Seattle has the best intentions. We want to reduce, reuse and recycle. Our eagerness to recycle has actually created a recycling issue. Why Seattle is full of “Aspirational Recyclers”, and why it is doing more harm than good:
The problem is, we are so eager to help the planet by recycling, that we recycle items that are NOT recyclable. Industry-wide, about 20% of the items in recycling are garbage. According to the Seattle Public Utilities website, these are the things you can recycle:
We can keep other stuff out of the trash. SPU also has this handy graphic for how to properly dispose of other items:
The biggest offenders causing problems at recycling plants are:
- Single plastic bags (only bags combined together can be recycled)
- Greasy pizza boxes (all food containers must be clean and dry)
- Wet paper (this causes mold and ruins the whole batch)
- Garden hoses (weird, I know. But it came up in 3 different sources so it must be an issue!)