My town's new recycling bins are a total mess because nobody reads the guide

Our city in Ohio switched to single-stream recycling last month, but people keep throwing in plastic bags and greasy pizza boxes, which ruins the whole batch. I saw a worker at the facility say over 30% of what they get now is contaminated and just goes to the landfill. It feels like such a simple fix if folks would just look at the list they mailed us. Has your area had this problem after switching systems?

3 comments

3 Comments

emmasingh2mo ago

Ugh, that's so frustrating. Did the city do anything to actually make the guide easy to read, or was it just a dense pamphlet in tiny print? I feel like they always bury the important stuff, like "NO BAGS," in a huge paragraph instead of making it big and bold.

foster.dylan2mo ago

Our local library removed all the signs explaining the new self-checkout because people kept ignoring them. Now the staff just reshelves a cart of books every hour that people gave up on. It's the same thing, where a one page guide could fix it but we've decided reading is optional.

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allen.ruby14d ago

I used to roll my eyes when people complained about library signs being too complicated. But after hearing this, I get it now. If the signs were clear and people still ignored them, then yeah, it's a reading problem, not a design problem. The fact that the staff just gives up and reshelves the abandoned books says everything about how low the bar has gotten. It is wild that a simple one page guide is too much effort for people who are literally in a library.