Recycling is a waste of time.
It is worse than that. It is a scheme to get me to stockpile garbage.
It also is a waste of money, since many waste management companies now charge more $$ for recycling
since the profit motive has died off.
There are several communities that now forbid those convenient thin plastic bags generally found in grocery stores.
The issue is what does it cost/ton to haul away the trash.
I was formerly involved with my towns transfer station in southern NH. It was the former landfill location. The landfill has been full for over twenty years.
Lets say it costs X amount/ton to haul away mixed trash. I am going to give examples from memory.
Lets define X = $200/ton.
Mixed household trash costs $200/ton
Construction waste(drywall, shingles, etc.) costs $300/ton
Cardboard costs $125/ton
Mixed glass costs $150/ton
Newspaper/magazine paper costs $150/ton
Mixed paper costs $150/ton
Steel/Tin cans costs $100/ton
Aluminum YOU GET PAID $100/ton
So, it is fact that it costs you less to have some materials hauled away if you sort them out. Aluminum was a HUGE money maker a few years back. Cardboard is the biggest volume item in our trash. All of these items fluctuate in price like any other commodity. It depends if there is someone within close trucking distance willing to buy it.
When you multiply those prices above by 100’s of tons/year it will most likely save your municipality money.
I forgot:
Mixed Plastics cost $150/ton
My town does not have trash pick up. Recycling was also not mandatory. It was encouraged by a board we kept updated on the revenue brought in/costs savings separating our trash. We also would publish the quarterly results in the local paper.
At one point a compacted big truckload dumpster of aluminum cans was making $15K after hauling it to the local Anheuser Bush container recovery plant about 10 miles away.