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Comment by dirtdobber | Hacker News Reader

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

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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

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