It is quite the question, huh? Like certain doggie's heritage? Anywho, those resultst tomorrow. Back to recycling. In some cities/counties there are actually fines for throwing away items that belong in the bin. In others industrial-sized bins accept unsorted plastics, papers, glass and aluminum, and carry another kind of cost: damaged equipment or a ruined batch of otherwise usable material. Lucky for us, Slate's Green Lantern has some tips:
"...Things to avoid throwing in the blue bin unless you know for a fact that they belong there: noncontainer glass (like mirrors), Pyrex, plastic bags and films, aluminum pots and pans, and crockery...
...The next time you find yourself hovering indecisively over a set of trash bins, here are some rules of thumb. Plastics marked No. 1 or No. 2 are virtually guaranteed to be accepted, so go ahead and toss them in with your recycling. Newspaper, corrugated cardboard, magazines, and office paper are almost always good to go as well. If your mystery object doesn't fall into one of those categories, trash it. If your community participates in single-stream recycling—where everything from bottles to cans to cardboard boxes get placed in one curbside bin—it might be tempting to err on the side of tossing your mystery item into that bin as well. It's all going to get sorted out in the end, right? But there's an argument to be made that single-stream recycling actually requires more diligence from consumers—contamination rates often rise dramatically in these programs, so anything you can do to keep unwanted items out of the mix will make the system more efficient."
5 comments:
i always wonder about milk cartons...some places say yes and others not so much.
What about cereal boxes and other boxes made of similar type cardboard? Also, we have to separate our corrugated cardboard and take it to a drop off bin. Perhaps we need to get into the 20th century. Ha! (I sneak my boxes to the recycling bin at work.)
Thanks for this post. Obviously we have all struggled with this dilemma before and I usually throw things into the recycling bin because I am of the thought that it will all get sorted in the end (as mentioned in the article). Is there anywhere we can find a chart or anything to keep by our recycling bin so we won't have a question of what goes in there? I have read on the city's web site about the restrictions but there are so many!
My first thought is to check with your state environmental department
Maryland's here: http://www.mde.maryland.gov/Programs/LandPrograms/Recycling/faqs/index.asp
The great news is that we are all thinking about this stuff. It may be a "learn as you go" process but that is fine, you know? Just the other day I learned that the local Ace Hardware has a collection box for batteries ("disposable" and ones that could formerly be recharged like cell phones etc). And every post office offers prepaid mailers for small electronic recycling.
We're lucky in our hood...they supply a large recycle trashcan. Also happy to report we run about 75% recycle trash to 25% other trash weekly, which still amazes me. L M
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