Quit Being Lazy! Remove Your Labels... Quick Recycling Tip:

[JerrySpock]

I'm curious to know how the recycling industry deals with foreign material. It's unavoidable that a product (glass/paper/plastic) will be contaminated with a certain percentage of unwanted material. Does anyone have a good place where I can learn more?

[strive4impact]

@JerrySpock That is a good question Jerry. I like TheStoryOfStuff (just google it), but that doesn't address your question specifically, so I'll be interested to see if someone else replies here.

[JerrySpock]

@strive4impact That's a cool site, thanks for sharing. Searching the last year for '"remove labels" recycling' it looks like a lot of recycling centers don't require that you remove labels. Some even say not to rinse out the cans. I think everyone needs to get in touch with their local recycling program and see what exactly they require. It looks like every recycling plant has it's own specific sorting and cleaning technologies.

[strive4impact]

@JerrySpock That's interesting because it seems like some standardization would really help the end consumer trying to figure out recycling in their home. But yes, I have heard that many don't require you to remove your labels, so you're probably right that anyone who wants to recycle (should be everyone) should contact their local recycling center.

[mirador1014]

Used to take the paper labels off the cans until we got a newsletter from our waste removal company that included a note saying it is NOT necessary to remove paper labels. So what gives?

[strive4impact]

@mirador1014 Never got that letter and didn't hear that before. Interesting. Do you still have a copy of the letter?

[bpereztab]

Great tip - we recycle but I never thought about removing the labels - will do it from now on.

Thanks!

[strive4impact]

@bpereztab Glad the video was helpful!

[mahabang]

Fuck that! So you want me to do somebody's job for them?

[strive4impact]

Wow. Really? You really have that small a view of the world? And was the profanity really necessary?

I wish you the best in your endeavors anyway.