Going to post the associated Climate Town video to explain why recycling is just so freaking complicated. Also, this is incredibly regionally specific. The first question in the quiz is "are...
Going to post the associated Climate Town video to explain why recycling is just so freaking complicated.
Also, this is incredibly regionally specific. The first question in the quiz is "are plastic bag recyclable?" and well, it completely depends on your municipality. If you live in Santa Cruz, California then surprisingly the answer is a resounding "yes!" It 100% depends on what your municipality recycles and you need to check locally. Now, of the things your municipality does accept, it's dubious what actually gets recycled. So, let's take a hot second to be angry with the fossil fuel and plastic industry (largely the same thing) before we decide that Reduce and Reuse are much more important that Recycle in the fun slogan for reducing impact.
Checking in from Germany, and I like to imagine I'm somewhat familiar with at least my local guidance. Q1: The guide is wrong. Stores never take bags back. Into the recycling bin. Q2: Guidance...
Checking in from Germany, and I like to imagine I'm somewhat familiar with at least my local guidance.
Q1: The guide is wrong. Stores never take bags back. Into the recycling bin.
Q2: Guidance here is identical.
Q3: Matching with the numbers in the guide, my local waste management wants you to throw numbers 1,2,4,5,6 and a whole bunch of 7 into the recycling. And a lot of other stuff. Including basically every metal imaginable and composite materials (milk cartons, etc)
Q4, I can't find guidance on, even after looking.
Q5, guide is correct.
Q6, I'm genuinely not sure about. But it doesn't matter much because you pay a deposit on almost all bottles and cans anyway, so these you bring back to the store.
Q7, I agree.
Q8, I agree too.
Note that a lot of stuff is recycled using alternative routes. Including all paper and compostable materials, they get their own separate bins.
TL;DR: What goes where is intensely local. Germany's state religion is separating your recyclables.
The city I live in has an app. For most things, you can just search for it in the app, and it tells you which bin to put it in, and how clean it has to be. It's very useful, especially because...
The city I live in has an app. For most things, you can just search for it in the app, and it tells you which bin to put it in, and how clean it has to be. It's very useful, especially because cities (at least in Southern Ontario) seem to do things quite differently.
Yea I live in a small town and we have an app too. I'm actually pretty impressed with the service we have here for recycling and composting considering there's less than 30,000 taxpayers here....
Yea I live in a small town and we have an app too. I'm actually pretty impressed with the service we have here for recycling and composting considering there's less than 30,000 taxpayers here.
Curbside garbage, recycling, and compost. Garbage/recycling alternate every other week and compost is every week so you have to make use of it unless you want to haul your own waste to the landfill.
Curbside recycling unfortunately doesn't take glass or soft plastics, but you can take those to numerous depots and recycle them there. Soft plastics don't need to be sorted by type, just bag them all together you're good to go. Since the bottle depot takes them, I just take them with me when I do my bottles.
Compost is pretty permissive in addition to food waste: used tissue, wax/parchment paper, cardboard w/ grease stains etc. can all be composted.
It's great that they do it but it seems like it shouldn't require an app? A website with a search box would do. Ideally the recycling companies would publish their requirements in a standard...
It's great that they do it but it seems like it shouldn't require an app? A website with a search box would do.
Ideally the recycling companies would publish their requirements in a standard format and search engines would pick it up, so it would be as easy as getting the local weather.
Oh, they have a website with a search box as well. The app also sends me reminders of when to put out waste, and which wastes are accepted on which weeks, and when things like big item pickups are...
Oh, they have a website with a search box as well. The app also sends me reminders of when to put out waste, and which wastes are accepted on which weeks, and when things like big item pickups are available. It is not solely for figuring out which garbage is acceptable.
I am pretty sure that this section is actually a loose wrapper for a piece of the city website.
Going to post the associated Climate Town video to explain why recycling is just so freaking complicated.
Also, this is incredibly regionally specific. The first question in the quiz is "are plastic bag recyclable?" and well, it completely depends on your municipality. If you live in Santa Cruz, California then surprisingly the answer is a resounding "yes!" It 100% depends on what your municipality recycles and you need to check locally. Now, of the things your municipality does accept, it's dubious what actually gets recycled. So, let's take a hot second to be angry with the fossil fuel and plastic industry (largely the same thing) before we decide that Reduce and Reuse are much more important that Recycle in the fun slogan for reducing impact.
Checking in from Germany, and I like to imagine I'm somewhat familiar with at least my local guidance.
Q1: The guide is wrong. Stores never take bags back. Into the recycling bin.
Q2: Guidance here is identical.
Q3: Matching with the numbers in the guide, my local waste management wants you to throw numbers 1,2,4,5,6 and a whole bunch of 7 into the recycling. And a lot of other stuff. Including basically every metal imaginable and composite materials (milk cartons, etc)
Q4, I can't find guidance on, even after looking.
Q5, guide is correct.
Q6, I'm genuinely not sure about. But it doesn't matter much because you pay a deposit on almost all bottles and cans anyway, so these you bring back to the store.
Q7, I agree.
Q8, I agree too.
Note that a lot of stuff is recycled using alternative routes. Including all paper and compostable materials, they get their own separate bins.
TL;DR: What goes where is intensely local. Germany's state religion is separating your recyclables.
The city I live in has an app. For most things, you can just search for it in the app, and it tells you which bin to put it in, and how clean it has to be. It's very useful, especially because cities (at least in Southern Ontario) seem to do things quite differently.
Yea I live in a small town and we have an app too. I'm actually pretty impressed with the service we have here for recycling and composting considering there's less than 30,000 taxpayers here.
Curbside garbage, recycling, and compost. Garbage/recycling alternate every other week and compost is every week so you have to make use of it unless you want to haul your own waste to the landfill.
Curbside recycling unfortunately doesn't take glass or soft plastics, but you can take those to numerous depots and recycle them there. Soft plastics don't need to be sorted by type, just bag them all together you're good to go. Since the bottle depot takes them, I just take them with me when I do my bottles.
Compost is pretty permissive in addition to food waste: used tissue, wax/parchment paper, cardboard w/ grease stains etc. can all be composted.
It's great that they do it but it seems like it shouldn't require an app? A website with a search box would do.
Ideally the recycling companies would publish their requirements in a standard format and search engines would pick it up, so it would be as easy as getting the local weather.
Oh, they have a website with a search box as well. The app also sends me reminders of when to put out waste, and which wastes are accepted on which weeks, and when things like big item pickups are available. It is not solely for figuring out which garbage is acceptable.
I am pretty sure that this section is actually a loose wrapper for a piece of the city website.