What happens when you accidentally put something in the recycling that isn’t meant to be recycled? Does it contaminate the entire batch? (side note: same question for Composting)

Question

I know that composting and recycling are fundamentally and scientifically different but my curiosity is the same.

In: Other

Answer 1

In my town the rules about what is recycled are very strict- all containers have to be cleaned thoroughly and all caps removed, even those stupid rings around the tops, no black plastic, no foam of any kind, no bags of any kind, … Paper can’t be shiny or oily ( no pizza boxes, or drink cartons)… In addition, we don’t have trash collection so we have to take our trash to dump sites ( which are only open for 4 hours a week) where there is a person looking over your shoulder as you dump things loose into bins and picks out things….

With all this, apparently still 70-100% of the recycling from our town ends up in land fills…. It really blows my mind how inefficient it all is…