Explained at the Washington Post:
Wishcycling is putting something in the recycling bin and hoping it will be recycled, even if there is little evidence to confirm this assumption...Pro-recycling messaging from governments, corporations and environmentalists promoted and reinforced recycling behavior. This was especially true for plastics that had resin identification codes inside a triangle of “chasing arrows,” indicating that the item was recyclable — even though that was usually far from the truth. Only resins #1 (polyethylene terephthalate, or PET) and #2 (high-density polyethylene, or HDPE) are relatively easy to recycle and have viable markets. The others are hard to recycle, so some jurisdictions don’t even collect them...Contaminating the waste stream with material that is not actually recyclable makes the sorting process more costly because it requires extra labor. Wishcycling also damages sorting systems and equipment and depresses an already fragile trading market.Huge waste management companies and small cities and towns have launched educational campaigns on this issue. Their mantra is “When in doubt, throw it out.” In other words, place only material that truly can be recycled in your bin. This message is hard for many environmentalists to hear, but it cuts costs for recyclers and local governments.
I am probably guilty of this because our county's solid waste organization is not really clear about which plastics they do accept. The last I read from them was something about as clear as saying "Plastic Bottles". At our recycling drop-off, I see a lot of things that aren't even close to being on the list - wood, old TVs, metal box springs. There is probably a word to describe that, too.
ReplyDeleteA lot depends on what the waste hauler does; they are influenced by the market for what they pick up.
ReplyDeleteThe original article, if you find the WaPo paywalled:
ReplyDeletehttps://theconversation.com/what-is-wishcycling-two-waste-experts-explain-173825 What is wishcycling? Two waste experts explain
We have a separate recycling stream we are billed as an itemized charge with the property tax bill. It's picked up by a different company from trash but like the trash goes straight to the trash to steam plant by law. Stupid waste.
ReplyDeleteMost of it is probably wishcylcing now that we can no longer export all our plastic to Asia to be dumped into that side of the ocean rather than ours.
ReplyDeleteI always called it "aspirational recycling". Just think about the labor cost at a $15 minimum wage to sort recycling from trash - it doesn't pencil out. When I worked for a small-town parks department we had to throw away everything from recycling bins that were contaminated by trash. Sometimes we'd have people doing community service for the department and we'd put that free labor on sorting trash from recycling so that the hauler would accept it.
ReplyDeleteAs long as the potentially distracted/uninformed/inebriated/very young/very old consumer has to separate their waste in the beginning of the process, fractions will need to be re-sorted. The only real solution to this issue is to collect everything together and sort them with machines for recycling. Coming up in hopefully a decade or so.
ReplyDelete