When I was in the Army, I had a habit of saying and doing things that got the wrong kind of attention from my chain of command. One of the extra duty types I was saddled with and began to actually enjoy was working at the base recycling center. What I learned there was that there are a lot of items people assume are recyclable, but in reality are a nightmare for facilities to process.
The one that caught me off guard was the plastic grocery bag. It's thin, light weight, and one would assume it would be relatively easy to process. What people fail to realize is the elasticity of those bags and the kind of damage that can be done to the machinery that processes them. The machines would get clogged for hours and extra duty turned into sitting in the lounge playing video games, waiting for the technician. A lot of people would have taken this as an opportunity to slack off but I like to know the why of things. I asked the technician why a machine designed to process plastics would jam up like that. His response was a bit of an eye opener.
He described the specialized equipment used to break down bags and that type of material and informed me that generalized processors like the one we used, were not designed for this sort of material. If you ever wonder why there is a separate place for recycling your grocery bags, you now have a better idea as to why they have their own individual sorting box. Had I not gotten sideways with a Lieutenant Colonel, I never would have known. Still, I don't recommend it.
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