Had a chat with my neighbor that changed how I think about recycling

Last Tuesday I was taking out my bins and my neighbor Linda stopped me. She said she'd been hauling her soft plastics to the grocery store drop-off for 2 years but found out they just incinerate them anyway. Made me realize I need to actually call my local recycling plant in Portland to ask what they accept instead of just guessing. Anyone else ever get blindsided like that about what actually gets recycled?

2 comments

2 Comments

the_wyatt1mo ago

I once proudly brought a whole bag of those plastic bottle caps to the recycling center only to find out they just trash them anyway. Felt like I'd been playing recycling on hard mode for no reason.

julia_jones721mo ago

The whole recycling industry is basically a scam that makes us feel good while they ship most of it to landfills. Those bottle caps are made from a different type of plastic than the bottles, so they ruin the recycling process. Same thing with those paper coffee cups that have a plastic lining, they get trashed too. Remember when everyone was putting those green bin liner bags in their compost and the city just pulled them out and threw them away? You're not playing on hard mode, you're playing a game where the rules keep changing and nobody tells you.