If a wrong plastic is in recycle bin, do they throw it all out?

Question

I was dumping out plastic bottles into a local recycling bin and a sign outside this specific bin clearly states in big bold letters "#1 and #2 plastic only, no other kind of plastic, no caps & no neckrings."

When I look inside, I see a lot of plastic that isn't #1 and #2. I saw some fast-food cup containers that are #5 and #6. Well, first of all, who picks up this recycling, the city? And then my actual question was, do the people who collect it skim through it to take out anything that doesn't belong there or do they just throw out the whole pile? Because I heard that if it's the wrong type of plastic, it ruins the machines at the recycling plant. Is that true?

Also, most of the plastic bottles I saw had neckrings. And I heard from friends with curbside recycling services that usually they'll tell you if something's wrong, like if you need to take neckrings off, and they're fine. So is that okay to leave them on as long as caps are off?

I know, loads of questions.

Answer 1

It would depend on the people and facility.  I don't know what is common in your community.  

In my mother's community, volunteers resort all the donations, and discard the caps and neck rings.  If it is a community effort, then probably the lot will not be discarded.  However, if it is a business, they will have a policy to follow.  If it costs them more in labor to resort than they make from the sale of the materials, they will not resort them.  

If you can reach the materials and have the time, you could do a quick voluntary resort, just in case.  

I don't know about the neck rings.  I don't have a sign like that at my center, but I've heard that a small amount of the wrong plastic in a melt can ruin the entire lot.  I should look this up for myself!

edit - Results of a quick search on preparing plastic for recycling didn't say anything about the neck rings, but did say lids are usually not recyclable.  It only makes sense that if we can take the rings off, we should.

Answer 2

When I called our recycling center and asked if  I could bring my kids down as a sort of field trip, I was told that it was not a safe place for kids because they have a conveyor  belt that the items are placed on. Then there are a lot of workers with safety goggles and protective clothing and shoes that stand at the conveyor belt and pick through the items that should not have been sent with recycling.

Someone once told me, that if we put things that aren't recyclable in with the ones that are, they would toss the entire contents in the trash. I found out from our center that is not true.

In our county, the recycle centers hire trucking companies and pay them by the ton for the items they bring into the center. Some of the money made from the citizens recycling helps to offset our garbage pick up cost.

Hope this helps.