Plastic mailers with text "Remove paper label before recycling"

[darkoshi]

Note to self: If the label doesn't come off cleanly, without leaving sticky residue behind, cut it off.
Do this for any plastic bag which has paper labels stuck to it, not only ones that include that text advisory.

See:
https://wgpc.org/wp-content/uploads/page/154/store-drop-recycling.pdf
"You can help by peeling off any paper labels before taking your bag to the Store Drop-Off location. If the labels don’t peel off easily, you can cut them off with scissors"

https://theorganicadventurer.com/2018/07/09/what-to-do-with-those-weird-plasticky-amazon-mailers/
"If that label stays on, it turns the mailer into a “mixed material” that’s even harder to recycle. It could gum up the machinery or have to be removed by hand at the recycling plant, which takes time and probably a human. All that costs the recycler money and makes them not want to recycle those mailers anymore."

Comments

[lhexan]

I'm of two minds about this advice. On the one hand, recycling is good and should be encouraged. On the other hand, technology has progressed to the point where recycling is profitable. Should I be providing even more free labor (beyond that of sorting and delivering recyclables) to these for-profit companies?

[darkoshi]

From all I've heard, I'm not sure a lot of it is very profitable. Didn't China stop taking a lot of recyclables from the U.S, because it wasn't sorted properly, or because it had non-recyclable trash mixed in? So I want to do what I can for my own part.

With plastic bags (and bubblewrap, etc.), those can only be recycled here at certain stores that take them. Most of the time when I look in those recycling bins, other people have put trash in them (gah!), so I suspect the whole contents will get dumped into the trash rather than sent for recycling. So I end keeping the stuff I want to recycle, until I finally find a bin whose contents look good.

[lhexan]

You're better apprised of the state of recycling than I am, so I'll trust your judgment on this matter.