Just realized my neighbor was right about recycling plastic bags

I had a conversation with my neighbor last weekend, she works at the local recycling center in Phoenix, and she told me that putting plastic bags in the curbside bin actually gums up the whole system... they have to shut down the machines to cut them out. She said less than 5% of plastic bags actually get recycled that way, but I always thought I was doing the right thing. Has anyone else found out their recycling habits were totally wrong?

3 comments

3 Comments

knight.felix11d ago

Honestly that blew my mind when I first found out too. Ngl I thought I was being a good person stuffing all those bags into the bin. But then my buddy who works at a sorting facility told me the same thing, they literally have to climb in there with knives to cut the bags out of the machinery. Tbh it feels like the whole system is rigged against us regular folks trying to do the right thing. I switched to just reusing my plastic bags for small trash cans or donating them to places that actually take them, like grocery stores or certain drop offs. It's crazy how much we think we know about recycling when really most of it is just guesswork.

sage30811d ago

fr "rigged against us regular folks" tho? like cmon. yeah it sucks that bags clog stuff up, but it's not some conspiracy. i just take my bags back to target or walmart, they have bins right by the door. takes 2 seconds. not everything has to be this huge systemic betrayal, sometimes we just didn't know the right way to do shit and we fix it.

sandra_bennett599d ago

Hearing that less than 5 percent of bags actually get recycled really hit me hard. I was doing the same thing for years, stuffing them all in the bin feeling proud of myself. Turns out I was probably making things worse for the workers. It just feels so discouraging when you try your hardest and find out it's all backwards. Now I just reuse mine for picking up after my dog or lining the bathroom trash.