Should I even bother recycling?

[Meat Target]

I've heard it's a scam and that they shuffle it around before ultimately just dumping it in the landfill.

 

[lemonsensei]

As long as it’s not your own piss. You can at least make back $3 by turning in two mega tons of Coke cans, win win.

 

[DJ Grelle]

It depends on which item and where. Glass, paper and simple plastics get always actually recycled in the west. When you're talking about more complex, composite products then it becomes a bit more problematic.
Most items made from different materials are made to not fall apart. So taking them apart to sort the parts by material gets really energy intensive and expensive. While paper, glass and simple plastic just gets crushed/shredded and recycled.
Of course, this is in the west. I have no idea how much actually gets recycled in other regions of the world.

 

[Alligator Alcatraz]

Some cities, the government will fine you if you don't have a recycle bin alongside your trash bin.

 

[The Luigi Player]

Recycle bins are usually in the same container as regular garbage cans

Plus some of them go to the same place, and even worse: use the "recyclables" for plastic.

 

[bliblblblbbllb]

Reducing waste will do way more than recycling.

Specific recycling programs (battery recycling bins, bottle only, grocery bag only) are worth it more than single-stream. If you are in a state like Hawaii or Michigan it is probably worth it to recycle at least save and recycle your pop cans and other bottles for the buy-back.

Recycling means more than putting stuff in the blue bin. A lot of waste can be avoided by donating or selling your furniture, clothing, and kitchen goods if you ever have to downsize or move.

A LOT of what people put in single-stream is not recyclable. Laughable amounts. A lot gets contaminated, mostly by food waste. Recycling is not a magical process. And when bottles say stuff like, "See you again soon!" It doesn't work that way. You really can only recycle plastics into lower quality plastics. Same goes for cloth and paper. Even if something is technically recyclable, it doesn't mean the recycling company can actually process it.

ANY plastic that you can smush within your hands: Chip bags, plastic grocery bags, cling wrap, bubble wrap, most plastic wrappers, cereal bags- 99% won't be recycled even if it says it can be. Why not? It gums up the machines- not worth the hassle. Also no styrofoam, no laminated/plastic-coated paper (like juice boxes) or things that held food and aren't/can't be rinsed (like apple sauce pouches or grease-covered cardboard.) And NO FOOD WASTE! One gallon of expired milk tossed into a recycling bin can rot away so much paper recyclables.

• Recycle cardboard boxes, metal tins, glass bottles, hard plastic that you can't smush in your hands, and paper. Nothing with visible food waste left on it. Trying to put as much of your garbage in the blue bin instead of the black one is just a cope for how much waste people make.
• Hoard plastic walmart/grocery bags in a bag under your cupboard and when you have enough just take it to a plastic bag recycle box like some walmarts will have, probably only have to do this like once a year and can do it at the same time as you go shopping.
• Recycle batteries and used electronics with store programs (best buys and staples tend to have them.) Doing this is easy and practical.
• Donate old clothes, furniture, kitchenwares whenever possible.

That's all the average person needs to do IMO. In terms of recycling. Not the reducing and reusing part. The recycling process would look a lot different if people didn't use single stream bins like trash cans- If the workers didn't have to spend 60% of their time removing non-recyclables....


I think it's funny when people say, "Should I recycle if it might end up in a landfill?" If stuff going into landfills is the real issue, reducing consumption is the real solution. Don't you know what happens with landfills? We shuffle that around too.

 

[Pepsi Max Respecter]

Only recycle brass and lead

 

[Vingle]

Lol no. It's way easier to just toss it in the container right outside the door to the apartment complex. Making the consumer do the job and bear the responsibility is retarded. If the products are considered bad for the environment, corporations should do an active job to not make them bad. Or else I'm just going to the competition that's slightly better.

Not like any recycling off-sets the pollution China makes either.

 

[Un Platano]

Aluminum recycling is so effective that poor countries like Brazil can achieve near 100% recycle rates because bums make a living by digging through the trash and selling soda cans as scrap. The same cannot be said of papers and plastics.

 

[General Tug Boat]

I wouldn’t bother trying to recycle my own semen. It just doesn’t work, or try recycling it for others at the truck stop.