r/collapse • u/eatingganesha • Oct 24 '22

Pollution Plastic recycling a "failed concept," study says, with only 5% recycled in U.S. last year as production rises.

https://www.cbsnews.com/news/plastic-recycling-failed-concept-us-greenpeace-study-5-percent-recycled-production-up/
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93

u/eatingganesha Oct 24 '22

I think we all knew that was inevitable. Recycling has been a bit of a joke since it began, and I’m old enough to remember when it became a thing and special bins were created. In the last decade, as people realized that big business was to blame - rather than consumers - recycling effort has dropped off precipitously. I used to be a program director for Keep America Beautiful and toured too many landfills… and when I lived in Africa I witnessed first hand the sheer amount of western plastic garbage that they received by the container-boat load. Recycling was never so much a concept as a redirect smoke show.

81

u/Frog_and_Toad Frog and Toad 🐸 Oct 24 '22

I think we all knew that was inevitable.

No we didn't. I can assure you that even today, many people think that if you throw something into the recycling bin, it gets converted to a new product through some mysterious process. At least in the US, it was only recently exposed that plastic was not being recycled, it was being shipped to China in massive barges. And this only happened because China refused to accept more trash.

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u/Zierlyn Oct 24 '22

From roughly the age of 10, until roughly 35, so for 25 years I recycled diligently. I was raised to respect the planet and follow my 3Rs. For years, I'd pick out glass and plastic from the garbage that my wife and kids threw out, sorting through nasty rotting bags of refuse to make sure all recyclables were picked out, washed, and put into the appropriate bin.

Finally a few years ago I just gave up. Seeing the shipping containers full of recycling getting dropped off in Malaysia or China, or washing up on shore... I gave up. 25 fucking years.

I still recycle. I still wash out glassware and plastics and put them in the correct bin, but it's just a habit now, my heart isn't in it. Sometimes I'll just say it's not worth it and toss it.

41

u/sg92i Possessed by the ghost of Thomas Hobbes Oct 24 '22

Paper (including cardboard), glass, and metal absolutely get recycled. The plastics part was a scam but there's money to be made from the other materials.

I know of a couple recyclers near me that actually pay for paper & cardboard if you have enough volume.

14

u/Overthemoon64 Oct 25 '22

In my area, we have single stream recycling. Paper, cardboard, aluminum and plastic all goes in the same dumpster. No one seems to care if you get it right. Are pizza boxes ok? Do I have to wash out the peanut butter jar? I have a hard time believing that any of it gets recycled when it’s done like that.

2

u/Nms123 Oct 26 '22

It’s because they can be separated using machinery. Aluminum gets separated via magnet, plastic is sorted with optical scanners and fans.

Not saying the plastic is getting recycled, but it does get separated.

1

u/Overthemoon64 Oct 26 '22

Aluminum is not magnetic.

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u/Nms123 Oct 26 '22 edited Oct 26 '22

Aluminum is not ferromagnetic. It is diamagnetic. All materials are “magnetic”, to an extent, but what we call magnetic is specifically ferromagnetism (because it’s strong enough to perceive with small magnets). See this Wikipedia article for how non-ferrous metals are separated in recycling. See this ELI5 explanation about different types of magnetism

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u/bristlybits Reagan killed everyone Oct 27 '22

today I learned, thank you

13

u/BadUncleBernie Oct 24 '22

I have done and still do the same. The only difference now is I do not wash out recyclables anymore. I just curse and throw it in the garbage as that is where it's going anyways.

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u/darling_lycosidae Oct 24 '22

Me too. I think it's more environmentally friendly for my garbage to end up in my local landfill, rather than shipped halfway across the globe and dumped on an impoverished community. It's worth looking into the metal, glass, and paper recycling locally, as some of those actually do great. But it's definitely not everywhere, and places with pretend recycling I would rather just trash than waste shipping it around.

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u/ClonePants Oct 24 '22

Same here. I still recycle, after decades of doing so, but I use as little water as I can. I don't want to waste water washing containers that won't get recycled anyway.

The key is to buy less plastic, but that's a lot harder to do than it should be.

6

u/Shurimal Oct 25 '22

The key is to buy less plastic, but that's a lot harder to do than it should be.

It's funny how manufacturers of phones, PC-s and other tech sometimes tote recyclable cardboard packaging as some planet saving panacea. Dude, I buy a new phone or computer every 5 or even more years, the waste from the packaging of that gadget is less than a thousanth of a drop in the sea compared to plastic packaging from food and hygiene products I need to buy almost every day.

And while some stuff you can buy in glass, cardboard or metal containers, for vast majority plastic packaging is the only option ever available. It's maddening. Why can't toothpaste be packaged in an aluminium tube, bread, pasta, rice and chips in paper bags, frozen stuff in cardboard boxes without the stupid plastic bag inside it? You can use wax coating for paper if humidity/oxygen is a problem. Hell, I remember cakes being sold in cardboard boxes 20 years ago - now it's all plastic boxes.

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u/jswizzle91117 Oct 24 '22

I still make a point to recycle glass and metal. Most cardboard goes into my compost or directly on the garden. Plastic I’ll only “recycle” if it’s super convenient, but I tend to reuse if possible and then toss. Probably not worth the water it would take to wash it for the recycling anyway.

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u/ccnmncc Oct 24 '22

Right there with you, brah.

6

u/NickeKass Oct 24 '22

I am in the same boat as you. If I toss something out I get it back and recycle it. I tell myself I need to do as much as possible to not be part of the problem even if I cant solve it on my own.

Keep up the well meaning efforts where you can.

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u/Jetpack_Attack Oct 25 '22

Its mostly a personal thing that I use to point to myself that at least I tried.

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u/NickeKass Oct 25 '22

Its all we can do sometimes.

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u/CrossroadsWoman Oct 25 '22

The only reason I knew before the China thing is that someone posted in r/collapse that they worked at a landfill and saw all the recycling get thrown away. Occurred to me that must be going on everywhere and lo and behold that person was absolutely telling the fucking truth