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?
In: Other
Metal and glass recycling are efficient and important for reducing the environmental footprint.
Plastic is a mixed bag and depends on where you live. PET is extremely efficient (plastic bottles using standardized plastic and standardized additives to make an easily recyclable product that can be reused several times, saving energy and fossil fuels with every cycle). Other plastic product are so so, but if you have a competent recycling plant it will at least burn in a high-temperature incinerator where it can contribute energy, be burnt under controlled conditions with flue gas desulferization (and other filtering techniques) that reduces environmental impact…not to mention reduce microplastic waste. The worst case scenario is a landfill (which happens to a lot of “recycled waste” in the US because US environmental agencies are neutered compared to European ones).
Paper is generally good. Modern recycling facilities can handle a fair amount of grease, but even if it can’t be recycled then burning it prevents methane release.
For you as a consumer. If you live in an apartment building, HOA or some other association that’s large enough to negotiate waste disposal prices the direct benefit is that sorted waste should cost you less. If you’re relatively close to a recycling plant the discount can be up to half price per ton for plastic to free for well-sorted metallic waste.
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