
Irony patrol: Recycling bins - Garbage
http://blogs.msdn.com/b/oldnewthing/archive/2012/10/16/10359829.aspx
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Spooky23
I think the issue is that large plastic objects aren't sortable or compatible
with the process used in the recycling centers.

Keep in mind that people do all sorts of crazy/stupid things with garbage.
Things like hiding hazardous materials in the recycling. Hazardous includes
biohazards (needles, medical supplies, toxic materials (mercury, reactive
chemicals) and outright dangerous materials (explosives, old bullets, propane
tanks).

Because of this, they need to design the system to accomodate the intended
waste flow -- the safety measures intended to contain the explosion of a half-
empty camp stove canister is very different that what is needed to contain a
20 lb propane tank.

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Eduardo3rd
The fact that it took 3 months to find a place to put 40,000 recycling bins is
kind of ridiculous. You'd think they would be made out of a recyclable
thermoplastic that could just be shredded and used in another process, but the
article makes it sound like they were reused instead of recycled. I wonder
what the cost savings (both in dollars and carbon units) is compared to just
shredding the things?

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greyboy
Apparently, they aren't recyclable.

When my city went from plastic bins to large, rolling cans last year, we asked
what to do with the old bins. They said either keep them for personal use or
throw in the trash as they can't recycle them. (I saved a few that weren't
heavily damaged from abuse over the years.)

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Tangaroa
I worked at a company where the employees were careful to separate recyclable
waste from regular garbage, and then the weekly cleaning crew would toss both
into the same garbage bags. So much for good intentions.

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indiecore
I'd hazard a guess that this was because regular garbage gets incinerated so
if someone doesn't shred something sensitive it gets thrown in with the
"yucky" garbage and then goes and gets burned instead of being in a bag of
nice clean paper.

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isleyaardvark
Banks have "shreddable" bins for sensitive documents, the shredded bits get
recycled.

