38.69% - Reducing waste at the source beats sorting contaminated mixed streams after the fact — recycling manages the symptom, source reduction treats the disease.
23.81% - Modern engineered landfills have geomembrane liners, leachate collection, and methane capture — they're not the open dumps from 1965, and the narrative needs to catch up.
20.00% - We built curbside recycling because it made people feel good — when China stopped buying contaminated recyclables in 2018, most went straight to landfill. The virtue signal was real; the environmental impact was not.
17.50% - Most cities lose money on recycling programs — materials are contaminated, trucks burn diesel, sorting costs millions; the economics have never worked.
Many municipal recycling programs accept material mixes that guarantee contamination.
39.80% - Reducing waste at the source beats sorting contaminated mixed streams after the fact — recycling manages the symptom, source reduction treats the disease.
15.52% - A modern engineered landfill is managed, monitored, and far better than the poorly run facilities from 50 years ago that gave landfills their bad reputation.
15.52% - Modern engineered landfills have geomembrane liners, leachate collection, and methane capture — they're not the open dumps from 1965, and the narrative needs to catch up.
14.58% - We built curbside recycling because it made people feel good — when China stopped buying contaminated recyclables in 2018, most went straight to landfill. The virtue signal was real; the environmental impact was not.
14.58% - Most cities lose money on recycling programs — materials are contaminated, trucks burn diesel, sorting costs millions; the economics have never worked.
50.00% - Many municipal recycling programs accept material mixes that guarantee contamination.
50.00% - Recycling programs that accept unsortable material mixes are theater that ends in landfill.
0.00% - Many municipal recycling programs accept too broad of a mix of materials.
50.00% - Materials recovery facility
