Is it true that you should not recycle plastic bottles with lids on them or they will end up in landfill sites

Question

I recently read an article that stated that if bottles still have the lids on the they will be thrown into landfill sites.What is the difference if the lid is on or off thought they were both recyclable.

Answer 1

It depends on your city and who purchases the plastics from them. If the lid is the same material then it is fine, but if it is not the same number (1-7) then they need to be separated. Then again, some are just picky because they crush them and dont want them exploding.

Landfills also produce methane gas that will run production plants nearby. The ultimate would be a recycling facility run by the methane produced by a nearby landfill.

Answer 2

It really depends on your City's recycling program. In mine, they sort the recycleables and pre-process them before sending them to the plants. The citizens are taught to do some of their own sorting prior to placing the items in the respective bins. If the platic lids are not recycleable (and most are not), they will wind up in the landfill BUT there is hope for landfills becasue they are being turned into energy producing enterprises. Landfills produce heat and that heat can be used to supplement the energy the landfill uses on the grid. There are landfills doing this very thing all over CA. One in particular is near Brentwood, CA.