Recycling Myths Busted
- climate crisis
- Aug 25, 2020
- 2 min read
It's complex, is different in almost every area, and has consumers not knowing right from wrong. This system is recycling and there are a ton of myths involved. Today I will be busting five.
While recycling isn’t the end all be all of a sustainable and successful economy, I do support the fact that it helps reduce waste sent to landfill and reuses materials that are already produced. As we know, every single item has an impact so reducing the amount of raw virgin materials consumed is a really positive thing! However because of how complex recycling is it can be easy to get lost in the conversation and fall down the wrong path.
Because of that, here are five recycling myths busted!
1. “It has a recycle sign so I can recycle it.” The recycling sign, also known as the mobius loop just shows that the item is capable of being recycled. Whether it can be recycled or not is dependent on your local recyling centre!
2. “Separation doesn’t matter” Mixing materials puts them at risk for contamination which can mess with the recycling equipment and the goods themselves! Today “1/4 of what consumers place in their bin ultimately can’t be recycled by the programs that collect them.” - @natgeo
3. “Recycling has no real benefit to the planet” Because of the lack in knowledge in where our recycling actually goes a lot of people are quick to assume that it has no benefit... but the facts are clear! Recycling aluminum can saves 95% more energy than the energy used in creating new cans, recycling paper saves about 60%, and recycling glass/plastic saves 33%!
4. "Products made from recycled content are of lower quality" The standards of recycled materials have changed and must meet the same level of quality and performance as it's competitors. "Numerous studies have shown that paper with recycled content now meets high performance standards." - Washington Post Glass, plastic and metal containers with recycled content have also been verified for use with food products.
5. "All plastic containers can be recycled" There are a few issues with this assumption. The first being that there are seven common types of plastic:
All of which created differently therefore making the process to recycle them successfully completely different. Most recycling centres accept plastic types 1,2, and 5 as the rest are extremely hard to recycle.
The second is that any intense or dark coloured plastic is very difficult to somehow reuse. The darker the colour, the harder it is to change it.
With the right education recycling doesn't have to be so difficult!
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