Recycling "Fraud"

[Joe]

At our environmental group's meeting last week, the subject of recycling "fraud" came up. I am using this expression because I do not know another term for it, nor have I seen it discussed elsewhere. The specific context was the recycling of glass in the Nashville area. One of our members contended that you, the citizen, might take your glass to a government or private recycling drop-off point, but that the glass is not taken to a glass processing facility from there but rather just goes to the landfill. So, you may think you are "recycling" the glass, but in fact it is not being recycled. Apparently, there is no glass processing facility anywhere near Nashville (nor does Tennessee nor any locality in Tennessee have a "bottle deposit" law). So it is naive to believe that the glass is really recycled rather than landfilled. (The nearest glass processing facility is believed to be in Atlanta, Georgia, the headquarters of the Coca-Cola Company--a driving distance of about 250 miles.)

Yet Metro-Nashville and many of the smaller cities in or near Nashville collect glass, allegedly for recycling.

Any thoughts on this? It seems crazy that local governments would collect glass allegedly for recycling and then just secretly just dump it in the landfill. But if that is the "cheap" way to handle the disposal, then maybe that is what is done.

 

[KLS52]

I heard something similar with regard to the grocery store plastic bags. I always save mine and return them to the bin in the store. But I heard they end up being thrown out with the garbage and not recycled.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

[Amy SF]

I don't know about glass recycling, but I have heard the same thing about the plastic bags, so I don't return them to the store. I just use them for waste disposal. (Mainly bathroom trash.) They'll still go to the landfill, but at least I'll get a second use out of them.

 

[Joe]

I heard something similar with regard to the grocery store plastic bags. I always save mine and return them to the bin in the store. But I heard they end up being thrown out with the garbage and not recycled.

Our recycling drop-off was staffed by a long-time volunteer, who basically said the same thing about the plastic bags.
Ironically, the plastic bags at one of the largest grocery store chains here (Kroger) come printed with language saying that if you bring plastic bags to Kroger, some other corporation will guarantee that the bags get recycled. I am skeptical. How would you know whether the bags were in fact recycled? And even if you knew they were not and could prove this, what would you get from the "guarantee"? A nickle per bag?

 

[Joe]

I don't know about glass recycling, ...

Just to be clear, I was talking about glass recycling in Nashville. The same thing may or may not be happening in your area. It would probably depend on things like whether there was a glass processing facility in your area.

 

[Calliegirl]

Maybe it's a way to make sure they don't end up being tossed on the street.