OK, so it was just a quick 3-second snip. If you blinked, you might even have missed it the first time (I know I did).

NBC 10 Boston recently aired a pair of recycling stories on their newscasts.

One featured a recycling facility in Charlestown, which happens to be  one of the largest in America. The piece was interesting in that it showed how the process works inside the plant and how “contamination” impacts it. If you wondered why recycling, originally touted as a money saver for cities and towns, is getting more expensive, the video is an eye opener.

China’s decision to stop buying the world’s recycled trash six years ago is one big reason, but contamination is the other. The piece notes a 15%-20% daily contamination rate as the norm at the Charlestown facility, with the Mill City’s most recent rate reported at 17%, well within that average.

Last year, that number stood at 24% and as high as 38% rate as recently as 2019, when a Lowell Sun Editorial cited the city’s recycling costs skyrocketing from $82,000 in 2018 to $400,000, plus an additional $292,000 contaminant charge.

The other NBC 10 feature offered up a primer on the do’s and don’ts of recycling. That’s the one that includes the quick video of a resident placing newspapers in her City of Lowell issued recycling cart. (It’s at the 2-minute mark)

I highly recommend watching the entire video, along with the first one, for more than just a quick glimpse of the green cart with the blue lid. It provides a better understanding of the process and how to properly recycle, which will help save the city a few bucks.

And given there will be a renewed focus on enforcement, it might save you a some money as well.