We’ve been separating garbage for 15 years. One day I spoke to the manager of the trash company about not being able to separate for a week or two.
He said, it doesn’t matter - it all gets burned anyway.
Earlier this year I read more than 1 article that recycling is basically a failure and not worth the effort. Iff you have stock in companies that make various color coded trash cans, you may want to divest.
Years ago I was managing a business. We collected motor oil for recycling. Customers had to bring it in, log it, and pour it into the collection tank.
One idiot apparently did not bother to read the rules so he just dropped off a 30 gallon drum of waste oil on the property. The drum had a label indicating that it had previously contained Freon.
Our property immediately became an EPA Hazardous Waste Site. We were forbidden to move the barrel. We had to apply for a bunch of permits and find a licensed hauler who was approved for transporting hazardous waste. The barrel sat on our property for weeks while this all took place, and the final cost was many thousands of dollars.
Finally the permits were approved and the waste hauler arrived to take the drum. I asked him what they were going to do with it. Quote:
“We take this stuff up to Detroit, dump it in an incinerator and burn it!”
We also live in rural SW Pa, so it's a lot different here than say, NYC.
Which is WHY we live here ……
As the late Sam Kenison famously said ………. MOVVVVE !