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Carolina Curious: Why Are Recycling Instructions So Complicated?

WFDD listener and Winston-Salem-based recycler Stephanie Bennett. BETHANY CHAFIN/WFDD

Winston-Salem resident Stephanie Bennett is a WFDD listener and wants to know more about something that most of us do every day. She's serious about recycling but doesn't understand why it can be so complicated. And when she goes to the city's website to demystify the process, the instructions are involved.

"Automatically you're confused about what can be recycled and what can't,” she says.

For this edition of Carolina Curious, WFDD's Bethany Chafin and Stephanie Bennett head to a local recycling facility to sort it out.

Inside the MRF

In hard hats and steel-toed boots, we watch as a giant conveyor belt moves truckloads of recycling that's been collected around Winston-Salem into a material recovery facility, or MRF.

This is where it's all sorted, and Stephanie and I are already mesmerized. Richie Huckabe

Bethany is WFDD's editorial director. She joined the staff in the fall of 2012. She received her B.A. and M.A. in English Literature from Wake Forest University. Between undergraduate studies and graduate school, Bethany served as the intern to Talk of the Nation at NPR in D.C., participating in live NPR Election Night Coverage, Presidential debate broadcasts, regular Talk of the Nation shows, and helping to plan the inaugural broadcast of ‘Talk of the World.' She enjoys engaging with her interests in books, politics, and art in the interdisciplinary world of public radio. Before becoming editorial director, Bethany was assistant news Director, a reporter and associate producer for WFDD's Triad Arts and Triad Arts Weekend. Originally from Jacksonville, Florida, Bethany enjoys calling the Piedmont home.

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