from the moment my town picks it up, what happens to the soda can, glass bottle and stack of papers I’ve recycled?
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It also depends on how contaminated the lot is. A lot of items are not recycled and are incinerated or sent directly to landfill because there are either unrecyclable items mixed in with the lots (like polystyrene) or they are simply too dirty. This is the case for a lot of plastic items.
It isn’t economical for a recycler to accept a load of plastic that is covered with food waste, for example. Pizza boxes are not recyclable because they’re soaked with grease.
Items which can be sold on are sold to middlemen who sell them to companies which process the material into usable material – usually by breaking them down at industrial scale. Those companies then sell the recycled material to manufacturers who process them into new products.
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