I've wondered for a while if this shouldn't be more of a thing. Even if we don't have the tech to do it well now just sorting the stuff out for the future makes sense to me
It's all a cost-question. Most of these materials cost more to recover, than to buy new. But that will surely change in the future, and it's good that we increase focus on it already from the start.
That's why I hate capitalism so much as I grow older. Can't afford being stewards of the environment. Drives me crazy
And maybe try to get recyling rates that have two digits.
Not quite the same thing, but our metro landfill is used as a source for methane for the city. The city has been doing this for twenty years. Most of the city buses as well as heavy municipal trucks (like garbage trucks or snow plows) were converted to run on methane. The methane recovered from the landfill powers all of these city vehicles and even has excess production that is piped into the municipal natural gas pipelines so that retail, commercial and industrial consumers can use it too.
Being "zero waste" means that we adopt steps towards reducing personal waste and minimizing our environmental impact.
Our community places a major focus on the 5 R's: refuse, reduce, reuse, recycle, and rot. We practice this by reducing consumption, choosing reusable goods, recycling, composting, and helping each other improve.
We also recognize excess CO₂, other GHG emissions, and general resource usage as waste.