A friend in Seattle pointed out my recycling bin was full of stuff that can't actually be processed here, like black plastic and greasy pizza boxes. I had no idea.

3 comments

3 Comments

Totally feel this. The rules are so confusing and different everywhere. Had the same shock when I moved, my old place took all plastic but here they only want bottles. Ended up contaminating the whole bin with a yogurt cup, felt awful. Now I keep the city's recycling guide taped to the fridge.

abby9261mo ago

But like, how much does one yogurt cup actually mess things up? I get that @riveradams feels bad, but sometimes it feels like they make these rules way too strict. Do they really throw out a whole truckload over a single wrong item?

charlie_ellis1mo ago

Yeah, that's the real problem, the whole system is broken. Abby926 has a point about it feeling too strict, but the sorting machines are really that bad. What gets me is why they don't just make the packaging simpler so we don't have to play guessing games. Do you think the companies making all this trash should be forced to fix it?