Found out my town's recycling plant dumps 40% of what I sort into the landfill

I got a tour of the transfer station in Akron last month because my kid's scout troop was doing a field trip. The guide casually mentioned that nearly half of the single-stream stuff we carefully rinse and sort ends up getting pulled out and trucked to the dump anyway. Turns out it's because of contaminated batches from other neighborhoods and the fact that glass shatters and ruins the paper bales. I always thought I was doing my part, but now I'm wondering if it's even worth the effort to sort at home. Obviously the plant worker said 'keep recycling, it's still better than nothing,' but that number is sticking with me. Is it naive to keep doing something that's 40% performative, or is the 60% that does get reused still a win? Anyone else ever look into what actually happens after the truck picks up your bin?

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william_harris28d ago

And that 40% number is probably low when you factor in the stuff that gets sorted wrong at the curb, so honestly the real figure might be closer to half or worse. But here's the thing I keep coming back to, the 60% that does make it through is still a ton of material that isn't sitting in a hole forever, and that's not nothing even if it feels like we're getting played. Plus the whole system kind of depends on people like us keeping the contamination level down, if everyone stopped sorting because of this, the plant would have to trash way more than 40%, and then we'd really be screwed. It's less about us being perfect and more about us not making the problem worse for the people who have to deal with our bins. I'd say keep rinsing and sorting but maybe stop feeling guilty about the occasional pizza box or yogurt cup that slips through, the guilt was never the point anyway.