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Found out my town's recycling center throws away 40% of what we drop off. Got this from a tour last Tuesday.
So I took that tour of the county recycling facility last week. The guide straight up said they send almost half of the plastic and mixed paper to the landfill because our sorting system is too slow and the buyers are picky. One side says we should just stop pretending and burn it for energy. The other side says we need to ban single-use plastics completely. Which camp are you in, or is there a third option I'm missing?
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the_max2mo ago
Honestly that glass jar trick is smart, I've been doing the same with pickle jars for years and they work way better than those flimsy plastic containers. If more people just stopped buying the stuff that's impossible to recycle in the first place the sorting problem would fix itself somewhat.
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lily_torres312mo ago
Oh the "40% goes to the landfill" thing hit me hard too when I found out about it here. What actually helped me was switching to glass and metal containers since those actually get recycled properly in most places, and I just stopped buying anything in black plastic because that's basically trash anyway.
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blairc902mo ago
Yeah I totally feel that on the black plastic thing, it's basically worthless for recycling. What I started doing was just rinsing out my glass jars from pasta sauce and pickles and reusing them for storing leftovers and dry goods. Also cut way back on buying anything that comes in those mixed material pouches like coffee bags or granola bags since those are basically impossible to recycle too. For me it's been easier to just focus on what I actually buy rather than stressing about sorting every little thing at the bin lol.
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