Single stream recycling was a big scam that worked as long as China was accepting this kind of garbage. The more people used this type of recycling, the more they could send to China and the less garbage had to be processed locally. Now that they have to deal locally with the realities of recycling, you see that the equation is changing.
The Era of Easy Recycling May Be Coming to an End
51–60 of 89 posts
Re: The Era of Easy Recycling May Be Coming to an End
#52From 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…
The oil industry is interested in the maximum amount of use of plastics. The less reusable glass and other materials we use, the higher the profits for the big oil and chemicals conglomerates.
Re: The Era of Easy Recycling May Be Coming to an End
#53Wonder 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.
Aren't those "coffee caps" made out of plastic? (FWIW, I don't drink coffee, so it is highly possible there is new non-plastic coffee lid technology.)
Re: The Era of Easy Recycling May Be Coming to an End
#54This is primarily a cultural issue.
Taiwanese children are taught from day one how to sort recyclables. It is standard not only to sort properly, but also wash containers and decompose them into parts if they are made up of different materials.
Not only that but due to Japanese influence, reuse is a huge part of the culture already.
There's even a completely different conversation about how children are taught how to fold their trash and stack containers to minimize space use in trash.
Weird how if we take advantage of the neural nets we are born with what we can do...
Re: The Era of Easy Recycling May Be Coming to an End
#55From 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 mean maybe it is, but then comes the problem: Plastics are used because they're cheap, they're not worth recycling because they're so cheap but you can't just do away with the packaging material entirely because that just leads to, in the case of food, spoiled goods and foods which can't be stored or transported for so long which can cause its own environmental issue. It doesn't make economic sense to use a differe…
You're right... There are some powerful heuristics in environmentalism-- disposable is generally worse, plastics are bad, recycling is better for the environment...
But these will break in some special cases. We should avoid treating them as dogmas and be open minded when examining the entire lifecycle of products.
For example, styrofoam is so much less energy intensive than firing ceramics. Given the hot water used in rewashing, you can get some unexpected consequences where disposables are the better option.
https://sustainability.tufts.edu/wp-content/uploads/Comparat...
(That analysis is sensitive to how energy efficient your dishwasher is, and how durable the ceramic is.)
So imagine if even after we stop using petroleum, Texas finds a giant pool of easy oil next to abundant landfill space... Could be Texans should probably just use plastics and toss them in that situation.
New Yorkers might have a different calculus, because the cost of trash hauling and processing is more significant there.
It all depends.
Re: The Era of Easy Recycling May Be Coming to an End
#56We need to focus more on reuse than on recycling. I'd like to see regulations and tax incentives to encourage beverage companies to use glass bottles that can be washed and reused, rather than disposable aluminum or (even worse) plastic. It's a common sight in Silicon Valley offices to see greasy empty pizza boxes in the recycling bin. People just don't seem to realize that greasy cardboard can't be recycled, and mig…
It would be a great way to differentiate retail. Get your authorized Tide refill at Target instead of having Amazon ship it. People don’t like glass because of the energy used to produce it, but it’s always seemed like a no brainer to me.
It is common in Japan to sell refills of shampoo and detergent in plastic sleeves:
https://www.irisplaza.co.jp/IMAGE/PET/PRODUCT/P523917.jpg
It is still some plastic, but I assume it is less waste than a hard bottle.
Re: The Era of Easy Recycling May Be Coming to an End
#57From 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 mean maybe it is, but then comes the problem: Plastics are used because they're cheap, they're not worth recycling because they're so cheap but you can't just do away with the packaging material entirely because that just leads to, in the case of food, spoiled goods and foods which can't be stored or transported for so long which can cause its own environmental issue. It doesn't make economic sense to use a differe…
> in the case of food, spoiled goods and foods which can't be stored or transported for so long which can cause its own environmental issue
How do local supermarkets compete with TJs? Seriously, I love me some TJs but if the plastics are truly non-recyclable I will need to consider - we need go back to using a more sustainable method.
Also paper, glass and wood are all much more easily recycled. Re-Use should be king.
Re: The Era of Easy Recycling May Be Coming to an End
#58There are compostable plastics (e.g. http://www.worldcentric.org/biocompostables/bioplastics)
(No info there on pricing ...)
"Bioplastics can take different length of times to totally compost ... and are meant to be composted in a commercial composting facility, where higher composting temperatures can be reached and is between 90-180 days. Most existing international standards require biodegradation of 60% within 180 days..."
Re: The Era of Easy Recycling May Be Coming to an End
#59Wonder 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.
I think this is coming. Straws are getting banned in EU next year and many countries already implemented the ban. Where i am from they got replaced with paper ones and in bars etc with metal / glass ones that get washed like regular glasses. Plastic bags cannot be given for free so you have to buy them and many chains are transitioning to paper or more durable ikea style bags. The big problem in my eyes are trash bag…
> The big problem in my eyes are trash bags. Don't know how to replace those.
Composting, and recycling glass, metal, and paper greatly reduces the need for plastic trash bags. Most of my regular trash these days is plastic that can't be recycled - either food contaminated, or thin plastic bags. And when you have so little landfill trash, you don't need to buy those massive plastic garbage bags. In my household, we just use the plastic bags that we get our produce in - and we don't even bag all of our produce, just things like leafy greens (delicate) or green beans/okra (hard to keep together)
Re: The Era of Easy Recycling May Be Coming to an End
#60Earlier quoted context omitted.
But as the article suggest, most glass is contaminated and thrown away.
It's tough to recycle glass. That's why I suggested we focus on reusing glass bottles. Use deposits to encourage consumers to return bottles to retailers, then send them back to bottling plants to be washed and refilled. That actually used to be common in the US but doesn't happen much anymore.
There is a slow turnaround happening in this area with milk, at least in the cities I’ve lived in the last several years. You can buy milk in glass jars, (as a bonus, produced within the state) and take the the empty bottles back to the grocery store for a $2 credit.