My county recycling drop off has everyone dump all the stuff .....?

Question

together. cardboard is dumped with cans, plastic,etc. How do I know that my county (Cecil County) is actually recycling what I give to them, how do I know they are not just putting it into the landfill nearby?

Answer 1

idk - mine does that too

Answer 2

At first, people had to separate their recycling. Plastics went in one bin, glass in another, paper in a third. So when the city or county came to pick up the material, they had to process it separately. This method is called multiple stream recycling.

But a new method was developed recently. It is called single stream recycling. People combine their recyclables into one container for pickup. New machinery was developed that sorts through our recyclables for us. Through a combination of conveyor belts, human workers, gravity, centripetal force, magnets, screens, vibration and sensors, the combined recyclable material is sorted and separated to be sold to manufacturers who re-use these materials.

Most city and county recycling centers have or will convert to single stream recycling.

Click on the source links I posted below to watch a video explaining single stream recycling.