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No more wishcycling!

(This zine was written with info about the city of Portland’s recycling information as of September 2024. It may be out of date or non-applicable in your area.)

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What is wishcycling?

"Wishcycling" is when it seems like something should be recyclable, so you throw it into the bin in the hope that it will be. In an era where “reduce reuse recycle!” Is drilled into our heads without nuance, and the responsibility to be environmentally conscious is pushed into the average consumer, “wishcycling” comes out of the genuine attempt to make a bigger difference. In the end, it has the opposite effect.

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Recycling centers don’t have time to go through your garbage.

I know what you’re saying: “isn’t that their whole job?” And yeah! It should be! But they don’t have nearly the funds or the people to provide the optimal attention to sorting.

“From used takeout containers to paper coffee cups, items that may seem recyclable can contaminate whole loads of valuable materials, making them impossible to process and sell. It only takes one non-recyclable item to contaminate an entire load of recyclables and force recyclers to send them to landfill.” (1)

“Your act of wishcycling complicates the sorting process for recycling centers—called material recovery facilities, or MRFs—as recyclable contamination and the “rogue”' materials lead to higher sorting costs and delayed timelines. Items like plastic bags, metal chains, old jeans, and greasy pizza boxes easily clog up sorting machines, eliminating the value that existed for the recyclables in the first place.” (1)

A single piece of un-recyclable waste gives the person picking up your trash the responsibility to decide: will they throw away the whole bin, or will they risk contaminating their entire truck? If it makes it to the sorting center, that person now has the responsibility to decide: will they throw away the whole bin, or will they risk contaminating their entire load? At each point, more and more good recyclable material is at the risk of being tossed out to avoid contamination. This whole process is avoided when we avoid putting non-recyclables in there in the first place.

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What about the little recycling symbol? It’s doing it’s job in making you feel just a little bit better about the one-time-use product you’re consuming. But without a number in the middle, it isn’t telling you anything. When it comes to telling you what’s actually recyclable in your area, now there’s a different story.

The city of Portland will literally tell you to “ignore the recycle symbol and number” when it comes to plastic. (2) Instead, what plastics they’re able to accept depends on the shape of the container, with jugs, bottles, and round food containers being the only things they accept.

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Don’t forget to give them a bath!

Unlike drink cans and glass bottles, which can easy be shredded up and then rinsed of any liquid residue, some plastic packages have food on them that is sticky! Give it a little bath first.

This is especially important to remember when you’re out of the house, and you don’t have access to washing off these items. At a food card pod, concert venue, or any location that tries to separate its recycling from trash, even materials that would be recyclable at home become possible contaminates. Just because their signs simply say “plastic” doesn’t mean they aren’t held to the same local standards as your own bins! Depending on the business, they may or may not have time to check their bags for any wishcycleables before transferring them to their own dumpsters.

(This is coming from personal experience, as I have worked in public venues where often the best I could do with my limited time was rescue any drink cans and paper before the rest just had to get tossed.)

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I can already hear you saying:

“But I want to feel like a morally good environmentally conscious person!”

That’s great! Let’s prevent entire batches of perfectly recyclable goods from being thrown out by letting yourself sacrifice a few wishcycleables.

“But shouldn’t these centers have the resources to sort, clean, and maybe even process more types of plastic?”

That sure would be awesome wouldn’t it! Let’s go out there and pressure our government to putting more funds into recycling centers and other environmentally conscious enterprises. It would even create more jobs!

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Please take this as a sign to absolve yourself of the anxiety and shame over things like recycling, created to push the climate crisis blame onto the individual. If you are going to take anything away it be this: follow these as well as you can, but remember, your energy is better spent elsewhere. It is always easy to say “just do this one simple trick that anybody can do, it’ll fix everything if we all do it together!” But there will always be individuals and - more importantly - corporations who value their own profits over giving a shit. The real way we can all come together is through organizing, protesting, volunteering, and making ourselves heard!

Spread the word:

Spread the word
Remember that “reduce reuse recycle” is in order of importance (3)
Find your local activist groups and sign up for volunteer opportunities
Attend and speak up at rallies and meetings
Pay attention to stances on climate change when choosing who to support
Sign up for a BottleDrop Green Bag account to keep track of your deposits, or receive Blue Bags to support non-profits

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Resources:

Sources:

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