I keep seeing people throw glass jars in the recycling bin with the lids still on

At my neighborhood's drop-off center last Saturday, I watched three different people toss in pasta sauce jars with metal lids screwed on tight. I run a small recycling station in my community, and I see this ALL the time. Here's why it matters: those metal lids get stuck in the sorting machines because they're a different material than the glass, and workers have to pull them out by hand. If a lid stays on through the process, it can contaminate a whole batch of glass that gets sent to the landfill instead of being melted down. I know this because I spent 6 months volunteering at a local recycling facility in Portland and saw it happen every shift. Has anyone else tried explaining this to friends or family and just gotten blank stares?

2 comments

2 Comments

robinson.jake8d ago

Oh man, I actually read something about this recently in a waste management newsletter. It said that single lids can jam the sorters and cause thousands of dollars in downtime at the facility. Not some big secret, just something most people don't run into unless they work there. I get why it sounds like overkill, but those machines are really sensitive. A buddy of mine who works at a recycling plant in Ohio told me they have to shut down the line at least once a week to pull out stuck lids.

campbell.david8d ago

Honestly, I feel like you're overthinking this a little. "Those metal lids get stuck in the sorting machines" - I mean, sure, maybe in some big fancy facility, but tons of places just dump everything together anyway. Ngl, I've thrown jars with lids on for years and never seen a problem. Plus, if it's that big of a deal, wouldn't the recycling company just tell people instead of making it a secret? Tbh, it sounds like one of those rules that's technically true but not actually hurting anything in real life. I just rinse my jars and toss them, lids on, and it's been fine.