Wish-cycling’s True Costs

Wish-cycling is the act of putting something you think/hope is recyclable into a recycling bin. Experts recommend that if you don’t know whether it’s actually recyclable you should assume it’s not because mistaken optimism contaminates the batch and often renders whole loads of recycling unsalvageable.

According to Waste Management, their contamination rate for curbside recycling is about 25%. 1 in 4 items do not belong in that recycling bin, or as their website says, “That means that 500 pounds of every 2,000 pounds that we collect at the curb is ultimately discarded as non-recyclable.” Contamination increases costs, reduces efficiencies and sends even more materials to the landfill.

I feel like putting furniture on the curb is a parallel situation. This couch is decidedly reusable and repairable, refinishable, and reupholsteryable. I believe the owners wish for it to go away, ideally to a happy home. Is this mistaken optimism in couch form, or is it?

I’d love to know how many of the street couches I see on a weekly basis are really going to be reused in another home. What are the real environmental and economic impacts of this well entrenched custom of wish-dumping? What is the true cost of our collective optimism?