The recycling bin at my apartment is just one bin for recyclables. Cardboard, paper, plastic, glass, recyclable foam – all just goes in the same bin. All of these materials, however, have to be recycled in different ways. So does someone have to go and sort through the different recyclables to separate them after we put them all in? If that’s the case, why not have the bins win different compartments to begin with to make it all easier?
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Allowing people to put all their recyclables into one container is called “single stream” recycling. The advantage is that, because of the simplicity, the participation in recycling goes up dramatically. We used to have separate bins for each of the recyclable types. That made a lot of work for the consumer, and so participation was low.
With single-stream, all the material is taken to one facility to be sorted. Magnets lift out the metals, blowers push out paper and plastic bags, etc. Then what is left, a line of workers sort through to remove the non-recyclable items. This process is much more efficient than teaching consumers how to properly separate their things.
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