Recycling is a wonderful tool for limiting the amount of waste our society produces, but flaws have arisen. With today's varied and complex manufacturing processes what is and isn't recyclable has become considerably more complicated than just simple paper, plastics, and glass. This link shows the many ins and outs of proper recycling.

Since manufacturing processes are so complex some items thought to be recyclable are not. For instance, coffee cups, recyclable right? Wrong. Many coffee cups are coated in a wax that when put in with other recycling can contaminate the stream. A contaminated recycling stream causes need for additional man power to separate out the recyclable material from non recyclable material, which may, or may not, depending on the quantity of the contaminant, mean that all the once good recycling that was in that bin is no longer recyclable. Either way, the result is a huge waste of time and money so you can see why improper recycling is such a big deal.

It is for these reasons you should carefully educate yourself of proper recycling. Again, go here for proper recycling practices, and take note of any items you may have considered recyclable but aren't. If everyone took a quick lesson in proper recycling the amount of waste sent to landfill would be lowered significantly!