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When I first heard that in the US they just throw all "recycling" in the same bin it sounded insane. I'm used to sorting into colored glass, clear glass, paper,

When I first heard that in the US they just throw all "recycling" in the same bin it sounded insane. I'm used to sorting into colored glass, clear glass, paper, cardboard, metal, compost, batteries, plastic and "general". I'm pretty sure the metal and plastic (if it actually is ever recycled) categories could benefit from better segmentation too.

stjohnswarts 6y ago
Why? Separation actually works pretty well, I'm not sure why we need to "fix" that. What doesn't is people still leave food in things and don't do basic things like not throw in little bits of plastic like straws.
- SahAssar 6y ago
  Separation is another step that needs to be taken somewhere else if not done by the consumer. The person throwing out garbage is the person responsible for the garbage and also the person that has the item in it's hand so they are both the best suited to sort it and the person that we should incentivize to do it.
  - deleted 6y ago
    [deleted]
  - stjohnswarts 6y ago
    I don't agree. It's more energy efficient and less environmentally destructive for you (or I) to walk everywhere we need to get to and yet here we are with bicycles, cars, airplanes, etc.
anigbrowl 6y ago
Can you fill in the rest of the picture? How many different receptacles do you have to put out on the street?
- SahAssar 6y ago
  I live in an apartment complex, so we have different receptacles for each. But for single-family homes there are usually segmented so you have different subsections for each like this: https://www.rambo.se/wp-content/uploads/2016/12/fyrfackskrl-2.jpg https://www.rambo.se/wp-content/uploads/2016/12/fyrfackskrl-... When I lived in my last apartment I carried the glass/plastic/paper/cardboard and so on a block over to a public recycling station, so that was a lot less convenient but I think they have dedicated receptacles now.
  - loteck 6y ago
    What does the emptying collection process look like for one of those barrels? I can only assume someone comes by, manually opens the lid and by hand takes out each of the smaller containers one by one, and empties them into larger segregated collection containers. Is that true?
    - SahAssar 6y ago
      No, it's pretty much as automated as a "normal" one, see here for a video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q0WeV_9pS7I https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q0WeV_9pS7I
  - anigbrowl 6y ago
    I was guessing you lived in an apartment complex but am pleasantly surprised by the sensible solution for single family homes. Thanks for sharing.
- PeterisP 6y ago
  Not the OP, but my apartment building has three different types of trash containers in the yard; there's one for glass; there's one for paper, plastic and aluminum cans together (I presume because those can be separated automatically somehow), and the third is for general household waste. The garbage collection fees are based on the volume of the general waste, collecting the sorted "recyclable"(it's not necessarily recycled) trash is subsidized to be free. There's the fourth type of trash that we sort out which is things like batteries and electronics waste; these shall not be put in household waste but should be disposed in 'centralised' containers which are located at e.g. supermarkets.
neltnerb 6y ago
Metal and plastic are super easy to separate by density or by electrical conductivity. Batteries are considered hazardous waste and have to be disposed of separately, similarly for old electronics or CFL bulbs that contain mercury. But commingled recycling was one of the most predictably stupid moves in the area of environmentalism I've seen in a long time (well, prior to 2016 anyway), when I heard my city was moving to commingled recycling I knew they were no longer actually recycling it, I guarantee almost all of it ends up in the landfill because of contamination. It's so frustrating. At least corn ethanol wasn't obviously quite so stupid upfront, it was always theoretically possible that it would make sense even if it was kind of obvious it wouldn't actually work.
- SahAssar 6y ago
  > Metal and plastic are super easy to separate by density or by electrical conductivity Yeah, what I meant by better segmentation is not to separate them from each other (we do that) but rather by type. Some plastics are easier to recycle than others and I don't know if metals can be easily and automatically sorted from each other.
  - MayeulC 6y ago
    Well, some are magnetic, some are not, that's just one way to differentiate them. Here are a couple videos I know (in French) from consignesdetri.fr: https://youtu.be/KgW1TP909NU?t=36 https://youtu.be/KgW1TP909NU?t=36 (you can see the magnetic belt at that timestamp) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vMJ-pDG_afk https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vMJ-pDG_afk For an aluminium can. They mention doing the same with eddy currents [1] [2] I also recall seeing a big, spiky magnetic roller in some video instead of a magnetic belt, so implementation details can vary, but this seems to be pretty standard stuff. Less standard is the plastic-sorting equipment, though that can be achieved with hyperspectral cameras and the like (read: expensive). In some places, there are separate bins for colored and transparent glass. Some facilities use detectors instead. [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eddy_current_separator https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eddy_current_separator [2] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eddy_current#Repulsive_effects_and_levitation https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eddy_current#Repulsive_effects...
User23 6y ago
I remember in Germany there used to be bins for green glass, brown glass, and clear glass.
- SahAssar 6y ago
  I think the separation between green and brown is more common in places where a lot of the glass is from beer bottles which usually come in those varieties.
macinjosh 6y ago
It is different in the US depending where you are. Where I am our recycling has all those bins. It is a big country and it’s not all the same.
- SahAssar 6y ago
  It would be interesting to see where that is the case, for all countries. Is it decided per city, county or state in the US?
TeMPOraL 6y ago
> I'm used to sorting into colored glass, clear glass, paper, cardboard, metal, compost, batteries, plastic and "general". I wonder how much people in your area recycle in general. With this many categories - and the unstated requirement that plastic/metal/glass containers must be cleaned/degreased, labels peeled off, etc., I'd personally give up on recycling altogether. This work shouldn't be done by consumers because it's inefficient across the board. It wastes much more total man-hours, and a lot more water and power, compared to a centralized sorting facility.

stjohnswarts 6y ago

Why? Separation actually works pretty well, I'm not sure why we need to "fix" that. What doesn't is people still leave food in things and don't do basic things like not throw in little bits of plastic like straws.

SahAssar 6y ago
Separation is another step that needs to be taken somewhere else if not done by the consumer. The person throwing out garbage is the person responsible for the garbage and also the person that has the item in it's hand so they are both the best suited to sort it and the person that we should incentivize to do it.
- deleted 6y ago
  [deleted]
- stjohnswarts 6y ago
  I don't agree. It's more energy efficient and less environmentally destructive for you (or I) to walk everywhere we need to get to and yet here we are with bicycles, cars, airplanes, etc.

anigbrowl 6y ago

Can you fill in the rest of the picture? How many different receptacles do you have to put out on the street?

SahAssar 6y ago
I live in an apartment complex, so we have different receptacles for each. But for single-family homes there are usually segmented so you have different subsections for each like this: https://www.rambo.se/wp-content/uploads/2016/12/fyrfackskrl-2.jpg https://www.rambo.se/wp-content/uploads/2016/12/fyrfackskrl-... When I lived in my last apartment I carried the glass/plastic/paper/cardboard and so on a block over to a public recycling station, so that was a lot less convenient but I think they have dedicated receptacles now.
- loteck 6y ago
  What does the emptying collection process look like for one of those barrels? I can only assume someone comes by, manually opens the lid and by hand takes out each of the smaller containers one by one, and empties them into larger segregated collection containers. Is that true?
  - SahAssar 6y ago
    No, it's pretty much as automated as a "normal" one, see here for a video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q0WeV_9pS7I https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q0WeV_9pS7I
- anigbrowl 6y ago
  I was guessing you lived in an apartment complex but am pleasantly surprised by the sensible solution for single family homes. Thanks for sharing.
PeterisP 6y ago
Not the OP, but my apartment building has three different types of trash containers in the yard; there's one for glass; there's one for paper, plastic and aluminum cans together (I presume because those can be separated automatically somehow), and the third is for general household waste. The garbage collection fees are based on the volume of the general waste, collecting the sorted "recyclable"(it's not necessarily recycled) trash is subsidized to be free. There's the fourth type of trash that we sort out which is things like batteries and electronics waste; these shall not be put in household waste but should be disposed in 'centralised' containers which are located at e.g. supermarkets.

neltnerb 6y ago

Metal and plastic are super easy to separate by density or by electrical conductivity. Batteries are considered hazardous waste and have to be disposed of separately, similarly for old electronics or CFL bulbs that contain mercury. But commingled recycling was one of the most predictably stupid moves in the area of environmentalism I've seen in a long time (well, prior to 2016 anyway), when I heard my city was moving to commingled recycling I knew they were no longer actually recycling it, I guarantee almost all of it ends up in the landfill because of contamination. It's so frustrating. At least corn ethanol wasn't obviously quite so stupid upfront, it was always theoretically possible that it would make sense even if it was kind of obvious it wouldn't actually work.

SahAssar 6y ago
> Metal and plastic are super easy to separate by density or by electrical conductivity Yeah, what I meant by better segmentation is not to separate them from each other (we do that) but rather by type. Some plastics are easier to recycle than others and I don't know if metals can be easily and automatically sorted from each other.
- MayeulC 6y ago
  Well, some are magnetic, some are not, that's just one way to differentiate them. Here are a couple videos I know (in French) from consignesdetri.fr: https://youtu.be/KgW1TP909NU?t=36 https://youtu.be/KgW1TP909NU?t=36 (you can see the magnetic belt at that timestamp) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vMJ-pDG_afk https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vMJ-pDG_afk For an aluminium can. They mention doing the same with eddy currents [1] [2] I also recall seeing a big, spiky magnetic roller in some video instead of a magnetic belt, so implementation details can vary, but this seems to be pretty standard stuff. Less standard is the plastic-sorting equipment, though that can be achieved with hyperspectral cameras and the like (read: expensive). In some places, there are separate bins for colored and transparent glass. Some facilities use detectors instead. [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eddy_current_separator https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eddy_current_separator [2] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eddy_current#Repulsive_effects_and_levitation https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eddy_current#Repulsive_effects...

User23 6y ago

I remember in Germany there used to be bins for green glass, brown glass, and clear glass.

SahAssar 6y ago
I think the separation between green and brown is more common in places where a lot of the glass is from beer bottles which usually come in those varieties.

macinjosh 6y ago

It is different in the US depending where you are. Where I am our recycling has all those bins. It is a big country and it’s not all the same.

SahAssar 6y ago
It would be interesting to see where that is the case, for all countries. Is it decided per city, county or state in the US?

TeMPOraL 6y ago

> I'm used to sorting into colored glass, clear glass, paper, cardboard, metal, compost, batteries, plastic and "general". I wonder how much people in your area recycle in general. With this many categories - and the unstated requirement that plastic/metal/glass containers must be cleaned/degreased, labels peeled off, etc., I'd personally give up on recycling altogether. This work shouldn't be done by consumers because it's inefficient across the board. It wastes much more total man-hours, and a lot more water and power, compared to a centralized sorting facility.