There was actually a different article a while ago about this topic. There are a ton of corner cases, for example, you can't recycle cardboard pizza boxes, or

There was actually a different article a while ago about this topic. There are a ton of corner cases, for example, you can't recycle cardboard pizza boxes, or plastic envelope windows. The rules for what is recyclable and how to sort it are complicated. They can change when the recycling technology / provider changes, and there's no feedback to tell people when they're doing it wrong. That's one of the practical factors that makes education difficult. I personally think they could make progress by adding a feedback loop: Bring in 2% or so of the bins and check them by hand, after labeling each bin with its source. Then send a letter to tell people what they're doing wrong. If 2% of bins are checked, then on average, a poorly educated consumer who's regularly polluting the bin with non-recyclable materials should be informed of the error of his ways within a year. Here's the previous article: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=17359807 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=17359807