I'll never forget the moment my neighbour, Mike, stopped me on my driveway. "I hate to tell you this," he said, pointing at my recycling bin, "but that detergent jug right there? It just contaminated everything else you carefully sorted this week."
In That Moment, My Blood Ran Cold...
Every Tuesday morning for the past 8 years, I'd been SABOTAGING my own environmental efforts.
That "empty" detergent jug I tossed in my blue bin? It still had residue inside.
And that residue was contaminating every newspaper and every cardboard box I'd spent time sorting.
My neighbour Mike explained that when contaminated items reach the recycling facility, entire batches can get rejected and sent straight to landfills.
"Your whole bin this week?" He gestured sadly. "Landfill."
But it gets worse.
Even if you rinse that jug until your hands are raw and wrinkled, it STILL probably won't get recycled.
Those bright detergent containers? The ones with the little recycling symbol that makes you feel good about yourself? They're usually too difficult and expensive for recycling facilities to process.