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Comment by dirtdobber | Hacker News Reader

I have two indoor bins: one for plastics/recycling and one for garbage. I line both with trash bags.

Unfortunately, the city gets very upset about the recyclable materials being in plastic bags (something about it messing up their machines). I like it better this way because I don't have an indoor bin full of loose, used plastics and paper which feels unorganized and dirty.

I feel like these small, yet annoying, inconveniences hurt participation (in addition to the countless stories of plastics and garbage just being thrown into the same hole in the ground, or into an ocean patch off the coast of some other country).

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You may as well just throw everything in the trash then. You should be cleaning your recyclables. If the bin is "dirty" then you are doing it wrong.

I'm expected to clean my recyclables? Exhibit A of ridiculously annoying tasks that could (should) be delegated to a recycling facility.

Well yes, that's a lot easier than trying to do it at the recycling facility. Do you expect the garbage man to do your dishes? The easiest time to rinse off the container is immediately after it is opened. By the time the container gets to a recycler the residue will be caked on. You use plastic bags to protect yourself but you aren't thinking of anyone else.

> Do you expect the garbage man to do your dishes?

Why would the garbage man do my dishes?

Look, I throw away my trash because it's super convenient and the city provides a wonderfully helpful service of hauling my garbage off for me. But if the city comes to me and says "Hey, we want you to come out here and help us dig the landfill, because it's actually easier if you do it" -- then I'd probably just light my garbage on fire or toss it in a river.

Then like I said, treat everything like trash. Recycling requires some effort on your part.

Thanks for the heads up, but I'll probably just keep throwing my dirty plastic into plastic bags and letting the recycling facility figure it out.

Why? Just out of spite?

Yes.

Here's a video from my state Department of Ecology explaining why you shouldn't do this, and why you are actually making it worse for everyone. Cursory web searches on the topic say the same thing. Bagged recyclables can't be sorted so they just get diverted to landfill.

You could actually make the world a better place by throwing your bagged recyclables in the trash because then you aren't actively harming the recycling process.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BhLGcSVZJnM

My local grocery store sells paper bags that are the exact right size to line the city provided recycling bin.

That's awesome, I will look into that to see if my local grocery does the same! Now that I think about it, there's probably paper-based bin linings that you can buy from Amazon

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