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

Depends on where you live. There are two episodes of Dirty Jobs, that feature recycling in my city. Western Placer County Waste Management will process mixed trash and recover several recyclable materials (plastic, aluminum, steel, paper pulp, among other things). My county does One Big Bin, which is everything but compost/green waste. The next county over has multiple bins for trash, glass, aluminum, cardboard, plastic. Which they impose fines for incorrect sorting, but then the trucks put the contents into the same cargo hold (effectively mixing everything back together). Then this gets sent to the same facility for the separation and cleaning. The county where my sister lives does the multiple bins, even separate recycle trucks, but in the end all the recycle bin contents get sent to the landfill, because their facility thinks it’s too expensive to clean the recyclables.