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Comment by progne | Hacker News Reader

See for example the Seattle "tips to recycle right"

  * Empty, Clean, and Dry
  * When in Doubt, Find Out
  * Keep Bags Out

The page goes into detail on each. This isn't unusual in my experience.

https://www.seattle.gov/utilities/your-services/collection-a...

Here's an online tool to help people identify the various kinds of recyclables and direct them correctly. It isn't easy and I doubt few Seattle residents know all of these.

https://www.seattle.gov/utilities/your-services/collection-a...

If everyone started sorting and cleaning according to these rules the fraction of usable recyclables would increase a lot.

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How does this align with NPRs fairly recent report that recycling probably isn't even worth it?

https://www.npr.org/2021/04/21/987111675/video-is-recycling-...

How many hours have we (as a species) wasted sorting and meticulously managing our waste when the vast majority of it never gets recycled anyway? I'm asking the question as someone who cares deeply about the environment. I just think recycling is a fake solution invented by the plastic industry to alleviate the consumer guilt that comes with purchasing single-use plastics. If you don't like a bunch of waste in your landfills, buy fewer single-use products. The vast majority of what goes into the bin never gets recycled anyway.

After moving to Switzerland I remember receiving a pamphlet with something like 15 different types of recycling I was supposed to do. There were special trash detectives that could fine people and imprison those who couldn’t pay. I lived above a recycling depot and watched locals diligently separate their trash by type of metal, color of glass, and like 10 other factors. Then once or twice a week I watched the pickup guy come by with a truck and dump the bins into one big, mixed pile in the back of his tractor-trailer.

The trash detectives are iirc looking for people who throw out trash without using the taxed bags, not for people who aren't sorting recycling correctly. I've heard of people being fined for not using the proper bags but never for just tossing things in the regular trash.

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