Why can't I put plastic bags, like Zip Lock bags, or baggies, in my recycle bin?

I got my recycling bin today and I’m excited.

However, on the do’s and don’ts list it says you can recycle rinsed plastic containers, but not plastic bags. I can understand not recycling, bags, like Walmart plastic bags, but what about Zip Lock bags and baggies? Why can’t I recycle those?

I asked the trash folks, and she wasn’t sure. She said it had something to do with the people who pick the recycle stuff up.

I looked online, and they gave an answer, but it seemed to me they were referring to the plastic bags you bring purchases home in.

”...Workers at the recycling station are sorting through tonnes of material an hour and don’t have time to open bags to find out what’s inside….”

”The next issue with plastic bags is that they interfere with the automatic sorting machines.

Conveyor belts feed the recycling into rotating tunnels, onto spinning wheels and past magnets and eddy currents to separate the plastic, glass, paper, aluminum and steel cans. Plastic bags cannot be sorted from other materials by existing machinery. Instead, they get caught in the conveyor belts and jam spinning wheels and can bring the entire sorting station to a halt. The bags then need to be found and removed by hand – a time consuming and often dangerous process that reduces the overall efficiency of the recycling station or materials recovery facility (MRF).

So what about baggies and such?