Why would recyclers rather throw away a plastic bottle with the cap left on instead of just taking off the cap? One can't be that much harder than the other, can it?
by 
Anon
ANSWERS: 1
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Considering that millions of bottles come down the line and it takes a fraction of a second longer to "twist" off a cap it may very well be more economical in the long run. Most likely the concern has nothing to do with the cap or the bottle but the potential of what may be inside of it. Remember we do live in the era of terrorism where people mailed powdered anthrax to other people - that is always there on the mind. Further recall that not too long ago airplanes stopped allowing things like individual bottles of shampoo on planes out of concerns over them being used for other purposes carrying other chemicals. Telling people "we refuse to open closed up containers because we fear terrorist chemicals" may send the wrong message - thus instead we just tell people to take the caps off to prevent harm to our crushing machines so the good citizen will do as told with no worries.
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