The day I realized my recycling bin is a lie is still bugging me

I used to just toss everything with a little triangle symbol into my bin in Portland without a second thought. Then last month I read that only about 9% of plastic actually gets recycled, the rest goes to landfill or overseas. Now I check every container type and wash them out, it is a pain but I cannot unsee the greenwashing. Has anyone else looked up what their local facility actually accepts?

3 comments

3 Comments

caleb_thomas931mo ago

Wait that 9% stat is actually a common myth though.

holly_sanchez751mo agoTop Commenter

Honestly, my buddy Steve swore by that stat for years until his uncle who works in data actually showed him where it came from. Turns out it was just some dude's blog from 2012 he took as gospel, no joke.

alexw7527d agoMost Upvoted

And the scary part is how many of those blog stats just get repeated enough that people start treating them like facts. I swear half the "studies" people cite online are just recycled Twitter threads from 2014.