Busting Common Recycling Myths

Millions of Texans participate in recycling each year by rolling recycling carts to the curb, taking materials to local drop-off stations, and bringing plastic bags to local retailers. As determined in the State of Texas' Recycling Market Development Plan, a total of 19.8 million tons of materials were recycled statewide in 2019. This includes 12.9 million tons of municipal solid waste materials recycled from sources such as homes, businesses, and schools. What actually happens to this material? And why do we recycle in the first place? Read on to learn more and bust the top five recycling myths.

Myth #1

There is no point in recycling, everything goes to the landfill.

It's natural to be a skeptic. After all, once you bring your recyclables to the curb or drop-off center, you don't get to follow their journey to be sorted, cleaned, processed, and made into new products or packaging. Texas is home to hundreds of facilities that play a role in the recycling supply chain — sorting, cleaning, and converting materials into feedstocks that can be used to manufacture items such as plastic bottles, paper, and aluminum cans. Texas is also home to a healthy composting industry, which turns organic waste such as yard trimmings and food scraps into compost and mulch. In total, the Texas recycling industry diverts 19.8 million tons of material from landfills and employs over 14,000 Texans each year — something that could not be done if the material just went to a landfill.

Myth #2

Recycling is too expensive and is a drain on the economy.

Nothing is free, including managing our waste. Whether sending materials to landfills or recycling them, waste management requires resources and expenses such as equipment, fuel, and labor. While landfilling is less expensive in Texas than in many states, landfilled materials represent a significant loss of valuable resources. An estimated $2 billion worth of recyclable materials go unrecycled each year and are deposited permanently in the state's landfills. In total, the state's recycling industry recovered an estimated $2.2 billion worth of materials for end uses such as manufacturing and composting, contributed over $4.8 billion to the Texas economy, and generated more than $166.1 million in public revenue (such as taxes) in 2019. Texas' recycling industry contributes to the state's economic prosperity and is an important part of the Texas economy.

Myth #3

If I'm not sure whether something is recyclable, or if I think it should be, I can put it in the recycling bin. It is better to guess than to throw it in the trash.

If you're not sure where an item belongs, it can be tempting to put it in the recycling bin and hope it can somehow be recycled. Unfortunately, this action is known in the recycling community as "wish-cycling," and it can have a negative effect on the recycling system.

Wish-cycling can result in wasted time and money at recycling facilities, and can cause more waste to go to the landfill by contaminating loads of otherwise recyclable material. When you wish-cycle an item, you're just giving it a longer and more expensive trip to the landfill, as extra fuel and energy is used to sort it at the recycling facility and then transport it to the landfill.

How can you avoid being a wish-cycler? Familiarize yourself with the list of items accepted in your local recycling program by checking city or county websites, or by contacting your local recycler to learn more.

Myth #4

If my plastic container has the "chasing arrows" symbol, then it's recyclable.

You've probably seen the "chasing arrows" symbol on plastic containers such as water bottles and yogurt cups. While it is tempting to assume anything with this symbol is recyclable, that assumption may be leading you to be a wish-cycler. One way to avoid putting your plastics in the wrong bin is to learn to decode plastic recycling logos. While the logo doesn't automatically indicate that your plastic item is recyclable, it does allow you to identify the type of plastic (e.g., PET, HDPE) and then check your local recycling program to confirm whether the material should be placed in the recycling bin.

Myth #5

Recycling uses more energy or resources than it saves, so it is better to just throw everything away.

The question of whether recycling saves resources, and by how much, has been studied in detail by researchers and engineers across the country through an approach called Life-Cycle Assessment. The U.S. EPA has created a tool for local governments to estimate the amount of energy and greenhouse gas emissions (CO2) that result from managing waste and recycling. Nationwide, EPA estimates that recycling and composting reduced CO2 emissions by 193 million metric tons of CO2-equivalents in 2018. That's the equivalent of avoiding the CO2 emissions of 48 coal-fired power plants or taking 49 million cars off the road.

How is this possible if recycling requires resources such as collection trucks and specialized facilities to sort, clean, and process recyclables to be used in manufacturing? While it is true that resources like fuel are used in the steps of the process we can see, like the recycling truck driving down the street, there are substantial savings that occur later when the recycled material replaces non-recycled materials in the manufacturing process. These savings come from avoiding energy-intensive activities like mining bauxite and refining aluminum ingot to produce aluminum cans, in fact, using recycled aluminum results in energy savings of 92%. You can calculate your energy savings from recycling common household items using the U.S. EPA's Individual Waste Reduction Tool (iWaRM). For example, recycling ten aluminum cans saves enough energy to power a laptop for 52 hours.