etc. There were strick rules on how everything was to be handled (washed, labels removed, etc.) It became a huge trash heap and a $60k manager couldn't straighten it out.
Then they closed the city recycling yard and issued bins to everyone and engaged our trash companies to pick up the refuse in separated trucks. Again -- everything separate -- paper, glass, etc. My garbage collector tipped me off as to what was really going on -- the little companies had to follow the rules to a "T" and the biggies (probably mafia controlled) just dumped everything together in the same land fill.
In addition, out of state refuse haulers dumped all their trash in the same place -- all together. After all the little garbage haulers were driven out of business, the biggies have taken over. One truck comes around and picks up all the recyclables all dumped together -- paper, glass, aluminum, plastic. Supposedly they separate it a tthe land fill but I'm betting that it all goes in together.
I asked our mayor about it one time and he said that the object was to create a mountain of plastic, a mountain of paper, etc that could be "mined" in the future when they figured out what to do with the stuff.
I say they should invest in huge "burners" to get rid of this stuff. This is largely a wasted effort.
AND we were told to wash out the containers to be recycled--that's water being wasted.
Ha HA HA it was SUCH a hoot when they first instituted the recycling--they sent out TWO huge trucks to do the route, which used to be done by ONE! Extra pollution and consumption!
AND what about people getting cut messing with all this garbage and having to get stitches--that's a drain on the medical system!
It's just a ploy--recycling is meaningless!!! They just want you to suffer through doing it so you will buy less recyclables in the first place!!! It is totally 100% ANTICAPITALISM.