Be careful what you put in the bin… once it’s gone, it’s gone!
We constantly get calls asking us to find the shoe box with old pictures or jewelry that accidentally got set on the top of the bin. We understand how difficult it is to lose something so valuable… BUT, once something leaves your home in the recycling truck, it’s nearly impossible to find it again.
To help explain, let’s get visual. Take a look at this recycling truck. It is filled to the brim with recyclables:
When this truck gets to the recycling facility, these materials get added to a huge pile, then pulled through and moved with a pay loader into our sorting equipment:
From there, our team members are trained to spot as many “non-recyclables” as possible and pull them out as quickly as possible- this line moves FAST! They’re looking for things like wire, wood, scrap metal, hoses… anything that can damage equipment or contaminate materials:
Then, our equipment sorts out material categories into huge piles. These piles get baled with the help of large machinery, and get loaded onto trucks to be transported to specialized processors all over the region/country who clean and recycle the materials into new products:
Throughout this process, it’s very difficult to pull out all of the non-recyclables, let alone a specific item someone lost.
If you do misplace an item in the recycling bin, try to catch it before it leaves your house. If you don’t, chances are it’s gone for good. Please think before you toss it in! Especially if it’s not yours (i.e. cleaning out your grandmother’s closet)… Thank you for recycling right!
Have a Recycling Question? Contact Us!