Ha! Got your attention, didn't I? I think many of us started recycling in earnest in the late '80s after this infamous barge, the Mobro 4000, sailed around the Atlantic with no place to dump New York City's trash. There was an outcry for curbside recycling and, once established in our community, most of us have dutifully separated out what we could, feeling noble that we are helping save the planet.
And so we are, if we recycle correctly. Culling junk mail, newspapers & magazines, gray and brown chipboard, corrugated cardboard and and brown paper bags is a no-brainer. It's even easier to rinse out the glass food & beverage containers and steel/tin cans to recycle. But then we have the plastic dilemma. I can't tell you how many times I've stood over my recycling bin trying to figure out if a #1 or #2 plastic container should be included and then tossed it in anyway. What's the harm, right?
Wrong, and here's why. Those #1 & #2 designations are actually inaccurate. For instance, those #1 berry containers and egg cartons are made of plastic that does not have the same properties as the #1 bottles. They don't have the same melting point so they can't be used in the molds to make recycled products. Sure, many of them get sorted out by the machines at the processing plant but if even one sneaks by the entire batch is contaminated and dumped. If too many of us get lax and dump ineligible items into the recycling bin, our entire town's recycling can get rejected at the next stop.
The more we do at the source (our homes) the better--rinse containers out, peel off the labels, remove and discard all caps and flatten everything (except the glass, of course). Recycle plastic bottles with pourable mouths only. Don't recycle berry or egg containers, take-out, store-bought or ready-made containers and no yogurt containers. "When in doubt, throw it out".
image source: "Garbage: Queen's Trashy Tale", The Queens Tribune
