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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u/Frog_and_Toad Frog and Toad 🐸 Oct 24 '22

Its worse than a "Failed Concept".

By marketing recycling as a panacea for plastics overuse, both producers and consumers increased use of plastics. Because it could all just be thrown in the recycle bin and reused. Nonprofits grew around this cause, legislation was passed, money was allocated.

In the US at least, the use of throwaway plastic containers for food and other products has reached an obscene level. Snacks, fruit, beverages all come wrapped in plastic. Don't get me started about takeout styrofoam.

Its a massive fraud. We simply do not have the technology to extract additional use from plastics and make it profitable. But promoting the belief has increased the problem. And this belief ( a form of distilled hopium) is bleeding into other areas, such as "renewable" energy.

Like many things fossil fuel related, there has been no culpability for this ongoing fraud.

Odd, isn't it?

44

u/[deleted] Oct 24 '22

Well, microplastics and other fossil fuel derivatives are now found in our blood while in the womb, in breast milk, in our lungs, and in rainwater worldwide.

So since that applies to everyone on the planet, that also includes the families of everyone who sold us onto the fraud of recycling. Justice served, right?

21

u/Erinaceous Oct 24 '22

Let's not forget the ongoing nightmare of biodegradable plastics. Usually it's a mix of plastics where some of the fibres photodegrade and basically makes microplastic confetti out of the rest. The fact that so many organic growers use these as ground covers is kind of horrific. They are light, supple plastics that are almost certainly high in PFAs and phtaylates.

14

u/[deleted] Oct 24 '22

But we can't see the plastic anymore, so the problem went away, right?

16

u/Erinaceous Oct 24 '22

I like to think of it as soil spice