Are You Recycling Correctly?

You probably thought as I did, that recycling was easy.  Put paper in the paper container, plastic in the plastic container, plant matter in the green container.  Turns out, it's a little more complicated than that.  In my community, all recyclables are tossed into one container, and sent to the processing plant.  The problem is that this reduces the value of batch of recyclables as a whole, because non-recyclable materials can get mixed in with and contaminate recyclables.

So what is the eco-conscious consumer to do?  It turns out that there are some things that aren't worth recycling because they end up doing more harm than good at the plant.  Small scraps of paper, for example should not be put in the blue recycling bin.  It is virtually impossible to separate shreds of paper from other materials rolling down a conveyor belt.  They should be put in a paper bag, stapled shut, and labeled "shredded paper" on the outside.  A person at the processing plant may recognize the bag, and remove it from the rest of the recycling stream and sort it into paper products.  Really?  I just can't see that happening in reality.

Condiment packets like soy sauce and ketchup packets are made out of plastic or an aluminum-plastic combination.  Nobody's recycling them right now.  You're better off throwing them in the trash.  Polystyrene foam containers are almost never recyclable because of their lightweight and are typically soiled with food residue, which will contaminate the whole batch of recyclables.  Paper cups are usually coated with plastic, so they can't be recycled with other paper products.  It's a good idea to check with your local waste management authority to make sure you are disposing of them properly.  Plastic bags are a big hassle at the recycling plant too.  They often fly off or clog sorting machinery, which causes the operation to be shut down until the clog is fixed.  At one plant in San Francisco, they have to shut down the machines every night for at least an hour to go in and manually pick out all the pieces of plastic bag that have jammed up the various machines.  A better idea is to take plastic bags to your local grocery store.  They usually have a plastic bag recycling bin at the entrance.

>p>We all think we're helping the environment by recycling, but not all products should be recycled.  Waste management gets paid for what they bring to be recycled, and the value of the recycling materials can be reduced if contaminated.  This is something I didn't ever think about until now, and I just thought you should know.