Realized my recycling was mostly wishful thinking after a chat with the local waste facility guy

I was loading up my bins last month when a worker from the city dump stopped by to check tags. He pointed at a greasy pizza box I tossed in the paper bin and said, 'That goes in trash, not recycling, it ruins the batch.' Then he grabbed a yogurt cup I rinsed but left the lid on and said, 'Plastic lids smaller than 2 inches can't be sorted, they fall through the screens.' I felt dumb for years of good intentions actually messing up the system. Has anyone else had a wake-up call about what you actually can and can't recycle?

2 comments

2 Comments

kim.stella11d agoTop Commenter

Did your facility tell you about the "scrunch test" for plastics? If you scrunch a piece of plastic and it bounces back, it's probably recyclable. But if it stays scrunched like a chip bag or a plastic wrapper, it goes straight in the trash. Also, make sure all your containers are rinsed clean, not just swished, because leftover food ruins the whole recycling process once it gets to the plant.

sage_rodriguez11d ago

Right?! The scrunch test blew my mind too. I was just tossing chip bags in there.