Found out my city's recycling just goes to the landfill anyway

I was looking into our local waste management last week and found out that our city only actually recycles about 15% of what people put in the blue bins. The rest goes straight to the dump because the sorting facility can't handle mixed plastics. I dug through the city council meeting notes from June and they even admitted it costs more to recycle than to trash it. Has anyone else looked into how their town actually handles recycling?

3 comments

3 Comments

murphy.mason5d ago

Same thing in my town, it's all just a feel-good show.

lee8475d ago

@murphy.mason yeah its all a show for sure. I found out the same thing after calling our waste dept directly and they basically admitted its cheaper to bury it. The real trick is to stop using plastic as much as possible. I switched to glass jars for food storage and started buying bulk stuff from stores that let you refill containers. Also started a small compost pile in my backyard for food scraps that cuts down on like 40% of my trash.

jamie9405d ago

The compost thing is huge man. I started doing the same a couple years back and it cut my trash output by like half. One thing that helped me a ton was getting a worm bin instead of a regular pile. Way less maintenance and no smell. Also been reusing glass pasta sauce jars for everything. They fit perfectly in my fridge doors and I don't have to buy Tupperware anymore. Took me a minute to find a bulk store near me but once I did it changed the game. Bring your own containers and you skip all that plastic packaging nonsense. Small changes add up quick once you start looking for them.