I used to think some time ago that all kinds of things could be just simply thrown in the recycling bin, and presto it is dealt with.
If a jar of jam had a little bit of stuff in it, it didn’t matter so I thought because they are going to melt the glass down with temperatures that will burn and render into slag the impurities. Same I thought for metals.
still, I wondered how diligently I should clean out a plastic container. I thought that there also must be some process to liquify the material, and that again a slag of impurities would come off of it , and yes, reveal the new old. Paper products I also had some doubt about. When i go out for a coffee, i am correct the cup goes in the garbage, but I will put the plastic top in recyclables.
As to food establishments, i always wonder how badly customers foul the stream and if the staff just trash everything without much consideration.
Swanson skillet meals I think are the next invention of the wheel, but what do I do with the package after? It has plastic on the outside, but a metal foil on the inside. Should I do my part for the Earth and put it in the recycle? Or is doing so obfuscating the recylability of the other items nearby in the bin?
Plastic has been found in the deepest reaches of the ocean, and many of us are living this fantasy that their local recycling program is their heaven sent way of fighting back against environmental disaster.
And thus this thread.