Municipal recycling is certainly convenient but often quite limited: typically plastic bottles (maybe containers too) coded #1 or #2 along with only certain kinds of paper, cardboard, aluminum, steel and glass. Different policies among different municipalities, carried by word-of-mouth, can add confusion. From there, mistakes by residents or the practice of "wishcycling" (where dedicated individuals attempt to recycle items they are not sure about, but "wish" were acceptable) can potentially ruin a good batch of recyclables and doom the efforts of many to a landfill. Top it off with little, if any, transparency or feedback on the progress and efficacy of the public's combined efforts over time. Who knows what the end result of this combined effort really is? With that lack of knowledge or assurance comes the potential for a further lack of motivation and compliance.
There are many ways to recycle a multitude of items that would never be accepted in curbside recycling but many of these programs can be expensive and/or inconvenient. They may not be known to many people and some disappear after a short time. Thankfully, there are programs out there for hard to recycle items that are low or no-cost and fairly convenient, such as retail stores that accept plastic film & shopping bags for recycling. Still, these batches can be polluted in-store and there is no transparency or feedback for citizens to know for certain the end result of their concerns and efforts. Furthermore, the programs are scattered among different entities: how many people can take the time and effort to keep up with the multitude of different recycling programs?
These obstacles represent some of the frustration I have experienced since 2018 when I started making a real effort to recycle as many items as I can beyond curbside pickup. Any sense of accomplishment or progress has made up only a small part of this whole experience; the majority being disappointment or just hoping my time, effort and money was not being wasted.
Therefore, it is the mission of this service to be an advocate for continued progress of advanced recycling options and build a durable, centralized hub for the public to learn about and easily access the multitude of advanced recycling programs available.