Recycling aluminum & plastic bottles

[ZandraJoi]

www.familyhandyman.com/article/why-you-shouldnt-crush-aluminum-cans

"Not crushing aluminum cans before recycling them may seem wrong, but keeping them whole is actually better for the environment.
Crushing aluminum cans is more than just fun—it means the can will take up less space, right? Not so fast—it turns out crushing aluminum cans is actually worse for the environment because it can muck up the sorting process.
Keeping cans as intact as possible is best for recycling...."

My notes: Here in Michigan, USA pop cans have the 10¢ deposit so we already learned we couldn't crush them, otherwise the barcode can't be read.
Plastic bottles, on the other hand, are best recycled crushed—and with the caps on. Here’s why:

caps on bottles

Angela ash Bob Emerald emily lainee @lbj @marti PGen98 razor1911 scooter sharon spg T.T. twistedpingu

[lainee]

Used to crush cans so this is good to know; some of those cans were very rigid and hard to crush, so, I'm fine with this :-)

I do crush the plastic ones, though, and THEN put the caps back on.

[spg]

I do not use such bottles

[Bob]

I don’t crush cans because most of the ones I get are ten cents. You need to read the barcode to recycle.

[sharon]

When I used to live in Massachusetts with my parents we saved soda bottles and cans religiously. We even collected them from friends and family. When the basement would get full my Dad would fill up the van and we'd take them to the recycling center. I remember them paying him over $1000 one day for bringing in so many.