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Comment by eumenides1 | Hacker News Reader

In Markham Ontario. The city has made textile recycling a city program. http://www.markham.ca/wps/portal/Markham/Residents/Recycling...

5-7% of garbage is textiles, and could be diverted away from a landfill.

Markham has a lot of trash sorting rules (organic, recycle, textiles, trash, etc.), which we complained about when they were implemented. Honestly, i can't imagine not having them anymore. You'd be surprised how much of your waste (by weight) is organic and can be composted. Best part is, i throw it away like trash, but the city does the whole composter stuff most people can't be bothered to.

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Downtown Toronto is making a little more of a push for this these days as well.

My girlfriend and I have taken up being more strict with our sorting and we almost never through out a bag of actual trash anymore. We don't often dispose of textiles, as we reuse old shirts (ice skate rags, and other cleaning) or donate other clothing.

I didn't know about Markham's textile recycling program, though. That's great.

I'd like there to be three waste streams: fluid, compostable, everything else.

IIRC, a local study showed that fluids account for 50% of the weight of trash.

Then keep the compostable separate.

Finally, let the recycling sorters do there their thing, because do a better job and the curb side logistics are more simple.

Separate handling for specialty stuff like sharps, rechargeable batteries, prescriptions, hazardous waste, etc, of course.

What fluids end up in the trash? Leftover/spoiled vegetables and fruits for sure are water for a large part, but I can't think of anything I would throw out in fluid form.

Sorry, I can't refind the study, presentation I attended.

The local university's sustainability advocate group examined the campus' waste stream. IIRC, ~50 of the weight of the waste in trash cans was from liquids. From coffee cups, water bottles, soda cans.

Preventing this liquid from being bagged would reduce costs, weight, labor, etc.

My sole silly notion was a) put trash cans near sewers b) place a cup grinder / crusher on top of each can c) there's some kind of clever spout that diverts fluid into the sewer drain d) cup somehow falls thru to the can / bag.

Not very practical.

But maybe if it was made fun, like a big crank to manually turn, people would do it for kicks.

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