The Era of Easy Recycling May Be Coming to an End
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The Era of Easy Recycling May Be Coming to an End
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Re: The Era of Easy Recycling May Be Coming to an End
#2It is surreal, but it's true, the biggest American export to China was literally garbage...
And it kept being such after decades of different rounds of bans, until the blanket ban last year.
Re: The Era of Easy Recycling May Be Coming to an End
#3From a linked nat geo article:
“I never thought plastic recycling would work,” says Roland Geyer, an engineering professor at the University of California, Santa Barbara and author of the study “Production, use and fate of all plastics ever made.” “There is a viable business model around metal, but plastics never has had that. It’s too low-value, too contaminated, with too many different polymers mixed together. And you can only make it work with a really low cost of labor.”
Fascinating stuff. Perhaps it's time to step away from plastic containers for foodstuffs. I'm a little surprised we didn't move at least a little further away post BPA awareness.
In Salt Lake City they stopped accepting many types of plastic in the recycling bin this summer, it's been a huge PITA. It's also led me to recycle less. This bugged me so I've changed my shopping habits a bit to compensate. For example, I avoid shopping at Trader Joe's, because everything there comes wrapped in plastic. Everything. It doesn't seem like retailers have quite caught on that it's becoming more difficult to recycle.
Re: The Era of Easy Recycling May Be Coming to an End
#4By weight, I estimate that my household produces about 1/3 recyclable trash vs. landfill trash. But by volume, it's almost at parity (before compaction, since I'm a household).
I wonder if an equal alternative would be to collect each type of recyclable once a month. Eg.
- 1st week: paper/cardboards
- 2nd week: plastics
- 3rd week: glass
- 4th week: metals
Yes it would mean more trash cans but in total volume I don't think it would be much different than my current single-stream bi-weekly collection.
Re: The Era of Easy Recycling May Be Coming to an End
#5[deleted]
Re: The Era of Easy Recycling May Be Coming to an End
#6Plastic is hard, but it does not necessarily need to go back to what it was.
Burning it or turning it into asphalt or other kind of building material might be easier/cheaper
Re: The Era of Easy Recycling May Be Coming to an End
#7Wonder what would happen if plastic bags and straws were just no longer used, I already pack my groceries in a school bag when I go shopping because the plastic bags are flimsy.
Straws aren't also necessary, I don't drink coffee I buy with a straw and I'm managing fine. Soft drinks can probably just have those coffee caps and then gradually transition.
Re: The Era of Easy Recycling May Be Coming to an End
#8I can't wait for the glorious era of fusion-powered recycling. Dump literally anything in the bin. It all gets vaporized (thanks to plentiful, cheap energy), and is centrifuge-sorted into its constituent atoms.
Out of curiosity... Just how delusional am I?
Re: The Era of Easy Recycling May Be Coming to an End
#9From a linked nat geo article: “I never thought plastic recycling would work,” says Roland Geyer, an engineering professor at the University of California, Santa Barbara and author of the study “Production, use and fate of all plastics ever made.” “There is a viable business model around metal, but plastics never has had that. It’s too low-value, too contaminated, with too many different polymers mixed together. And…
> It doesn't seem like retailers have quite caught on that it's becoming more difficult to recycle.
They have, they just don't care. It's not directly their problem that you can't recycle their waste until people stop buying there or start returning their waste to them.
Re: The Era of Easy Recycling May Be Coming to an End
#10From a linked nat geo article: “I never thought plastic recycling would work,” says Roland Geyer, an engineering professor at the University of California, Santa Barbara and author of the study “Production, use and fate of all plastics ever made.” “There is a viable business model around metal, but plastics never has had that. It’s too low-value, too contaminated, with too many different polymers mixed together. And…
I hassled decor (home plastic container company) about BPA and they said their food grade containers had never had BPA.
Oddly they saw no need to market on this.