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My friend called my recycling 'wish-cycling' and it totally fixed my system
I was feeling good about my recycling bin, tossing in anything with a triangle symbol. Then my buddy came over, looked in the bin, and said, 'Dude, you're just wish-cycling. Half that stuff can't be processed here.' He pointed out my greasy pizza box and that clamshell plastic from berries. I looked up our town's rules in Phoenix and realized he was right. Now I keep a printout of the accepted items list on my fridge. I also got a small bin for actual trash next to the recycling so I can sort right away. It cut my recycling contamination by a ton. Has anyone else had to completely relearn their local recycling rules?
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the_ray6mo ago
Man, I used to be the same way, just tossing anything plastic in there. What finally got me was learning that a greasy paper bag or a coffee cup can mess up a whole batch of good recycling. It felt like doing the right thing, but I was basically just making more work for the sorting center. I had to check the city website and it was a real eye-opener, like you can't recycle bottle caps unless they're screwed back on. Now I'm way more careful about rinsing stuff and checking numbers.
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milesj706mo ago
My buddy ruined his whole bin with a pizza box once.
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holly_henderson865mo ago
Oh man, that's rough. My town's website says pizza boxes go straight to the trash now, the grease is a total deal breaker.
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