Throwing bottles in the garbage instead of the recycling can isn't great for the environment. But over-recycling can be a far more insidious problem. When we indiscriminately toss garbage into recycling bins — a practice known as aspirational recycling or "wishcycling" — the admixture may well end up redirected to the landfill or gumming up machines at processing facilities.
"Aspirational recycling, like any type of recycling contamination, is a big problem," Jordan P. Howell, a professor of sustainable business at Rowan University and author of "Garbage in the Garden State" (Rutgers University Press, 2023), told Live Science in an email. "Any type of contamination lowers the overall quality of stuff leaving the recycling facility. If the quality gets too low, then a buyer might reject a shipment of material."
