Wishful recycler

Part of your daily routine is probably sorting your recyclables in your household or workplace to be more environmentally friendly. However, in your neighborhood some materials may or may not be accepted even though they have a recycle symbol printed on them. This can be due to various reasons such as policies, market demand of the material, recycling facilities locations, and capabilities of sorting a specific material, among others.

Single stream recycling programs can be functional and successful but the tendency to recycle everything with a recycling logo can create contamination issues. This behavior is called wishful recycling.   

A commonly "wishcycled" and hard-to-recycle item is Styrofoam, which often has a recycling symbol with the number 6 on it. Most recycling facilities cannot process this material and if included it will be considered contamination. Technically any item not included in your service provider’s  accepted items is considered a contaminate. Depending on the amount of contaminates the whole load of recyclables may not be able to be sorted properly and all items may end up in the landfill rather than being recycled.

To avoid being a wishful recycler we encourage you to contact your service provider or visit their website to become familiar with the recycling program in your neighborhood. This way you can be a true recycler and remember…  

 When in doubt, throw it out!

(Which means when in doubt, put it in the landfill container).