Is Recycling a Puzzle-Maze Not Worth Solving?(bloomberg.com)
bloomberg.com
Is Recycling a Puzzle-Maze Not Worth Solving?
https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2024-01-10/americans-trash-three-quarters-of-recyclables-study-finds
3 comments
There are some low-hanging fruit that isn't implemented. Just today I was in a food court that has categories that aren't clear for the common items disposed in a food court. Identically shaped rectangular hole does for garbage vs recycling, and why do the cylindrical bottles not go in the round one? We would do much better if we optimized for clearly marking where the high volume recycling goes and minimizing false positives going in.
I see a lot of arrangements that put the compost and recycling bins/hole in front and put the trash further away. I guess the idea is that you should try to decide that something should be composted or recycled before you decide to throw it away. The problem is that people who don’t care, just throw everything in the closest bin. The result is that the composted and the recycling are contaminated and have to be thrown out. We should put a big trash bin right in front and smaller compost and recycling bins behind (and clearly marked). Then people who care enough to make a choice will go just a little out of their way to put the compost or recycling in the right bin, and the uncaring will just toss it all in the closest receptacle.
In America, reusable material has a 1 in 4 chance of even getting into the system, then it moves along a reuse maze to evetnaully be illegally dumped in India or elsewhere:
https://www.bloomberg.com/features/2022-india-plastic-recycl...
Why does it seem like we're just polishing the glassware in the Titanic's dining saloon? Making everything look clean when it's all going to end in disaster anyhow?