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Environmental Science

Why Single-Stream Recycling Leads to Higher Contamination Rates

Quick fact

Municipalities that switch to single-stream recycling see contamination rates climb from about 5-10% to over 25% in some cases, because people assume anything with a recycling symbol is recyclable, a phenomenon called 'wish-cycling.'

Why this is interesting

You toss a pizza box in the recycling bin, feeling eco-friendly—but that single box could doom an entire batch of recyclables. Why does making recycling easier actually make it worse?