3 ms·
Reprocessing trash for recyclables is not always possible due to contamination. For example, my trash company won't take pizza boxes in the recycling stream bec
by athenot 11y ago
Reprocessing trash for recyclables is not always possible due to contamination. For example, my trash company won't take pizza boxes in the recycling stream because they are often greazy. The grease in the cardboard not only affects the cardboard it's on, it affects the surrounding cardboard that might be in that recycling stream.
I would imagine that mining trash for aluminium might be more feasible but the quantities would have to justify the operation.
- Grishnakh 11y agoI imagine there's a lot of somewhat valuable metals in trash: steel and copper come to mind immediately. Electronics are full of copper (though usually not in huge quantities, but if anyone throws away wire that's actually fairly valuable on the scrap market; PCBs can be processed to reclaim the copper and tin and lead), and there's all kinds of other stuff people throw away that's made of steel (including cans).