Materials can only be recycled once.
Although it does hold some truth for plastic, other materials can be recycled over and over again.
Products made from recycled materials are inferior.
Technology has improved to allow for high quality products to be manufactured from recycled materials.
Recyclables end up in the trash.
This has created something of an urban legend and to say that a local garbage man is throwing away your sorted recyclables, there is little evidence.
Most of your recycling doesn’t get recycled.
Most facilities are able to sell 90% of what they receive.
Products that contain more than one type of material cannot be recycled.
At one point in time that was true, but with expanding technology, companies’ machines are now more advanced and accept more items.
Waste thrown in a landfill will decompose.
Little oxygen and moisture flow through the design of a landfill, two things crucial for decomposition. Landfills were built to bury trash not break it down.
You can recycle receipts and small pieces of paper.
Paper is fully recyclable but small pieces like Post-its are too small to collect and will never be fully recycled.
You can’t recycle aluminum foil.
Aluminum foil is one of the most easily recycled materials. However, similar to paper, small pieces will likely not make it through recycling.
You can recycle plastic bags and soft plastics.
The materials clog the machine and have no value in the recycling markets.