In general if something can go in the green bin put it in the green bin. Composting actually makes sense.
If it is not pristine and perfectly clean uncontaminted recyclable material and can’t be composted put it in the garbage.
Contamination of recycling is a huge issue in the multistream recycling system and there is almost zero market for anything but aluminum and very clean paper products.
In general Compost first, Garbage second, and only the best product into recycling.
If this is true then they need to be reversing the weekly / bi-weekly pickups from recycling / garbage because every two weeks ain’t enough if majority of stuff needs to go black bin.
lately i have been making more of an effort to try and ensure stuff i recycle is clean, labels are removed etc - but some labels are a lot of work to get off.
sometimes i think it would be nice if the manufacturers could come up with labels that come off clean - but i suppose that their worry is that the label will fall off at the point of sale or at the consumers home and then you have a mystery can of who knows what
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I really, really wish everything was standardized and had a black blue or green sticker on it.
The system should be fool proof, and it feels like you need to research and study to throw things out properly right now.
I'd also like the ability to make purchase decisions that are influenced by how ####ty the packaging is for the environment. Right now it all seems to be based on gut feel and vague knowledge.
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Those go into the garbage. You're wasting resources (time/water/energy) dishwashing them which makes the bad economics of plastic recycling even worse.
I ensure my aluminum is in a good recyclable state, but dirty/soiled plastic containers go right into the trash.
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It would be nice to get a list of things which are actually being recycled.
I'd consider myself a recycling enthusiast but my GAS gauge (Give A Sh1t) has gone down significantly over the last little while as I learn more about the sad state of recycling.
I used to naively (!) think my plastics were turning into lawn chairs, playground equipment and frisbees.
I have started throwing out a lot of things which I used to recycle like clamshells.
What even happens to a lot of the single use plastics like shampoo bottles, peanut butter jars, salad dressing bottles, etc? Like the others here, I used to clean those out. Should I even bother?
What about paper, cardboard? Campbells soup cans?
What items are even worth throwing in the blue bins these days? ANYTHING?
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I really, really wish everything was standardized and had a black blue or green sticker on it.
The system should be fool proof, and it feels like you need to research and study to throw things out properly right now.
I'd also like the ability to make purchase decisions that are influenced by how ####ty the packaging is for the environment. Right now it all seems to be based on gut feel and vague knowledge.
Agreed. The system either to needs to fool-proofed 'at source' when you put items in your bin and be clear or it needs to be fool-proofed 'at sort' where you just toss all of your stuff in the bin and the people who receive it sort it accordingly.
Right now we've got some hellish mix of the both.
And lest I get into a rant, why in the blue hell can we not recycle styrofoam? I got an angry note on my Blue Bin for having packing styrofoam in there, I figured that was a mistake, of course styrofoam is recycled. Right? Right?
Nope.
I spoke with the City and styrofoam has to go in the Black Bin or to the dump.
So we had done a number of small improvements at home and everything comes packed in massive amounts of styrofoam so I either pack my entire black bin with the crap and have no room for actual garbage for two weeks or I load up my car and go to the dump with an enormous load of weightless BS.
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I'm going to go to these and grill 'em with questions. I think in general people want to be helpful but the city needs to do a better job with education. We're all paying for these services. If it's not working, just admit it and scrap the program and throw everything in the dump. People need the TRUTH!
Last edited by dubc80; 09-10-2019 at 10:10 AM.
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I'm going to go to these and grill 'em with questions. I think in general people want to be helpful but the city needs to do a better job with education. We're all paying for these services. If it's not working, just admit it and scrap the program and throw everything in the dump. People need the TRUTH!
How much more do they need to do though? At some point, you need to look it up yourself f you aren't sure. They always list stuff on your utility bill, in the weekly reminder emails if you sign up, they've sent out flyers, they tag your bin if you get it wrong, with info on what goes where. They have a website literally called "what goes where". Not knowing is not really an excuse at this point. Take 2 minutes and look it up if you aren't sure.
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Agreed. The system either to needs to fool-proofed 'at source' when you put items in your bin and be clear or it needs to be fool-proofed 'at sort' where you just toss all of your stuff in the bin and the people who receive it sort it accordingly.
Right now we've got some hellish mix of the both.
And lest I get into a rant, why in the blue hell can we not recycle styrofoam? I got an angry note on my Blue Bin for having packing styrofoam in there, I figured that was a mistake, of course styrofoam is recycled. Right? Right?
Nope.
I spoke with the City and styrofoam has to go in the Black Bin or to the dump.
So we had done a number of small improvements at home and everything comes packed in massive amounts of styrofoam so I either pack my entire black bin with the crap and have no room for actual garbage for two weeks or I load up my car and go to the dump with an enormous load of weightless BS.
I wait until we have a huge snowstorm and then I shred it and then set up a fan in the alley.
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