Sharing this from @_finalstraw_ If you're not 100% sure it’s recycle, THROW IT OUT!
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I had no idea about the extent of implications around wrongly putting trash in recycle. Please see post below!
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&quot;🤚 HOLD UP. Wait a minute. Let us explain. If you are not 110 percent sure whether or not your waste belongs in the recycling bin, then you should probably just throw it out. 💁 When we (you know, us humans) are uncertain about whether an item can be recycled or not, we usually just recycle it because it ~feels~ like the right thing to do, this is call &quot;aspirational recycling.&quot; 🤦‍♀️ But doing this can turn entire hauls of otherwise recyclable materials into trash.⁣ ⁣
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📈 The rate of recycling contamination has more than doubled in the last decade. 💩 In 2018, about 25 percent of items that Americans tried to recycle were considered “contaminated” and the more contaminated recyclables that enter recycling plants, the more likely a recycling operator will send the entire haul, including items that could be recycled, to a landfill.⁣
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♻️ Consumers used to do more sorting at home, but in the 1990s and 2000s, municipalities started shifting toward “single stream” recycling where you could put everything in one bin and machines and workers would sort. 🗑️ But while single-stream recycling is much more convenient, there’s evidence that when people put all their recycling into one bin, they’re more likely to throw trash in there too.⁣
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👨‍🏫 That's why many recycling education programs say, &quot;when in doubt, throw it out,&quot; in order to decrease contamination rates. But as a citizen of your community, you should also educate yourself on your local waste management practices and stop trying to recycle dirty diapers. 😅⁣ And as a citizen of Mama Earth, reduce your waste in general!!! 🌎⁣
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#recycling #plasticrecycling#consciousliving #ecoconscious #reduce&quot;
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#whenindoubtthrowitout #recyclage #4ocean #sustainability #singleuseplastic #climatechange #greenworld #makeadifference #tomorrowistoday #calltoaction #letsgetittogether #naivenomore