Wishcyling happens, regardless of the best intentions, when we toss an item into the recycling bin, hoping it will magically be recycled, even without proper confirmation its accepted in that program. We may “wish” everything can be recycled, but that’s not the case. AND, we need to remember there are many different kinds of recycling programs.
Textiles like t-shirts, shoes and bed linens should be recycled in a textile recycling program; mattress should go to the mattress recycling program; food containers, paper and cardboard should go in the residential mixed (single stream) recycling program, and batteries should go to the battery recycling program.
Every time we put the wrong thing in our recycling bin, those items, called contamination, costs money to remove, could impact the final products commodity value and possibly fine our municipalities for high contamination rates!
What to do? Review What’s IN, What’s OUT to ensure you are #RecyclingRight