When you throw something in the recycling bin, where does it really end up?
The average person in the United States generates almost 5 pounds of trash each day, according to the Environmental Protection Agency. Even among the small portion of that waste that is technically eligible to be recycled, some materials and types of packaging are more likely to actually be reclaimed for reuse rather than end up in a landfill.
Despite how a product looks or what its label says, not every plastic container, glass jar, paper bag or cardboard box truly gets recycled.
Greyparrot, a waste analytics company based in the U.K., uses artificial intelligence to track the recycling rates of different objects. The company analyzes more than 100 billion pieces of trash per year at recycling facilities around the world. Its data shows that rates can vary widely, even between two similar products, and that not every material billed as eco-friendly truly is.
The quiz below compares objects used for similar purposes. Guess which item within each pair is more likely to be recycled, according to Greyparrot’s findings and other reports — then read why.
