Trash to Cash: AI Can Help Recycling Affordability
What happens to your plastic recycling after you toss it in “the bin”?
This question seems to be in the news a lot lately. In truth, the answer is complicated. It depends on where you live and what that plastic is.
Collecting recycling costs local governments a lot of money. They need to maintain facilities to handle the plastics as well as the trucks and bins to collect them. Governments also need to hire people to do the work. It can be a lot cheaper to just put everything in a landfill.
However, when local governments recycle, they can turn trash into cash if they have the correct infrastructure. They can offset some of the costs by selling the collected plastic back to manufacturers. Most manufacturers want recycled plastic that is almost as good as brand-new plastic, but that requires careful sorting by the recyclers to provide a consistent product.
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