Why Wishcycling Does More Harm Than Good
In theory, recycling is simple: if something has the “chasing arrows” symbol on it, it’s recyclable, right? Not necessarily. While the symbol is generally regarded as the international recycling symbol, it doesn’t necessarily indicate if an item is accepted in commingled recycling. But because recycling makes us feel good, we tend to recycle items we hope are recyclable, even when in reality they’re not.
Recycling something in the hopes that it will get recycled–without knowing whether it’s actually recyclable or not–is known as wishful recycling, or wishcycling. While the intentions are good, wishcycling can result in more harm than good by contaminating recyclable material and causing it to get sent to landfill instead, negating any benefits and wasting time and resources in the process.
If you’re like me, you wishcycle because you want to help, and you think that by recycling more, you’re helping more. However, if you actually want your recycling to make a difference, you need to stop wishcycling and only recycle items accepted by your municipality. Luckily, some items that aren’t accepted curbside may still be recyclable, as long as you take them to the right place.
Photo by Julio Lopez
Why do we wishcycle?
To understand wishcycling, we have to take a quick look at the modern recycling system.
Recycling as we know it today came out of the 1970’s, around the same time as the modern environmental movement and establishment of the EPA (Environmental Protection Agency). While the environmental movement encouraged recycling, the first public recycling programs were set up due to diminishing landfill space.
Today, recycling is easy to do from home, with curbside recycling programs available to over half of all Americans. Yet, according to the EPA, only about 32% of MSW (municipal solid waste) is recycled or composted, while 50% (roughly 146 million tons) is landfilled each year. With so much waste being buried, several states may soon be running out of landfill space, meaning that waste will have to be trucked farther and farther to be buried.
It didn’t always used to be this way. Before municipal waste programs and mass production of goods, people recycled more and in a different way. People mended torn clothes, fixed broken items, and tossed food scraps in the backyard compost pile. In other words, they were closer to being zero waste than most people today.
Of course, the world has changed a lot over the last century. In particular, plastic has become the material of choice for many manufacturers due to being cheap and lightweight. However, plastic never fully breaks down in the environment, instead it breaks into ever smaller and smaller pieces. The smallest pieces, called microplastics, have been found in every corner of the world including the human body.
Plastic is a byproduct of the oil industry, and has always been touted as a recyclable product by its producers. Through shrewd use of the recycling symbol, oil companies and plastic producers convinced the public that plastic was not only recyclable, but valuable. But in reality, plastic recycling isn’t an economically viable business. That’s not to say that plastic isn’t technically recyclable, rather that it’s more cost-effective to make plastic from virgin materials (oil) rather than recycling used products (which would cut into the profits of oil companies).
And their greenwashing efforts have been met with success–for them, not the environment. As consumers, we see the recycling symbol stamped onto the plastic, and we think that means it will be recycled. So we toss plastic items into the blue recycling bin, feeling good about our efforts. But unfortunately, we may unknowingly be causing more harm than good.
Note: the only type of plastic that’s recyclable just about anywhere is #1 PET plastic, the plastic used to make plastic bottles and jugs. PET plastic can even be recycled into clothing, though it’s not a closed-loop system.
Types of wishcycling
Due to the confusing nature of plastic’s recyclability (made even more confusing by the fact that some municipalities recycle certain plastics but others don’t), it’s by far the most common type of wishcycled material. But there are a few others that are often mistakenly placed in recycling bins:
Hard-to-recycle items such as electronics or batteries
Items contaminated by food or oil (related: Do You Need To Rinse Out Your Recyclables?)
Plastic bags
Compostable plastics (related: Are Compostable Plastics Actually Compostable?)
Paper/coffee/plastic cups
Random items such as yoga mats, plastic toys, etc.
Additionally, just because something is recyclable in one municipality doesn’t mean it’s universally recyclable. Some municipalities accept a range of plastics, while others may only accept #1 PET plastic. Some accept milk/juice cartons, others do not. Ultimately, you have to check with your local waste company to see what’s accepted in order to avoid wishcycling (I know, it’s not ideal).
Why wishcycling is harmful
There’s no doubt that recycling is beneficial for the planet. But in order for recycling to be successful, the right materials have to be recycled, and they have to be appropriately sorted, cleaned, and processed.
Before public recycling programs, people could only recycle a few materials: paper, cardboard, and glass. They would collect these items at home until they piled up and then they would take them to a dropoff center. With today’s curbside recycling programs, recycling is easier than ever to do. That’s both a blessing and a curse.
On the one hand, materials like aluminum, tin, glass, paper, and cardboard are generally recyclable as long as they are mostly free of food and oil residue. On the other hand, plastic and mixed-materials are not always recyclable. Recycling something that isn’t actually accepted in your blue bin is a form of wishcycling.
Unfortunately, correcting wishcycling isn’t as simple as merely sorting out the items that aren’t recyclable. Wishcycling can result in some serious issues:
Clogs up expensive and hard-to-fix machinery
Recycling plants rely heavily on machinery to sort, clean, shred, and otherwise process recyclable materials. This machinery can get clogged up or damaged by non-recyclable materials. Plastic bags in particular are notorious for getting wrapped around cogs and grinders, which can cause blockages and even stop the machinery from running. Unfortunately, clearing the machinery of these blockages is no easy feat. In fact, it can be extremely dangerous!
Can be harmful to workers
Many recycling programs rely heavily on their workers to manage the machinery and do preliminary sorting. By wishcycling, you are inadvertently putting those workers at risk. For example, plastic bags can clog machinery, requiring workers to painstakingly cut them out by hand. This can be dangerous, as the machinery is heavy and can cause serious injuries.
Workers can also become exposed to dangerous or hazardous materials through wishcycling. For example, flammable aerosol cans, moldy food residue, and broken glass are all common in recycling and pose a risk to workers.
Requires more work to be sorted
Even though recycling more feels like a good thing, it can be counterproductive. Recycling items that a facility can’t process requires more labor, time, and resources. For example, those items might be sorted out, by hand! Or in the case of too much contamination, an entire truckload may get rerouted to the landfill, resulting in wasted time and resources.
Degrades materials
Wishcycling causes contamination that may lower the overall quality of a batch of recyclables. As a result, those materials may get downcycled instead, which decreases their value and limits their end usage.
Causes contamination
In the eyes of the recyclers, wishcycling is a form of contamination. While some amount of contamination is to be expected in every load of recycling, too much contamination can result in entire truckloads of recyclables being rerouted to the landfill.
Common items that are not accepted in commingle
So how do you avoid wishcycling? When in doubt, throw it out.
Additionally, rinse out food containers before putting them in your blue bin to avoid food contamination. Similarly, don’t recycle items that can’t be easily cleaned. This includes greasy pizza boxes (a little grease is okay), aluminum foil with food residue, oily plastic containers, or soiled cardboard.
Here are other kinds of items that you should generally avoid recycling, unless otherwise specified by your municipality:
Electronics
Batteries
Light bulbs
Plastic bags
Coffee cups
Plastic cups
Frozen food boxes
Ice cream cartons
Milk cartons (accepted in some areas)
Plastic clamshells (accepted in some areas)
Aerosol cans
What to do with hard-to-recycle items
You can only put certain items in your commingle bin, but that doesn’t mean everything else necessarily has to go to the landfill. In fact, there are many alternative recycling programs that accept specific materials.
Electronics: take to your local office supply store or check with your local municipality if they accept drop-offs
Plastic bags: collect dry and clean plastic bags and drop them off at your local grocery store
Batteries: some stores will accept batteries of all types
Light bulbs: LED light bulbs are recyclable and are accepted at many hardware stores; some light bulbs can be tossed in the garbage but CFL and Fluorescent light bulbs are considered hazardous waste (some stores may dispose of these for you)
Corks: did you know you can recycle corks by sending them into a cork recycler such as ReCORK?
There are numerous other items that may be recyclable even if they’re not accepted in your blue bin. Use Earth911’s search feature to help you find what items you can recycle, and where!
What’s an item you wishcycled? How and when did you find out it wasn’t accepted in the recycling bin?
