I stumbled upon this scene this morning, which is the morning after recycling day. I posted a photo before of all the bags of recycled material, but this was the first time I've seen the next step. He picks up several bags at one time and drops them into this huge truck.
BTW, I've noticed that the recycling consists of probably 60% plastic. There's probably dozens of scientific papers written about this, but I wonder why there are fewer jars and cans?
2 comments:
fun fact: when you recycle glass, it is not actually recycled. it is not cost-effective; it costs more to melt it down and recycle than it does to actually create glass. so if you put glass in the recycling bin (at least in the US) it just goes and sits somewhere in a big hole.
While I can't confirm your comment, it is worth noting you are talking about glass which is completely melted and re-formed. The other type of glass recycling is for example coke bottles, which they wash, sterilize and re-use.
That said, I want to believe they are crushing the glass for reuse. We just throw all the bottles and jars into one huge bag, often breaking them in the process. However, I have seen a documentary on TV here at the recycling center where there are ladies whose job is to separate all the different bottles into bins as they come down a conveyor line. Maybe some bottles are just cleaned and sterilized...
I'll have to ask around.
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