So...What’s in Your Refrigerator?

I wouldn’t call myself a rabid recycler, but I do examine all my throw-away plastic, looking for the arrow-sided triangle that says Recycle Me.

Newspapers, glass jars, and empty aluminum cans don’t need the triangle. They go into recycling and are put out with the trash. Plastic containers displaying the triangle also go into the recycling box. Others, like containers of yogurt, parmesan cheese, and hummus, have no obvious recycling information and end up in the garbage.

Fruit and vegetable peelings go on the compost pile and quickly turn into beautiful black soil. I don’t have much of a garden, but maybe someday...who knows? For now just watching the transformation from garbage to good clean dirt makes me happy.

Recycling makes me happy, too, but with a big question mark. What does recycling actually recycle? What really happens to the stuff in my recycling box?

I have no idea. I try to put only recyclable plastic into the box, but sometimes it’s hard to tell where to draw the line. We’ve never been scolded by our garbage guys for careless sorting, so I guess what we’re doing is okay.

Or maybe all plastic, with or without the triangle, goes straight into landfill.

This blog isn’t metaphysical. It’s meant to consider only three categories of things: the plastic containers in my refrigerator that can be recycled; those that cannot; and the biodegradable garbage bags I bought on facebook. Here goes:

Of the eighteen plastic containers in my refrigerator right now, eight have the recycle glyph. Six do not. The four ziplock bags don’t have the triangle either, but--get this--the cardboard box they came in has two: one for the box and one for the bags.

The cardboard box can be recycled, no problem. The ziplock bags have to be dropped off for recycling at the store where they were purchased.

If you’d asked me yesterday, I’d have laughed at the thought of taking used ziplock bags back to the store. Then someone told me about the recycling room at my Big Y supermarket. It definitely accepts ziplock bags, so long as they are clean and dry.

So ten (or perhaps fourteen) of my eighteen containers fail the triangle test and will not be recycled. That’s a lot of plastic headed for the landfill, and it’s only one snapshot of the plastic in my fridge.

In need of a pat on the back, I opened the kitchen bin to admire my green biodegradable garbage bag. I might not be great at recycling, but environmentally friendly garbage bags I can do.

Then I looked at what was in the garbage bag : Nothing recyclable (except for two Nespresso coffee pods), no organic waste that should be on the compost pile, but very little biodegradable trash. Years from now, someone examining the landfill might not find my green garbage bag, but for sure they’d find some of my garbage.

Depressing, isn’t it?

Hang on. It gets worse.

An article in the September 8, 2021 New York Times turns the whole recycling game on its head: Recycling triangles are not regulated! Company xyz can put the full Recycle Me triangle on any old product they have lying around the shed. It doesn’t have to be recyclable at all.

For the NYT article, click here. It’s eye opening!

https://www.nytimes.com/2021/09/08/climate/recycling-california.html

Why is it important? Given the choice of a product with the Recycle Me triangle and one without, I always buy the product that has it. I imagine many people do the same. So there’s a clear economic advantage to having the Recycle Me triangle front and center on the packaging. Obviously, for some products and the companies that sell them, the recycling glyph is a con.

That’s what it looks like to me, anyway.

What does it look like to you?

Love,

Judith

I’d love to hear from you about recycling, recycling cons, or anything else on your mind. There’s plenty of room in the Comments section below, or, if you prefer, send me an email at storiesbyjudith@gmail.com.