This is kinda how I feel about recycling. Once I learned how things are (or more accurately aren’t) recycled, I basically don’t bother anymore.

Every time I take out the trash at my apartment I see garbage bags and other non-recyclable plastics in the recycle bins. This is despite the very clear labelling on the recycle bins about what is and isn’t accepted.

I did a little research and found that my city will send just about all the recycling in the bins to the landfill unless everything is perfectly clean and not in a bag. So unless I bother to get all the adhesives, paper, and non-recyclable plastics off of the recyclable plastics, it all gets tossed in the landfill.

Most folks don’t bother to clean out cans or bottles, so any paper in the bins gets contaminated and, you guessed it, tossed in the landfill.

There’s just no point to it. I really only recycle glass and aluminum these days, and cardboard at work because we have a dedicated cardboard bin there.

Yeah in BC you actually have to pay yourself to recycle mattresses.

Who’s going to do that? Everyone is just going to dump them on their lawns instead and hope someone takes it away.