Great Question - Response to Reader Question
Hi! And thanks for being the recycler for our residential trash service. I was looking at your blog and found it useful. I wonder if you could address a topic in the blog, and/or send me a personal reply. It is said that about 10% of what we put in our home recycle bin gets recycled. The rest goes overseas, into landfills, etc. Can you comment on this? I realize some of the reason for this is that people contaminate their recycling, rendering the whole load unusable, but what other reasons are there that cause such a small percentage of our recycling to not get recycled? Thanks in advance. Thanks for reading, asking, and for your concern in general. When the 10% number is thrown around it sure is concerning. This number, from what I've read when we researched a bit more in-depth, is based upon 10% of ALL materials produced in the US being recycled. That is still terrible, but not reflective of only 10% of the material placed in your recycling bin. Unfortun