Can you imagine a baker being happy if her supplier told her that only 30% of the flour ordered was mixed with rocks and dirt? Flour is feedstock, an asset, used to make a product, if it doesn’t contain debris. Recycling is similar, when handled like an asset, it’s feedstock to make new products.

Mixing unlike recyclables, especially with little transparency, equals handling recyclables like garbage. Imagine being a recycling worker and having a dead cat or dirty diapers come down your sort line? Do your elected officials, who promote mixed recycling, have any in-the-trench recycling experience?

Younger voters raised on “convenient” recycling think nothing about the lack of transparency. What evidence do you have that the mixed recycling you set at the curb, or leave at a mixed bin drop off center, is not being burned or buried? Remember the glass fiasco?

Having been part of one of the early, honest recycling programs of the 1980s, it’s beyond disturbing to see how much the programs have deteriorated. Please ask your favorite political candidates if they recycle. If they say yes, how and where do they recycle? Also ask if they will support a recycling transparency ordinance.