We hate to break it to you, but you probably don't actually know how to recycle. (From 2015)
of the first post-industrial successes that mixed environmentalism with business. Instead of being buried underground, certain types of waste stream from consumer's homes to special facilities to be sorted by type, broken down, and shipped off to manufacturers to begin life anew. Recycling makes environmentalOr at least, it did. Sure, Americans are recycling more than ever before, but the business side of things is in a lull.
Cross contamination in these plants is a big problem, so much so that some have tried to trace back all of recycling's issues to the. "Single stream recycling results in a doubling of contamination rates," says Susan Robinson, Waste Management's director of public affairs. But it also gets more people to participate, which is the main reason why fewer and fewer cities are asking you to sort. In the end, the big blue bin is still boss.
Which means it's the recycling industry that's not doing a good enough job at letting people know what is not allowed. Part of this is messaging. "Sure, plastic bags can technically be recycled, by taking them back to the supermarket," says Amy Perlmutter, the recycling consultant. But she says a lot of people think it's equally OK to put them in the bin.
And some of it is geographic, because every community has different standards for what can and can't be recycled. "I think a standardized, nationwide list of what's recyclable would be great, but every community is different," says Derric Brown, vice president of sustainability at the Carton Council