For more thorough answers, Ask Jeeves or Google. Or visit the EPA'S web site.

There is a whole range of costs and benefits of recycling depending on the material. For example, recycling aluminum cans is AWESOME. You don't need to dynamite or use cyanide to mine for the metal, and the recyclng process is so efficient, that you can put your pop can in a recycling cart, and that metal will be remanufactured and back on the store shelf in a six-pack in about sixty days. AND, you can recycle aluminum FOREVER. There are probably pop cans out that have been recycled 10,000 times!

On the other end of the scale, say, glass bottles, are not as awesome. It's heavy to ship, the process to remake it requires energy. How much more energy than making glass from sand? I dunno. Ask Jeeves.

I do know, however, are some good "landfill hogshit" numbers you loathe. The EPA thinks 90% the greenhouse gases that are generated by America's solid waste management system (recycling, composting, landfilling) is generated from landfilling. I'm not a math whiz, but to me,that means recycling wins!

You are right on all points. First, yes, if it’s dirty it’s not recyclable; unless it’s compostable, it’s garbage. So the dirty yogurt containers you mentioned should have gone in the trash.

As you noted, Starbucks hot cups – in fact, paper hot beverage cups from any shop – are lined with a thin layer of polyethylene. That means that when empty they should go in recycling. Some hot cups are labeled compostable, but that just means the liner is a corn-based bioplastic. They’re still mostly paper and so they, too, should go in recycling. That keeps it simple. All hot cups go in recycling.

We’re disappointed to hear that the event organizers you worked with apparently did a pretty poor job of planning and managing the recycling and composting of the food service products being used. Event recycling is much harder to manage than residential recycling. The residential recycling guidelines allow a wide range of materials and require cleaning of all materials because it is likely that there is convenient access to sinks and wipes to clean food residue from the recyclable containers.

Seattle Public Utilities is working with as many event organizers as possible to help with signage and bins for recycling and compostables so folks can properly discard food service products when they’re done with them.

We understand that the transition to new compostable and recyclable food service products is a big change for a lot of people, so it’s important this year for event sponsors to clearly mark bins and in most cases have volunteers out there monitoring them and helping people discard things properly.

With regard to compostable serviceware, the same challenges exist regarding communicating the guidelines and increasing the understanding of what is compostable and what is garbage. You are correct, the system is being inundated with non-compostable food and beverage packaging that is plastic coated. There is a website that lists all the “approved” compostable packaging, but there are also a number of packaging items that do not fully compost, therefore are not approved, but they appear to be compostable by their appearance.

It is very important that food service businesses select the appropriate packaging for their food and beverages.

Yes, Seattle does offer free commercial recycling assistance through Resource Venture.

However, it sound like your building management might be a first place to start. Once you find out what kind of arrangement they have for recycling, please suggest they call Resource Venture at (206) 343-8505 or www.resourceventure.org and they might be able to help them out to improve tenant recycling.

You can also recycle envelopes with "windows" on them as well.

You do get a financial discount by recycling and composting, it's just not obviously stated on your bill.

Municipal recycling is a unique arrangement in that it depends on citizens like you to sort your waste in order for it to work financially and environmentally for the you, the city, and for green industries that utilize recycled materials.

One of the key provisions of this arrangement is VOLUME. In the small scheme of things, recyclables aren't worth a lot. A family of four generates about 220 lbs of yard waste a year, which turns into about 80 lbs, or two bags, of compost, worth around $10 at the store. A ton of envelopes and magazines might be worth about $20 bucks on the recycling market. For you and I to try to make money on our waste would be nearly impossible. We don't have the capital to invest in a high-tech system to collect, sort, bale and ship our product as far as China, nor can we afford the time and staff to make it happen. But when you figure Seattle generates about 400,000 tons of recycling and compost a year, green industries can be developed to capture that waste and make useful every day products from them- instead of sending them to the landfill.

The fact that there are local markets that accept recycling and yard waste is a great financial benefit to Seattleites. If you didn't sort your yard waste or recycling, and put it all in the garbage, you'd be paying a lot more to ship that waste down to a landfill in Oregon- about 50% more for recycling, about 20% more for yard waste.

On top of that, you'd likely see more added to your grocery bill at the checkout stand for things that heavily rely on recycled content materials, like pop cans (recycled aluminum), wine bottles (recycled glass) newspaper, fruit (those trays they come in are made out of recycled paper), etc.

Boy, we could have an all night bull session debating the various implications of these questions.

Bottom line, here's how I sleep at night:

In Seattle, recycling is cost-effective. Seattleites have to spend a lot more to ship their garbage down to a landfill in Oregon than they have to spend getting their recyclables recycled and their organics composted.

Factor in the greenhouse gas emissions generated from a landfill and the fuel in transporting the waste, and it's no contest- recycling wins.

95% of all the stuff that gets sent to the recycling facility gets recycled, so that means Seattle folks are doing pretty good when it comes to their recycling knowledge.

Like Tom, I'm not a spic and span clean freak when it comes to recycling, but when it comes to greasy pizza boxes, let's put it this way: If you have to ask "how big does the grease stain need to be?"...it probably means it should go in the food and yard waste cart.

Tom's right, it's the type of plastic.

In Seattle, we ask that you ignore the little numbers on plastic items, as the number denotes the type of plastic resin it's made out of, not that it's actually recyclable.

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Yep. As of March 30, 2009 (more than a year ago!) glass bottles and jars started going in the same container as all the other recyclables.