7 ms·

American recycling is stalling, and the big blue bin is one reason why

48 points by 001sky 11y ago

keithpeter 11y ago
UK: We have 2 wheelie bins per household, one for rubbish the other for recycling. The recycling bin has a tray that fits in the top for paper/cardboard. Glass/plastic/tins go in the main bin below. May reduce cost of separation. See the comically long URL for the leaflet given to householders. http://www.birmingham.gov.uk/cs/Satellite?blobcol=urldata&blobheader=application%2Fpdf&blobheadername1=Content-Disposition&blobkey=id&blobtable=MungoBlobs&blobwhere=1223580687381&ssbinary=true&blobheadervalue1=attachment%3B+filename%3D21144462631Recycling_and_Household_Rubbish_Information_Leaflet.pdf http://www.birmingham.gov.uk/cs/Satellite?blobcol=urldata&bl...
- eterm 11y ago
  It varies hugely from council to council. Some places have 2 wheelie bins but all the recycling goes in together (no tray), some places have 2-3 different boxes, for different recylables.
  - jamessb 11y ago
    As well as general waste and recycling, many (most?) have separate garden-waste and kitchen-waste bins/bags, which get composted or incinerated.
  - TazeTSchnitzel 11y ago
    Some places just have a single wheelie bin.
sosuke 11y ago
Sub-divide one taller bin with labels. Then you can't just toss any sized thing in there.
radicalbyte 11y ago
In The Netherlands we have paper, garden and plastic bins. Glass, oil and batteries are collected at shopping centers. PET bottles and most beer bottles include a deposit and are collected in supermarkets. Electrics must be taken to the dump. No idea how metals are handled. We burn most of our waste and use it to power heating.
- kuschku 11y ago
  Same in Germany. And: It works. But if the people in the US can’t even handle a separation between one recycling bin and a waste bin, I don’t think that more separation would be doable there.
sschueller 11y ago
In Switzerland trash is expensive (very expensive). Ever bag must have one or more stickers or you need to buy special bags. This forces people to recycle but we don't have a blue bin to just dump recyclables in. In most places bags may also not be left on the street but put into underground trash collection bins or large metal trash containers. (http://www.direkt-einkauf.ch/cgi-bin/resize?tab=23&col=7&id=32241&x=240&y=240 http://www.direkt-einkauf.ch/cgi-bin/resize?tab=23&col=7&id=... or http://files.newsnetz.ch/story/3/0/1/30114820/6/topelement.jpg http://files.newsnetz.ch/story/3/0/1/30114820/6/topelement.j...) Every neighborhood has a recycling station within walking distance. The consist of containers for the different types of glass, metal and plastic (PET). (http://static.panoramio.com/photos/large/10116873.jpg http://static.panoramio.com/photos/large/10116873.jpg) Paper is picked up for free but must be correctly bundled and it is only picked up one a month. Same with cardboard which is picked up on a different day. (http://www.stadt.sg.ch/home/raum-umwelt/abfall-entsorgung/private-abfaelle/papier-karton/_jcr_content/Par/imagetext_1.originalsize.jpg http://www.stadt.sg.ch/home/raum-umwelt/abfall-entsorgung/pr...) Many people also have a compost in their yard. For electronics there is a law that any retailer that sells electronics must also take them for recycling even if you didn't buy it there.
- sschueller 11y ago
  In case anyone is wondering how they empty the underground trash containers: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xhbhvdvTWUg https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xhbhvdvTWUg
  - cpursley 11y ago
    Wow, that is impressive.
- johnchristopher 11y ago
  Basically the same as in Belgium, but I don't know how much taxes on bags and picking up services differ.
- seanmcdirmid 11y ago
  I thought that was only true in Zurich and surroundings? Most cantons didn't have a similar policy in place when I lived there 7 years ago.
ZeroGravitas 11y ago
I'm kind of fascinated by this topic. I believe on balance, the big blue bin is a positive thing. But it's a complex engineering equation. More recycling coming in but with an increase in wastage. How much of that wastage is necessary and how much can be eliminated with smarter sorting machines or better policies or consumer awareness? It reminds me of complex software performance optimzation where you need to balance CPU, ram, disk access to make sure that 'obvious' improvements aren't ineffective or even counter productive. I'm not sure I appreciate the "do-gooders mess it all up again" vibe in the middle of the article, but the US has always had a weird relationship with recycling for whatever reason. I'm glad to see food recycling raised as a solution, they do that where I live and it makes a lot of sense compared with having it decompose to methane in landfills (though some landfills do try to capture the methane and then burn it for ebergy its better to get it at source). A carbon tax (ideally one covering other GHGs like methane) would probably sort out the recycling market along with the million other markets it would fix, but the time for the obvious and sensible solution is not quite nigh, though since even the oil and gas corporations are advocating it now in Europe it may not be too long now.
- a8da6b0c91d 11y ago
  Recycling has mostly been a farce from the get-go. The only two things that make sense are aluminum and corrugated cardboard. On no economic or ecological basis has all the other paper and plastic recycling made sense. The blue bin should be for cans and cardboard, and that's it. Everything else is pointless.
  - JesperRavn 11y ago
    I'd appreciate if you posted a top level comment with more detail on this point. I've seen this claim made a lot, but when I looked into it further there were a lot of contradictory claims and evidence. If you're aware of a good summary of the facts, or some compelling evidence for your side, I'd like to see it.
melling 11y ago
"Another possibility is to follow the urgings of the environmental community by expanding recycling programs to include composting — the banana peels and grass clippings degrading in landfills that by some estimates have become the nation’s third-biggest source of methane gas contributing to global warming. Composting is partly credited with the success of such cities as San Francisco, Portland and Seattle in increasing the share of the waste stream that is recycled each year." Composting seems like a big win but how is this easily accomplished is urban areas?
- techsupporter 11y ago
  In Seattle, compost is a separate bin (green) and is picked up every week with trash. Restaurants in the city have to provide separate garbage, recycle, and compost containers, must sort it themselves before disposal, or use all-compostable end-user waste (like Taco Time Northwest). Prior to January, composting was optional but composting service--that is, having the green bin of any size--was mandatory. Composting itself became mandatory, primarily because restaurants were just chucking the food waste, and if the trash hauler sees a bunch of food getting crunched up with the trash bag, a red tag will be left on your garbage bin. (There used to be fines but Seattle Public Utilities hit its composting target so fast, the $1 "oooh you dun did it now" fine has been suspended.) My anecdotal experience is that it works rather well if you're prepared. I keep a small, charcoal-filter-in-the-lid compost bucket in the kitchen, lined by compostable bags purchased from Bartell's. When the bag gets full or too smelly, I drop it in the compost bin just outside my back door. Once a week, it goes out to the curb with the garbage with minimal fuss. The medium-sized bin I have costs ~$7/month.
  - tomjen3 11y ago
    Restaurants -> residents? I don't normally call these things out, but it confused the hell out of me when I was reading it. Also I couldn't imagine having something that smelly in my kitchen or having to buy special bags. My parents have backyard chicken so it is mostly the same deal (except milk products, raw eggs and chicken goes in the bin) but it gets emptied every day so it hasn't gotten any opportunity to start to smell.
toyg 11y ago
The problem with recycling is still a focus on the end of the cycle, when much better results could be had with smarter policies at the beginning -- i.e. Manufacturing. If thin plastic containers are a problem, ban them and let Coke/Pepsi/Starbucks figure out how to deal with it -- they have the profits, smarts and resources to do so. If glass is an issue, ask companies to contribute towards the cost of handling it separatedly; and so on and so forth. Otherwise we end up in the usual situation where the taxpayer is left to pick up the environmental and economic cost of somebody's shareholding profits. I say this as a UK taxpayer with 4 different bins and forthnightly collection -- it's just a farce. I don't get to choose how the stuff I buy is packaged, but somehow I'm responsible for dealing with it AND I have to pay for the privilege, while Coke goes ka-ching. That's unfair.
- deleted 11y ago
  [deleted]
- nmridul 11y ago
  >> I don't get to choose how the stuff I buy is packaged, but somehow I'm responsible for dealing with it AND I have to pay for the privilege, while Coke goes ka-ching. That's unfair. This ...
  - Tloewald 11y ago
    Aside from the inherent foolishness of shipping water around in small containers to people with faucets, how is Coke the problem? Back when they had glass bottles, they reused them. They use recyclable packing for everything and along with the rest of the industry have relentlessly worked to make their packaging more efficient. If only everyone else did likewise. If you don't like dealing with recycling, consider the effort to be part of the cost of the product. I am all in favor of a "disposal tax" to be levied on goods to offset the societal cost of wasteful packaging, but it would still be passed on to consumers, and soft drink companies are hardly the worst offenders.
    - toyg 11y ago
      > how is Coke the problem? Back when they had glass bottles, they reused them. Yes, and then stopped. They just unloaded some of their costs on the community. They were then forced to try and clean up their act by public pressure. To be honest, I'm not singling out Coke -- all manufacturers are part of the problem, even tetrapack-toting ones: the whole "package $item in small $something" concept is environmentally expensive, and all industries must be forced to bear as much of these costs as we can.
Havoc 11y ago
I must say I'm shocked by the state of recycling in the UK. People keep putting stuff into the wrong bins as if they can't read.
- pascalmemories 11y ago
  It's much more likely that they cannot figure out from all the complex clauses and sub-clauses councils have. Mine went along the lines of it's recycled if it's paper but not if it's certain types of paper unless it has a recycle logo on it but then not if it's has any food residues. The list went on like that for multiple pages. Handily it was in around 12 languages too, but I was in London (and technically an immigrant, so I suppose the multiple languages were for me). Then there's the fine for having an empty bin on collection day but also a fine for having the lid ajar from ever so slightly more than the bin holds - you were allowed up to 1/4 of an inch (yup, documented in the explanation leaflet) (and they have private contractors going around at 4am to check that and issue fines before anyone gets up in the morning). Plus, of course, once it's all collected, the council send it all to landfill and don't bother recycling it at all. [1] And still do it after being caught. [2] Or they just dump it in Africa or China instead of landfill/recycling. [3] There are endless examples of the bone-headed UK public sector approach to recycling which makes it a waste of time. Sir Humphrey Appleby would be proud. I don't think you're being fair trying to blame it on some sort of illiterate proles. [1] http://www.courier.co.uk/Wealden-council-sending-residents-recycling/story-16759899-detail/story.html http://www.courier.co.uk/Wealden-council-sending-residents-r... [2] http://www.yourlocalguardian.co.uk/news/10467239.Council_again_caught_sending_recycling_to_landfill/ http://www.yourlocalguardian.co.uk/news/10467239.Council_aga... [3] http://www.express.co.uk/news/world/538317/Britain-sends-tonnes-recycling-waste-China-residents-wade-dirty-streets http://www.express.co.uk/news/world/538317/Britain-sends-ton...
  - Havoc 11y ago
    >It's much more likely that they cannot figure out from all the complex clauses and sub-clauses councils have. Well my comment was based more on what I see at semi-public bins. Stuff like people throwing alu foil into bins marked "food waste" & similar complete disregard of even attempting to do it right. You just need one or two people doing that & the entire process can be scrapped.
owly 11y ago
1. Please check out the Paperkarma app by reputation.com. It makes getting off of obnoxious junk mail lists simple. Just take a picture and submit. I used to get a shitload of junk mail catalogs, now i get maybe 1 or 2 per month. I HATE junk mail and Paperkarma has easily reduced it by about 80%. 2. Majority of people are too lazy and stupid to care, that's why they went to the single bin. I used to live in a large condo complex in the US where I was essentially the recycling police. No matter what I tried to educate the building, I still found tons of non-recyclables in the blue bin.
- tomjen3 11y ago
  2) if people don't give a shit (and most don't) then educating them is just going to cause them to hate you and the recycling.
colinbartlett 11y ago
What is the comparative effectiveness of reuse initiatives? Where bottles are returned and washed and refilled? Obviously not applicable for paper products, but I wonder why this fell out of practice in the U.S.?
- a8da6b0c91d 11y ago
  Allegedly the old deposit system worked great. The bottlers were forced to pay for returned bottles, taking care of the disposal problem. But coke and pepsi didn't like that, so here we are.
  - TazeTSchnitzel 11y ago
    Wait, the US had a deposit system and got rid of it? What?!
streptomycin 11y ago
Anecdote time: I've lived in a bunch of apartment complexes that have a huge shared dumpster for recycling, right next to the one for trash. Sometimes they have separate recycling dumpsters for paper/plastic/whatever. Sometimes it's just one for all recycling. I have NEVER seen the recycling dumpster contain only correct recyclable items. And when the trash dumpster gets full (which happens very frequently some places), the shit really hits the fan and people just blatantly dump regular trash into the recycling. I always wondered how any of this mixed trash and recycling could ever be efficiently processed.
greggman 11y ago
I lived in SF. Stayed at several buildings. Never once saw the compost bin (green) used correctly even though SF people seem to pride themselves on their "greenness". Similarly I worked at a company with 10000+ employees in SV. Even though they had green (compost), blue (recycle), black (trash) everywhere I never saw them have the correct stuff in them even though said company prides itself on hiring smart people. That leads me to believe recycling by requiring each and every person to separate their own trash is not really a solution at all. My understanding is some cities separate it at the dump. If true that seems like a much larger win. It will likely be correct far more often and only a few entities to check up on that they're doing it right.
- maxerickson 11y ago
  Yes: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Materials_recovery_facility#Dirty_MRF https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Materials_recovery_facility#Di...
- deleted 11y ago
  [deleted]
- DanBC 11y ago
  > My understanding is some cities separate it at the dump. If true that seems like a much larger win. It will likely be correct far more often and only a few entities to check up on that they're doing it right. The submitted article is about seperation at the dump, and how it doesn't work.
  - toyg 11y ago
    Or rather, its efficiency was reduced by using larger bins and by changing market conditions. The process still works, it's just less profitable than it used to be.
  - maxerickson 11y ago
    GP is talking about a single waste stream, with recyclables being separated from garbage at the receiving facility, not about the single bin recycling from the article. It makes sense from at least some angles, moving concerns about compliance and contamination to the facility.
JesperRavn 11y ago
I have lived in a lot of places, and I never could figure out what should go where. E.g. what are the limits to the cleanliness of paper/cardboard, and what about really shiny cardboard packaging? And what kinds of plastic can be recycled? I think that there is already plenty of will to sort recycling correctly, but a lack of detailed information. The mindset of people running these programs seems to be stuck in a decade or two ago where the main goal was to convince people that recycling is important. I was thinking about making an app for this, but never got time.
TYPE_FASTER 11y ago
I think single stream is the future, it's just going to take time to optimize the sorting efficiency using technology.

48 points by 001sky 11y ago

UK: We have 2 wheelie bins per household, one for rubbish the other for recycling. The recycling bin has a tray that fits in the top for paper/cardboard. Glass/plastic/tins go in the main bin below. May reduce cost of separation. See the comically long URL for the leaflet given to householders. http://www.birmingham.gov.uk/cs/Satellite?blobcol=urldata&blobheader=application%2Fpdf&blobheadername1=Content-Disposition&blobkey=id&blobtable=MungoBlobs&blobwhere=1223580687381&ssbinary=true&blobheadervalue1=attachment%3B+filename%3D21144462631Recycling_and_Household_Rubbish_Information_Leaflet.pdf http://www.birmingham.gov.uk/cs/Satellite?blobcol=urldata&bl...

eterm 11y ago
It varies hugely from council to council. Some places have 2 wheelie bins but all the recycling goes in together (no tray), some places have 2-3 different boxes, for different recylables.
- jamessb 11y ago
  As well as general waste and recycling, many (most?) have separate garden-waste and kitchen-waste bins/bags, which get composted or incinerated.
- TazeTSchnitzel 11y ago
  Some places just have a single wheelie bin.

sosuke 11y ago

Sub-divide one taller bin with labels. Then you can't just toss any sized thing in there.

radicalbyte 11y ago

In The Netherlands we have paper, garden and plastic bins. Glass, oil and batteries are collected at shopping centers. PET bottles and most beer bottles include a deposit and are collected in supermarkets. Electrics must be taken to the dump. No idea how metals are handled. We burn most of our waste and use it to power heating.

kuschku 11y ago
Same in Germany. And: It works. But if the people in the US can’t even handle a separation between one recycling bin and a waste bin, I don’t think that more separation would be doable there.

sschueller 11y ago

In Switzerland trash is expensive (very expensive). Ever bag must have one or more stickers or you need to buy special bags. This forces people to recycle but we don't have a blue bin to just dump recyclables in. In most places bags may also not be left on the street but put into underground trash collection bins or large metal trash containers. (http://www.direkt-einkauf.ch/cgi-bin/resize?tab=23&col=7&id=32241&x=240&y=240 http://www.direkt-einkauf.ch/cgi-bin/resize?tab=23&col=7&id=... or http://files.newsnetz.ch/story/3/0/1/30114820/6/topelement.jpg http://files.newsnetz.ch/story/3/0/1/30114820/6/topelement.j...) Every neighborhood has a recycling station within walking distance. The consist of containers for the different types of glass, metal and plastic (PET). (http://static.panoramio.com/photos/large/10116873.jpg http://static.panoramio.com/photos/large/10116873.jpg) Paper is picked up for free but must be correctly bundled and it is only picked up one a month. Same with cardboard which is picked up on a different day. (http://www.stadt.sg.ch/home/raum-umwelt/abfall-entsorgung/private-abfaelle/papier-karton/_jcr_content/Par/imagetext_1.originalsize.jpg http://www.stadt.sg.ch/home/raum-umwelt/abfall-entsorgung/pr...) Many people also have a compost in their yard. For electronics there is a law that any retailer that sells electronics must also take them for recycling even if you didn't buy it there.

sschueller 11y ago
In case anyone is wondering how they empty the underground trash containers: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xhbhvdvTWUg https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xhbhvdvTWUg
- cpursley 11y ago
  Wow, that is impressive.
johnchristopher 11y ago
Basically the same as in Belgium, but I don't know how much taxes on bags and picking up services differ.
seanmcdirmid 11y ago
I thought that was only true in Zurich and surroundings? Most cantons didn't have a similar policy in place when I lived there 7 years ago.

ZeroGravitas 11y ago

I'm kind of fascinated by this topic. I believe on balance, the big blue bin is a positive thing. But it's a complex engineering equation. More recycling coming in but with an increase in wastage. How much of that wastage is necessary and how much can be eliminated with smarter sorting machines or better policies or consumer awareness? It reminds me of complex software performance optimzation where you need to balance CPU, ram, disk access to make sure that 'obvious' improvements aren't ineffective or even counter productive. I'm not sure I appreciate the "do-gooders mess it all up again" vibe in the middle of the article, but the US has always had a weird relationship with recycling for whatever reason. I'm glad to see food recycling raised as a solution, they do that where I live and it makes a lot of sense compared with having it decompose to methane in landfills (though some landfills do try to capture the methane and then burn it for ebergy its better to get it at source). A carbon tax (ideally one covering other GHGs like methane) would probably sort out the recycling market along with the million other markets it would fix, but the time for the obvious and sensible solution is not quite nigh, though since even the oil and gas corporations are advocating it now in Europe it may not be too long now.

a8da6b0c91d 11y ago
Recycling has mostly been a farce from the get-go. The only two things that make sense are aluminum and corrugated cardboard. On no economic or ecological basis has all the other paper and plastic recycling made sense. The blue bin should be for cans and cardboard, and that's it. Everything else is pointless.
- JesperRavn 11y ago
  I'd appreciate if you posted a top level comment with more detail on this point. I've seen this claim made a lot, but when I looked into it further there were a lot of contradictory claims and evidence. If you're aware of a good summary of the facts, or some compelling evidence for your side, I'd like to see it.

melling 11y ago

"Another possibility is to follow the urgings of the environmental community by expanding recycling programs to include composting — the banana peels and grass clippings degrading in landfills that by some estimates have become the nation’s third-biggest source of methane gas contributing to global warming. Composting is partly credited with the success of such cities as San Francisco, Portland and Seattle in increasing the share of the waste stream that is recycled each year." Composting seems like a big win but how is this easily accomplished is urban areas?

techsupporter 11y ago
In Seattle, compost is a separate bin (green) and is picked up every week with trash. Restaurants in the city have to provide separate garbage, recycle, and compost containers, must sort it themselves before disposal, or use all-compostable end-user waste (like Taco Time Northwest). Prior to January, composting was optional but composting service--that is, having the green bin of any size--was mandatory. Composting itself became mandatory, primarily because restaurants were just chucking the food waste, and if the trash hauler sees a bunch of food getting crunched up with the trash bag, a red tag will be left on your garbage bin. (There used to be fines but Seattle Public Utilities hit its composting target so fast, the $1 "oooh you dun did it now" fine has been suspended.) My anecdotal experience is that it works rather well if you're prepared. I keep a small, charcoal-filter-in-the-lid compost bucket in the kitchen, lined by compostable bags purchased from Bartell's. When the bag gets full or too smelly, I drop it in the compost bin just outside my back door. Once a week, it goes out to the curb with the garbage with minimal fuss. The medium-sized bin I have costs ~$7/month.
- tomjen3 11y ago
  Restaurants -> residents? I don't normally call these things out, but it confused the hell out of me when I was reading it. Also I couldn't imagine having something that smelly in my kitchen or having to buy special bags. My parents have backyard chicken so it is mostly the same deal (except milk products, raw eggs and chicken goes in the bin) but it gets emptied every day so it hasn't gotten any opportunity to start to smell.

toyg 11y ago

The problem with recycling is still a focus on the end of the cycle, when much better results could be had with smarter policies at the beginning -- i.e. Manufacturing. If thin plastic containers are a problem, ban them and let Coke/Pepsi/Starbucks figure out how to deal with it -- they have the profits, smarts and resources to do so. If glass is an issue, ask companies to contribute towards the cost of handling it separatedly; and so on and so forth. Otherwise we end up in the usual situation where the taxpayer is left to pick up the environmental and economic cost of somebody's shareholding profits. I say this as a UK taxpayer with 4 different bins and forthnightly collection -- it's just a farce. I don't get to choose how the stuff I buy is packaged, but somehow I'm responsible for dealing with it AND I have to pay for the privilege, while Coke goes ka-ching. That's unfair.

deleted 11y ago
[deleted]
nmridul 11y ago
>> I don't get to choose how the stuff I buy is packaged, but somehow I'm responsible for dealing with it AND I have to pay for the privilege, while Coke goes ka-ching. That's unfair. This ...
- Tloewald 11y ago
  Aside from the inherent foolishness of shipping water around in small containers to people with faucets, how is Coke the problem? Back when they had glass bottles, they reused them. They use recyclable packing for everything and along with the rest of the industry have relentlessly worked to make their packaging more efficient. If only everyone else did likewise. If you don't like dealing with recycling, consider the effort to be part of the cost of the product. I am all in favor of a "disposal tax" to be levied on goods to offset the societal cost of wasteful packaging, but it would still be passed on to consumers, and soft drink companies are hardly the worst offenders.
  - toyg 11y ago
    > how is Coke the problem? Back when they had glass bottles, they reused them. Yes, and then stopped. They just unloaded some of their costs on the community. They were then forced to try and clean up their act by public pressure. To be honest, I'm not singling out Coke -- all manufacturers are part of the problem, even tetrapack-toting ones: the whole "package $item in small $something" concept is environmentally expensive, and all industries must be forced to bear as much of these costs as we can.

Havoc 11y ago

I must say I'm shocked by the state of recycling in the UK. People keep putting stuff into the wrong bins as if they can't read.

pascalmemories 11y ago
It's much more likely that they cannot figure out from all the complex clauses and sub-clauses councils have. Mine went along the lines of it's recycled if it's paper but not if it's certain types of paper unless it has a recycle logo on it but then not if it's has any food residues. The list went on like that for multiple pages. Handily it was in around 12 languages too, but I was in London (and technically an immigrant, so I suppose the multiple languages were for me). Then there's the fine for having an empty bin on collection day but also a fine for having the lid ajar from ever so slightly more than the bin holds - you were allowed up to 1/4 of an inch (yup, documented in the explanation leaflet) (and they have private contractors going around at 4am to check that and issue fines before anyone gets up in the morning). Plus, of course, once it's all collected, the council send it all to landfill and don't bother recycling it at all. [1] And still do it after being caught. [2] Or they just dump it in Africa or China instead of landfill/recycling. [3] There are endless examples of the bone-headed UK public sector approach to recycling which makes it a waste of time. Sir Humphrey Appleby would be proud. I don't think you're being fair trying to blame it on some sort of illiterate proles. [1] http://www.courier.co.uk/Wealden-council-sending-residents-recycling/story-16759899-detail/story.html http://www.courier.co.uk/Wealden-council-sending-residents-r... [2] http://www.yourlocalguardian.co.uk/news/10467239.Council_again_caught_sending_recycling_to_landfill/ http://www.yourlocalguardian.co.uk/news/10467239.Council_aga... [3] http://www.express.co.uk/news/world/538317/Britain-sends-tonnes-recycling-waste-China-residents-wade-dirty-streets http://www.express.co.uk/news/world/538317/Britain-sends-ton...
- Havoc 11y ago
  >It's much more likely that they cannot figure out from all the complex clauses and sub-clauses councils have. Well my comment was based more on what I see at semi-public bins. Stuff like people throwing alu foil into bins marked "food waste" & similar complete disregard of even attempting to do it right. You just need one or two people doing that & the entire process can be scrapped.

owly 11y ago

1. Please check out the Paperkarma app by reputation.com. It makes getting off of obnoxious junk mail lists simple. Just take a picture and submit. I used to get a shitload of junk mail catalogs, now i get maybe 1 or 2 per month. I HATE junk mail and Paperkarma has easily reduced it by about 80%. 2. Majority of people are too lazy and stupid to care, that's why they went to the single bin. I used to live in a large condo complex in the US where I was essentially the recycling police. No matter what I tried to educate the building, I still found tons of non-recyclables in the blue bin.

tomjen3 11y ago
2) if people don't give a shit (and most don't) then educating them is just going to cause them to hate you and the recycling.

colinbartlett 11y ago

What is the comparative effectiveness of reuse initiatives? Where bottles are returned and washed and refilled? Obviously not applicable for paper products, but I wonder why this fell out of practice in the U.S.?

a8da6b0c91d 11y ago
Allegedly the old deposit system worked great. The bottlers were forced to pay for returned bottles, taking care of the disposal problem. But coke and pepsi didn't like that, so here we are.
- TazeTSchnitzel 11y ago
  Wait, the US had a deposit system and got rid of it? What?!

streptomycin 11y ago

Anecdote time: I've lived in a bunch of apartment complexes that have a huge shared dumpster for recycling, right next to the one for trash. Sometimes they have separate recycling dumpsters for paper/plastic/whatever. Sometimes it's just one for all recycling. I have NEVER seen the recycling dumpster contain only correct recyclable items. And when the trash dumpster gets full (which happens very frequently some places), the shit really hits the fan and people just blatantly dump regular trash into the recycling. I always wondered how any of this mixed trash and recycling could ever be efficiently processed.

greggman 11y ago

I lived in SF. Stayed at several buildings. Never once saw the compost bin (green) used correctly even though SF people seem to pride themselves on their "greenness". Similarly I worked at a company with 10000+ employees in SV. Even though they had green (compost), blue (recycle), black (trash) everywhere I never saw them have the correct stuff in them even though said company prides itself on hiring smart people. That leads me to believe recycling by requiring each and every person to separate their own trash is not really a solution at all. My understanding is some cities separate it at the dump. If true that seems like a much larger win. It will likely be correct far more often and only a few entities to check up on that they're doing it right.

maxerickson 11y ago
Yes: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Materials_recovery_facility#Dirty_MRF https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Materials_recovery_facility#Di...
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DanBC 11y ago
> My understanding is some cities separate it at the dump. If true that seems like a much larger win. It will likely be correct far more often and only a few entities to check up on that they're doing it right. The submitted article is about seperation at the dump, and how it doesn't work.
- toyg 11y ago
  Or rather, its efficiency was reduced by using larger bins and by changing market conditions. The process still works, it's just less profitable than it used to be.
- maxerickson 11y ago
  GP is talking about a single waste stream, with recyclables being separated from garbage at the receiving facility, not about the single bin recycling from the article. It makes sense from at least some angles, moving concerns about compliance and contamination to the facility.

JesperRavn 11y ago

I have lived in a lot of places, and I never could figure out what should go where. E.g. what are the limits to the cleanliness of paper/cardboard, and what about really shiny cardboard packaging? And what kinds of plastic can be recycled? I think that there is already plenty of will to sort recycling correctly, but a lack of detailed information. The mindset of people running these programs seems to be stuck in a decade or two ago where the main goal was to convince people that recycling is important. I was thinking about making an app for this, but never got time.

TYPE_FASTER 11y ago

I think single stream is the future, it's just going to take time to optimize the sorting efficiency using technology.