People are always expected to recycle themselves, but wouldn’t going through the garbage be easier in the dumps themselves to sift all recyclable waste from non-recyclable waste and sending it to the appropriate places be a more efficient and reliable way of doing things? Is this being done in any country, and if not, why not?
In: Earth Science
Part of why it starts with the people is to begin the sorting process. This can help keep the stuff clean, and a bit less gross.
Another part is the awareness of individual waste.
In days of old, we’d throw everything in one bin, except for returnable bottles and some recyclable metals that could be turned to cash. Trash collectors gathered it and dumped it in one place.
People woke, and decided to start recycling. At first this was on the collectors. They then had to rifle through the trucks loaded with stuff to pull apart the refuse from the recycling. This meant bottles and cans and paper soiled and mixed with food and yard waste, or whatever else was in the bins. Then someone had to separate and then wash off the coffee, oatmeal, and ketchup from the wanted materials.
Eventually, pushing that to the consumer takes the time away from costly waste management. It takes very little time to put waste in one bin and recycling in the other. Consumers still get it wrong, like how not all plastics are recyclable. The waste management also wants to further separate paper or plastic types.
But it’s both better for time and cost, and less gross than before.
Plus, with a bin out few at your home, you can see what you waste, compared with recyclables and compostables. This might make people consider friendlier options, or at least understand and respect how hard it might be to do that sorting in massive quantities.
Then, when interested, you can learn that even the recyclables aren’t always recyclable. Glass, metals, and clean paper are pretty well recycled. Plastics, including the hidden plastics in containers and in papers, make it all harder.
And, probably most important of all, your trash isn’t someone else’s responsibility. You bought something, you should properly dispose of it. The big dumps and recycling centers are better than everyone having a little landfill in their yard. It’s not too much to ask to separate your waste into two or few separate bundles.
If you want to do less sorting, but fewer single-use items.
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