Recycling is broken, in part, because we’re all so confused about what can actually be recycled

ملخص مفصل

“Wish-cycling,” as the industry calls it, contaminates the recycling stream and degrades the value of the raw material we’re trying to recover.

We’ve all stood near the garbage can holding a plastic or metal item — perhaps a milk container, a hanger, or toothpaste tube — wondering: Is this recyclable? We don’t want want to consign it to the landfill forever, so we put it in the recycling bin “just in case.”

Unfortunately, this well-intentioned action is ruining our recycling. “Wish-cycling,” as the industry calls it, contaminates the recycling stream, which means bottles, cans, and paper end up sent to the landfill rather than getting recycled.

There are online tools available to check whether items are recyclable, but ultimately it’s probably not realistic to rely on consumers to research the fine differences between the variety of plastics every time they’re doing chores. Five years ago, California passed a law requiring less confusing markings, and that would be a good first step to cleaning up the recycling stream.

After all, cities and towns have a direct financial interest in getting contaminants out of the recycling bins.

The way curbside recycling typically works is that municipalities pay trash collectors to pick up recycling and then deliver it to a materials recovery facility. Once there, bottles, cans, and fibers are sorted and sold to places like plastic compounders and paper and aluminum mills, offsetting some of the cost of the pickup and hauling.

Contaminated material sent to the facility lowers the value of the whole waste stream, which means cities, towns, and taxpayers ultimately end up paying more to keep the curbside recycling system going.

In Massachusetts, roughly 15 percent of the items we put in the recycling are actually trash, according to data compiled by the Massachusetts Department of Environmental Protection. The main culprits tend to be thin plastic bags, such as grocery bags or bread wrappers, which gum up sorting machines.

The aftermath should have been a wake-up call to deal with our mess. With few exceptions, that hasn’t happened.

A “truth in recycling” law like California’s…

مطلع المقال، مقتطف من The Boston Globe. لقراءة المقال كاملًا، افتحه على موقع الناشر.