Why Recycling Right
is Important.
Stemming from good intentions, Wish-Cycling is the act of throwing a material into the recycling bin and hoping that it will be recycled without knowing for sure if it is locally accepted for recycling.
If we don't recycle materials properly, there can be many consequences for the recycling process including: damaging equipment, injuring workers, slowing the process down, increasing the cost of sorting, and decreasing the value of recyclables.
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Putting the wrong household items in the recycling bin creates many issues for your local recycling system.
There are many household items that do not belong in the recycling bin which the recycling industry calls “contamination”. Putting items in the recycling bin without knowing if your local recycling service accepts them or not is known as “wish-cycling”. Wish-cycling creates several problems for the collection, sorting, processing, and marketability of recyclable items, including:
> DAMAGING RECYCLING EQUIPMENT AND INJURING WORKERS
There are many items that are not accepted for recycling because they can damage recycling equipment and cause serious safety issues for industry workers, including injury or even death. For example, lithium-ion batteries can start fires in collection trucks and at recycling sorting facilities, and medical sharps such as used syringes and needles can injure recycling employees who use their hands to sort recyclables.
> SLOWING THE RECYCLING PROCESS AND DECREASING EFFICIENCY
Removing items that are not accepted for recycling is difficult and slows down recycling sorting facilities. For example, items like plastic bags, ropes, cords, chains, and garden hoses are called “tanglers” because they get wrapped around sortation equipment and cause recycling sorting facilities to shut down so that they can be removed. While the facilities are shut down, the recycling process comes to a halt.
> INCREASING THE COST OF COLLECTING AND SORTING MATERIALS
Separating non-accepted items out of the recycling stream costs time and money. Since those items cannot be sold to manufacturers to be recycled into new products, your local recycling service must pay to have them transported and disposed of at a landfill or waste combustion facility. Non-accepted items can also damage expensive recycling equipment. Regularly repairing that equipment adds to increased recycling costs.
> DECREASING THE VALUE AND MARKETABILITY OF RECYCLABLES
Loads of recyclable material with large amounts of contamination are worth less than loads with little or no contamination. If contamination levels are too high, the manufacturer who bought the recyclable material may reject the entire load. Your local recycling service must then pay to have it transported and disposed of at a landfill or waste combustion facility. As a result, the once valuable and recyclable material cannot complete the cycle and be made into new products.
From decreasing reliance on mining for raw materials to taking steps closer to a circular economy, here are five reasons recycling is important.
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Recycling right helps your local recycling system to thrive, which creates many positive impacts for your community.
When we all recycle right, we help our local recycling systems with their ability to successfully collect, sort, market, and manufacture recyclable materials into new products. And when our local recycling systems are successful, they can generate many benefits for our communities, natural environments, and local economies such as:
> PROTECTING PEOPLE AND COMMUNITIES
Historically, landfills and waste combustion facilities have been disproportionately sited next to racially and economically marginalized communities, an example of environmental injustice. Sustainably managing materials helps to shift away from our reliance on these disposal facilities.
> CONSERVING NATURAL ENVIRONMENTS AND RESOURCES
Recycling right helps to ensure that used materials are successfully given a new life by being manufactured into new goods and products. When manufacturers use recyclables as the materials for their products, they are able to rely less on raw natural resources. This not only conserves natural resources for future generations to use, but it also limits the need for natural resource extraction which disturbs and damages ecosystems.
> INCREASING ENERGY EFFICIENCY AND SAVINGS
In addition to being environmentally destructive, extracting and refining natural resources takes a lot of energy and produces large amounts of greenhouse gases. Recycling, by comparison, uses much less energy to process used materials into new products. By replacing raw natural resources with recyclable materials for manufacturing, our society can become more energy efficient and reduce greenhouse gas emissions that are linked with energy use.
> REDUCING POLLUTION AND GREENHOUSE GAS EMISSIONS
When our local recycling systems work well, fewer items like single-use plastics are littered into surrounding environments, which increases the beauty of where we live and pride we have for our communities. Well-functioning recycling systems also help to limit the use of landfills and waste combustion facilities, and reduce their potential to generate air and water pollutants and greenhouse gas emissions.
> CREATING JOBS AND A CIRCULAR ECONOMY
Recycling right helps to ensure that recyclable items are manufactured into new goods. This contributes to the growth of a circular economy where valuable materials are kept in the cycle of productive use instead of being wasted at a landfill or waste combustion facility. Thriving recycling systems and circular economies can create job opportunities for many professions including haulers, engineers, sorters, manufacturers, product designers, business owners, educators, and others.