I've got a big garbage bin and a big recycling bin at my house. When I put my empty bottles/boxes/etc out for recycling, does it all really get recycled? Do I need to clean off every bit of food? Are greasy pizza boxes recyclable? How much of it ends up at the landfill?

I'd love to hear somebody chime in with legitimate details. However, I'd guess that it's highly regional. I'd expect that a lot of the single-stream stuff ends up being trashed. Add into the fact that some countries are no longer taking our plastics and I'd imagine more and more is/will be trashed.

Not all of it does. If you separate bottle caps from plastic bottles, they fall through the sorter and end up being thrown away, they want you to leave the caps on the bottles. It makes it easier for them as well if you crush the bottles down.

Depending on your towns contract, they may not take all type of recycling material, the town I live in doesn't take tin cans and they get thrown away.

No recycling center will take greasy pizza boxes, those get thrown away.
You don't have to wash out plastics as they do it anyways, but it will make their jobs easier if you do.

For other types of metals or even glass you may want to check with the company first if they take those or not

They won't take soiled cardboard, so save the greasy pizza boxes for easy bonfire starters.

Our area is getting more strict about what they take, since they can't offload all numbered plastics now like they used to. They also want us to rinse our plastics and throw away caps.

So just check your local recycling rules; should be fairly easy to google your location and recycling provider to see what guidelines they have.

I would say check with the local company, but soiled things of any kind will ruin a whole load of recyclables. We started a recycling program at work and they stressed that any soiled contents will ruin a whole load of recycling.

If there is one thing I give a shit about, it's recycling.

I've seen the guys just bomb everything into the truck without even really looking at it, so I don't even really get too crazy about it.

They take white styrofoam now too which is great.

 

It's complicated.

Right now the recycling industry is having a bit of a shakeup. It's getting more and more expensive to recycle things when they should be getting cheaper, and that's causing towns to have to cut corners on recycling programs.

A lot of stuff right now is being sent to transfer stations, and then in some cases illegally shipped out of the country to poor developing nations who don't want it.

Basically, the only way to be ethical about recycling right now is to simply reduce the amount of waste you generate.

The "three R" motto, Reduce, Reuse, and Recycle are meant to be taken IN THAT ORDER. Recycling is a last resort, first you reduce your consumption, reuse what you can, and recycle what you can't.

Also pizza boxes screw up the recyclable value of cardboard, so it's not really recyclable. 🤷🏻‍♂️

I have worked with a recycling center before as an environmental manager in an electronics shop. I can give a little insight, recycling wasn't my main job but I do have direct dealings with it.
If a load of cardboard gets too wet before the recycling process the entire load will be trashed.
Many places give china money to take plastic and they were most likely trashing it. Very few places actually recycle plastic, it is just not cost effective.
Aluminum, precious metals, batteries, and the likes are the only cost effective items to recycle. Metal can be easily repurposed.

The Storybots. The new magic school bus! Find this episode on Netflix.

do not put plastic bags into recycling bin,

In our area, greasy pizza boxes and other food-soiled cardboard goes into the yard waste bin along with shredded paper, grass clippings, small tree branches and the like. That all gets chopped up and composted.

8:49 I used to collect and sell alumninum cans back in the day! BTW if you look carefully they goofed on Donnie's bandana!
5:46 I DO in fact use rechargeable batteries for my Wii remotes! Not to mention all the electronic devices that can easily be recharged nowadays! Even going as far back as the DS and GBA SP! Sure beats back in the ol' horse and buggy days of having to use up six AA's on a Game Gear or Nomad in just 4-5 hours(ish) and throwing all those batteries away (I don't think rechargable batteries had caught on nearly as much back then) and making Donatello mad at you!
5:12 Apparently United Way's Balloonfest '86 didn't get this memo (look it up)
0:56 I also use my grocery bags for little garbage bags and they're fantastic for doing kitty litter!

PS: And Dontatello also reminds us there that drug dealers (that cause mind pollution!) are dorks and to not even talk to them!




The power is yours!

I agree with Mikey every time on that one.

Gotta echo some points. • Greasy pizza boxes, no. If you tear off the contaminated parts and only put clean, dry cardboard, yes. • Don't put any bags in your bin (they fuck up the sorting machines) unless approved (see below), nor electronics, wires /cables /cords, hoses, clothing, or yard waste.
• Check with your municipality as to specifics. We can't do styrofoam or #6 plastics here but some places can. Look into your town's specific standards. https://www.recyclebycity.com... is helpful here, if it doesn't cover your area try your city hall, 311, or town website.