Waste management guy here. There is no recycling program, industrial or municipal, that can ever repair the damage done to the environment by consumerism. 99.999 percent of what you throw out stays thrown out.
Myk is building lifeboats @mykola
24 Nov 2019
Please quote this tweet with a thing that everyone in your field knows and nobody in your industry talks about because it would lead to general chaos.
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The cities do what they can. But sorting facilities are terribly inefficient, contamination is an issue, and finding buyers for the sorted material is becoming more difficult by the day. You’d get better results by legislating packaging reform and composting.
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How effective is composting? I've heard (from a friend not in the field, but who did a bit of research on the topic) that commercial composting is energy-intensive to the point that, at least from a carbon footprint perspective, we'd be better off putting it in a landfill.
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I’m not sure about that, but I’m consistently astonished by how little compost is left behind be an entire summer’s worth of vegetable waste and coffee grounds. Between that and recycling, our household of 4 only has to put the trash out like once a month or so.
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Replying to @adambroach @LightningSlim1
If I had someplace to throw food waste to compost, I'd do that. What I'm wondering is whether putting food waste & soiled paper in a municipal compost bin is actually a win, or if it's a loss because of the energy needed to break down the "plastic" forks/cups mixed in with it.

Nov 28, 2019 · 6:18 AM UTC

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Replying to @davidbaron @adambroach
It’s still a win. Getting contaminants out of organics isn’t actually that hard as they can be caught with mechanical processes like centrifuges. You as an individual are nowhere near as problematic as grocery stores, which usually landfill spoilage with the packaging intact.
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