How does recycling work? Is it a hoax?

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I’ve always wondered how legit recycling is and if it’s worth the effort to personally do it. (I live in a high-rise and I can toss my garbage down a chute on my floor, but have to bring my recycling down to the ground floor.) In college I literally saw them dump the recycling bin and trash bin into the same truck, but I know I see dedicated recycling trunks around.

I was told “soiled” recycling can’t be used i.e. greasy used pizza boxes, is that true? Recycling dumpsters are gross, isn’t everything soiled?

When companies sell a product that’s “made from recycled products” how truthful is that? Is it their own recycled products or do they source it?

Whats the deal with the recycling triangles and numbers on a product? If I recycle a number that I shouldn’t, does it ruin everything else in that dumpster?

How does any one/machine feasibly sort recycling? It seems like a herculean task.

Recycling, fact or fiction?

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30 Answers

Anonymous 0 Comments

I live in a major city I think it is worth the effort, and it is more or less required. Our landfills cannot sustain us just throwing everything in it.

From what I understand I the 1st line of defense, where I just throw plastic and glass into a transparent bag, bundle up my cardboard and leave it in the recycling room.

Then the building maintenance guys sift through all that once a week, consolidate it all and leave it out the night before the truck comes.

At the recycling plant it gets a final sorting pass with humans standing around a conveyor belt before it goes into the recycling machines.

If you just throw recyclables in your trash and it is hidden from sight from other trash, none of this happens.

As for whether it is “worth it” or not is a somewhat subjective and complex issue. All I know is that I’m doing what is asked (which isn’t much tbh) and I wash my hands clean from the whole thing lol

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