Recycling: Something that is constantly talked about, something that people always say that they do, but do people recycle correctly and as often as they should be? How well and how much we as a human race recycle today will help dictate how the planet and environment will look in the future. Alabama is ranked 42nd in the country at recycling. Contrary to popular belief, this isn’t solely due to the fact that people aren’t making efforts to recycle. People are simply not recycling correctly.

In Alabama, the grand majority of people lack knowledge on what they can and cannot recycle. For example: different cities have different requirements for recycling, like how Birmingham doesn’t accept plastic bags or glass as recyclables. This general lack of education about recycling encourages people to think that they can recycle anything and everything. While some say its great that people are putting forth efforts to recycle, there are great consequences when doing it incorrectly.

For Birmingham’s Recycling and Recovery Center, if they have a load of completely recyclable items but have one item that isn’t recyclable, they have to throw out the whole load, resulting in the recycling plant losing a lot of money. Also, the plant requires the recyclable item to be generally clean in order to be processed and recycled, so if food residue or some other substance is found on that item, it will be thrown out as well.

People recycling just to recycle is one thing, but people actually taking the time to be educated about the process and requirements so that they may recycle correctly, would make a world of difference and would drastically affect the future of the planet.

For more information on recycling in Birmingham, click here.