I spent most of 2021 driving around the United States living in my car. I stopped in Jackson, WY for the summer and picked up several part-time jobs.
One of those jobs was on the sorting line of the municipal recycling center. On cardboard and plastic days I used a rake to fish contaminants out of the recycling stream. And on aluminum days I stood alongside the conveyer belt and removed contaminants by hand.
It wasn’t a glamorous job but it paid well enough. And it taught me something about recycling that I didn’t know.