I read an article that said people throw so much shit in the recycle bins, sometimes entire loads can be rejected, and a lot gets dumped because of grease on pizza boxes and what not.... things people think can be recycle, but cannot. So like everything else, people are idiots and we can't have nice things.


Also read an article the other day about how the mountain of plastic in the Pacific Ocean has created new ecosystems for crabs and things that otherwise couldn't survive in the middle of the ocean.


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This is very true. It definitely helps if you rinse off what you are recycling. It also helps a lot if you do something as simple as removing the foil lid off something like a yogurt container. It really takes minimal effort to make a pretty big difference in the landfills, but most people really won’t do it for whatever reason.
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And these days to help bridge the gap, it's as easy as putting a QR code on the bins to educate people... but of course, people on both ends have to give a shit, too.
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So, we are all supposed to be recycling experts? :-)

Please do provide a really nice of what I can and cannot recycle. I think most people are TRYING to do the right thing.

Fuck the waste companies it TOO much recycles come back. :-)
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I simply googled it when I moved to Arizona... why just throw random shit in a bin when 5 minutes of reading can clear it up? :-)

And yeah, they are terrible at education, when all they need to do is slap a QR code on the bins. Hell, I get shit from APS constantly via snail mail and email about how to best use electricity and so forth... a mailer on recycling would be far more useful.
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Look at that little boy scout


Read KC Uniteds list and realize what a big fucking joke this all is
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Who could imagine the people picking up and sorting trash might be as intelligent as the idiots who get flustered figuring out which color bin to put stuff in.

Here's a quick video that might be more your style. Feel free to lay down for a bit afterwards if it gets too overwhelming.


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It's complicated. For recycling to work, you pretty much have to have everything 1) clean and 2) separated into materials that can be recycled together. That's necessarily labor intensive, so waste management companies have to make a choice between asking a LOT of consumers (my dad has 8 different bins in his garage for all the different materials, and he manually drops it all off at a recycling center) but having very low participation vs. making it EASY for consumers (single-stream recycling) and putting a ton of effort into sorting at the facility.

So OK, decision point 1: if you want to get people to do it, you have to make it simple. Fine.

But then the issue is that making it easy also makes it easy for people to fuck it up, both in unintentional ways (not understanding what can be recycled) and malicious ways (intentionally throwing trash into the recycle bin). And in some cases, a handful of people fucking it up can ruin entire loads of otherwise recyclable materials due to either contamination or just making it too laborious to go through the load and sort out all the stuff that can't be recycled.

So waste management companies have to decide whether they try and tech people how to be good recyclers at the middle school (recycle cans), high school (recycle cans and plastic bottles), 101 (recycle cans, plastics with allowed types, clean paper and cardboard), or 201 level (recycle cans, aluminum foil if it's in a large enough ball and clean, plastics that are clean, paper products, but not those that have a wax coating...). The better informed people are, the better recycling works, but the less people will pay attention.

So decision point 2: If you want to get people to do it right, you have to find a sweet spot between telling people every little detail they need to know and making it simple enough that everyone can understand it.

The result is that we just kind of live with something in the middle, though it does indeed result in a lot of recyclable materials being dumped in the trash. There's just not a great way out of it unfortunately unless you go hard on public education, which is often a futile exercise.
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Truth.

We were a client fore LaFarge mining rock quarry and cement plant in Sugar Creek MO. A huge landfill was right next to it off 291 Highway. We would see the recycle trucks lined up with the garbage trucks dumping. None dares report unless you like sleeping with the fishes. They may find your body caught in a snag or up against a dike somewhere down stream on the Mighty Mo.
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Yeah its a joke here

This is the list of non-recyclable items here

We apologize but please note that the following items are NO LONGER accepted in KCUnited's city recycling program due to low market demand and/or excessive contamination:

• Laundry bottles, dish washing liquid bottles, shampoo bottles, mouthwash bottles, etc.
• Glass food jars
• Cereal boxes, frozen food packaging, tissue boxes, cracker boxes, detergent boxes, soda case boxes, and other paperboard items (these items are processed differently than cardboard and regular paper)
• Milk and juice paper cartons
• Plastic food jars & food bottles (peanut butter, jelly, mustard, ketchup, etc.)
• Plastic berry clamshell containers
• Yogurt containers & margarine tubs
• Plastic and paper cups
• Paper fast food bags (fast food bags tend to be greasy)
• Aluminum pie plates and aluminum foil (due to food contamination)

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hahahahaha!

that's half the shit i put in my recycling bin!

take it away! :-)
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The rest of the country have been doing this for the last 10 years.
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Not true been all over this country many cities and towns still use trash bags or barrels, not bins.

We have coyotes in the cities plus dogs but the biggest pest that tears into the bags are Crows. Fuckers are smart they know the days the trash is put out in the neighborhood. They flock in those areas you will hear them calling wait for the right moment. Don't fuck with crows they remember you and will have a life long grudge against you.

If you're smart you keep a solution of water and Clorox in a spray bottle. Spray the bag and animals or crows will not disturb it.
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You have idiots that put the bags of trash out the night before so the dogs and coyotes rip them up and eat from during the night. I've seen it happen too many times. People can be stupid.
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Welcome to KC (fly over country).....


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