How do you know that your recycling items are actually recycled?

Question

We have recently had to take our recycling rather than it be picked up. The bin we take it to is commingled recyclables- which means that it all goes in together. It made me wonder, is there someone that recycles all of this by dividing out the glass, paper, etc. or does it all just go to the landfill with the regular trash anyway?

Answer 1

What a great question! In regards to my speciality, laser toner cartridges, I would urge you to read "Exporting Harm: The High-Tech Trashing of Asia" at www.ban.org. On their home page, go to the bottom of the page then click on the pdf file to download the report. Want to cry? Then click on Photos for Press. Want to recycle laser toner and ink cartridges responsibly? Then DO NOT send them to the major players, instead take them to a local remanufacturing facility in your region. Need help locating one? Go to www.i-itc.org

Answer 2

I wondered this also one time and asked a gentleman during a visit to drop off my recyclables. At our landfill facility the recycling section has bins for paper,cans, plastic & glass. I drop my items in the bins, then a worker sorts them from there into more detailed bins. From there he said it goes to different facilites to be recycled. He says each piece is hand separated (our facility has inmates 'working' there). I'm sure this isn't the same everywhere but I can always hope so!!
There is a really neat company in the U.K. making products that say "I used to be a ...". All the items are recycled and they give you directions on how to further recycle what you just purchased.

Answer 3

Recycling is generally not cost effective or in most cases energy efficient. If it were someone would be making money from it. Take the fact that you had to drive your recyclables to the facility. You easily could have spent more energy in gasoline than it takes to manufacture the material in the first place and your stuff is still just sitting in a container somewhere not even close to being recycled. No one tells us to recycle gold but some of the gold the Romans mined thousands of years ago is still around today having been reused time and time again. In many ways landfills are far greener than recycling if the truth were to be told. But environmentalists by and large are not interested in looking at the big picture.

Answer 4

That IS a great question!

And you are right, if not properly separated and prepared a lot of reuseable and recycleable material ends up in landfill. The biggest expense for a waste management company is manual sorting of incoming materials.

I suspect you are talking about a temporary condition where the recycling truck wasnt available and an open bin had to be used in the interim. Is this correct?

If so, the waste management company or the municipal government would have to pick up the difference in cost for it to be hand sorted at the plant for the duration of the out of service period.

Answer 5

Some are, some aren't.

You raise an important point. If you want to support recycling, it is very important to buy recycled products. As the market increases, less stuff is dumped.

Answer 6

Visit the facility or take it to a facility you know recycles. It is a good idea to keep the facility that says it recycles honest and by visiting them you can see how they process and know for sure. Good Luck!

Answer 7

thats a good question, i often wonder that too, i know some paper is recycled, but I don't know about cans and other things.

Answer 8

Thats a really good questions all jokes aside. The government expexcs us to just take their word for it but we should really find out and sry but i dont no the answer

Answer 9

as far as i am aware plastic bottles are bought by china thats what some one from my local council has said to me and they do what ever they do with them who knows your mobile phone cover could of been a pop bottle once

Answer 10

in some parts of London it was being shipped and dumped in India