Technologies

You Might Be Recycling Your Plastics the Wrong Way. What to Know

Earth Day is today. Make sure you’re recycling your plastics the right way.

April 22 is Earth Day, and if you’re looking for ways to start helping the environment, recycling your plastics is a great start. Note that simply tossing any or all of your plastics into the recycling bin isn’t what you should do. Instead, you need to know which plastics are recyclable and which should be tossed in the trash. Once you’ve learned these important details, you’ll be helping to reduce waste.

Plastic that isn’t recycled is either put in landfills, incinerated or finds its way into the oceans. Incinerating plastics produces carbon dioxide, which is responsible for the total energy imbalance causing the Earth’s temperature to rise, according to NOAA Climate.gov. If placed in a landfill, plastic can take anywhere from five to 600 years to decompose, depending on what type it is. The average time it takes a plastic bottle to decompose is 450 years.

Here’s what the experts have to say about recycling plastics. For more information, here’s which takeout containers are recyclable.

How to recycle plastic

Recycling plastic is more difficult than you think. You need to rinse out any food and liquids (other than water) from the containers before you can put them in the bin. If the plastic isn’t clean, a recycling center employee told CNET, it could contaminate an entire load of plastics, causing the recycling center to send the entire batch to a landfill.

When recycling plastic bottles, check to see if they say «crush to conserve» on the label. If so, remove the lid and crush the bottle by twisting from the top and pressing it down. After it’s crushed, place the lid back on the bottle so it can also be recycled.

Know which plastics are recyclable

All plastics are not equal. Many people toss all their plastics in the recycling bin without knowing if it’s recyclable or not. If it’s not an accepted plastic at the recycling center, the employees will toss it in the trash.

So how do you know which plastics are accepted? Contact your local recycling company to see if they accept them. Many recycling companies have additional information on their website for items that can and cannot be recycled. If your local disposal company provides your recycling bin, it may list the information on the bin’s outside.

Plastic containers will typically have numbers on the bottom that denote which kind of plastic it is. For example, #1 and #2 plastics are almost always recyclable, while #6 plastics aren’t always accepted. Also, if the plastic says «compostable,» it must be composted and not recycled.

What else can I do?

The first step to preventing plastic waste is to limit your use of non-reusable plastics, like plastic bottles. Instead, opt for glass or hard plastic bottles that you can refill and use daily. Here are other ways to help.

Use reusable straws instead of plastic straws.
Avoid using plastic utensils unless they can be washed and reused.
Recycle plastic bags, see if your local grocery store or recycling center will take them.
Use cloth shopping bags.
Stop wasting Solo cups and choose glass or reusable plastic cups instead.
Reuse plastic items. Tobias Haider, a research associate at PlastX, told CNET in 2022 that «plastic products would not be a problem if we reused them.»
Remember that plastic foam isn’t recyclable and that includes egg cartons, packaging and peanuts. If you have quite a bit of plastic foam lying around your house, contact schools in your area to see if they can use it for projects.

Technologies

This Massive AT&T Data Breach Settlement Could Pay $5K to Some: Find Out if You’re Eligible

Claims will open later in the summer for the settlement AT&T is paying to resolve two major data breaches.

It’s a tough time for AT&T — especially with the recent conference call troubles for Donald Trump — but their struggles could be your gain thanks to the $177 million settlement it’s agreed to pay to customers that fell victim to data breaches in 2019 and 2024.

On Friday, June 20, US District Judge Ada Brown granted preliminary approval to the terms of a proposed settlement from AT&T that would resolve two lawsuits related to the data breaches. The current settlement would see AT&T pay $177 million to customers adversely affected by at least one of the two data breaches.

The settlement will prioritize larger payments to customers who suffered damages that are «fairly traceable» to the data leaks. It will also provide bigger payments to those affected by the larger of the two leaks, which began in 2019. While the company is working toward a settlement, it has continued to deny that it was «responsible for these criminal acts.»

For all the details we have about the settlement right now, keep reading, and for more info about other recent settlements, find out how to claim Apple’s Siri privacy settlement and see if you’re eligible for 23andMe’s privacy breach settlement.

What happened with these AT&T data breaches?

AT&T confirmed the two data breaches last year, announcing an investigation into the first in March before confirming it in May and confirming the second in July.

The first of the confirmed breaches began in 2019. The company revealed that about 7.6 million current and 65.4 million former account holders had their data exposed to hackers, including names, Social Security numbers and dates of birth. The company began investigating the situation last year after it reported that customer data had appeared on the dark web.

The second breach began in April of 2024, when a hacker broke into AT&T cloud storage provider Snowflake and accessed 2022 call and text records for almost all of the company’s US customers, about 109 million in all. The company stressed that no names were attached to the stolen data. Two individuals were arrested in connection with the breach.

Both of these incidents sparked a wave of class action lawsuits alleging corporate neglect on the part of AT&T in failing to sufficiently protect its customers.

Who is eligible to file a claim for the AT&T data breach settlement?

As of now, we know that the settlement will pay out to any current or former AT&T customer whose data was accessed in one of these data breaches, with higher payments reserved for those who can provide documented proof that they suffered damages directly resulting from their data being stolen.

If you’re eligible, you should receive a notice about it, either by email or a physical letter in the mail, sometime in the coming months. The company expects that the claims process will begin on Aug. 4, 2025.

How much will the AT&T data breach payments be?

You’ll have to «reasonably» prove damages caused by these data breaches to be eligible for the highest and most prioritized payouts. For the 2019 breach, those claimants can receive up to $5,000. For the Snowflake breach in 2024, the max payout will be $2,500. It’s not clear at this time how the company might be handling customers who’ve been affected by both breaches.

AT&T will focus on making those payments first, and whatever’s left of the $177 million settlement total will be disbursed to anyone whose data was accessed, even without proof of damages. Because these payouts depend on how many people get the higher amounts first, we can’t say definitively how much they will be.

When could I get paid from the AT&T data breach settlement?

AT&T expects that payments will start to go out sometime in early 2026. Exact dates aren’t available but the recent court order approving the settlement lists a notification schedule of Aug. 4, to Oct. 17, 2025.

The deadline for submitting a claim is currently set at Nov. 18, 2025. The final approval of the settlement needs to be given at a Dec. 3, 2025, court hearing for payments to begin.

Stay tuned to this piece in the coming months to get all the new details as they emerge.

For more money help, check out CNET’s daily tariff price impact tracker.

Technologies

Today’s NYT Mini Crossword Answers for Saturday, July 12

Here are the answers for The New York Times Mini Crossword for July 12.

Looking for the most recent Mini Crossword answer? Click here for today’s Mini Crossword hints, as well as our daily answers and hints for The New York Times Wordle, Strands, Connections and Connections: Sports Edition puzzles.

Need some help with today’s Mini Crossword? It’s one of those long Saturday puzzles, and a few clues are tricky. Read on for the answers. And if you could use some hints and guidance for daily solving, check out our Mini Crossword tips.

The Mini Crossword is just one of many games in the Times’ games collection. If you’re looking for today’s Wordle, Connections, Connections: Sports Edition and Strands answers, you can visit CNET’s NYT puzzle hints page.

Read more: Tips and Tricks for Solving The New York Times Mini Crossword

Let’s get to those Mini Crossword clues and answers.

Mini across clues and answers

1A clue: Havana’s home
Answer: CUBA

5A clue: Last word in many bowling alley names
Answer: LANES

6A clue: Lots and lots
Answer: SOMUCH

7A clue: Left-leaning social media site
Answer: BLUESKY

8A clue: Hepburn of «Breakfast at Tiffany’s»
Answer: AUDREY

9A clue: Word after «break» or «banana»
Answer: BREAD

10A clue: Car loan figs.
Answer: APRS

Mini down clues and answers

1D clue: They always shoot their shot
Answer: CAMERAS

2D clue: Brand-new
Answer: UNUSED

3D clue: Woman with «the good hair,» in a famous Beyoncé lyric
Answer: BECKY

4D clue: In need of moisturizer
Answer: ASHY

5D clue: «We can’t hear you back here!»
Answer: LOUDER

6D clue: Drink noisily
Answer: SLURP

7D clue: ___ ghanouj
Answer: BABA

Technologies

Today’s NYT Connections: Sports Edition Hints and Answers for July 12, #292

Here are hints and the answers for the NYT Connections: Sports Edition puzzle for July 12, No. 292

Looking for the most recent regular Connections answers? Click here for today’s Connections hints, as well as our daily answers and hints for The New York Times Mini Crossword, Wordle and Strands puzzles.

Today’s Connections: Sports Edition has one of those classic purple categories, where you probably won’t figure it out before you’ve answered all the others. Need help? Read on for hints and the answers.

Connections: Sports Edition is out of beta now, making its debut on Super Bowl Sunday, Feb. 9. That’s a sign that the game has earned enough loyal players that The Athletic, the subscription-based sports journalism site owned by the Times, will continue to publish it. It doesn’t show up in the NYT Games app but now appears in The Athletic’s own app. Or you can continue to play it free online.

Read more: NYT Connections: Sports Edition Puzzle Comes Out of Beta

Hints for today’s Connections: Sports Edition groups

Here are four hints for the groupings in today’s Connections: Sports Edition puzzle, ranked from the easiest yellow group to the tough (and sometimes bizarre) purple group.

Yellow group hint: Show Me State.

Green group hint: Old Line State.

Blue group hint: Gridiron greats.

Purple group hint: Names begins with a certain creature.