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India Imposes Complete Ban on Solid Plastic Waste Imports

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Re: India Imposes Complete Ban on Solid Plastic Waste Imports

#4

Post by andrewstuart »

The dumping of "recycling" onto other countries just goes to show what a lie recycling actually is.

It's not recycling, it's just garbage, but the word recycling makes us feel good about sending it to some other country to be dumped.

With India and China refusing it, look to the "recycling" companies to make deals with countries that don't have the political will to say no to accepting the worlds plastic and paper garbage.

Why are we spewing out an infinite quantity of single use plastic and packaging?

It's all about the packaging industry and profit.

The thing that annoys me most is the in almost 100% of cases, the solutions discussed are about "how do we make use of all this plastic and other waste?", instead of asking the question "why haven't we turned off the tap?"

Re: India Imposes Complete Ban on Solid Plastic Waste Imports

#5

Post by olliej »

Eventually those of us in America and Europe will have to start actually recycling rather than just saying we are while shipping it to other countries.

Obviously part of the solution is going to necessarily require companies stop putting so much waste packaging on products.

Re: India Imposes Complete Ban on Solid Plastic Waste Imports

#6

Post by leggomylibro »

I wonder if this trend will inspire more people to look into DIY recycling. Plastics are pretty easy to melt down and reuse, if you know what sort of plastic you are working with.

You should research the types of recycleable plastics and how they are marked[0] - some types can release toxic fumes which are bad for both you and the planet. I've heard you can develop allergies to plastics from breathing some of the nastier fumes, and while that may be an urban legend I would definitely advise caution.

Still, HDPE and LDPE seem fairly safe and easy to recycle without adding things like plasticisers, and HDPE bricks make for great CNC stock.

[0]: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Recycling_codes

Re: India Imposes Complete Ban on Solid Plastic Waste Imports

#7

Post by zaroth »

I don’t know if this is correct, but here is my theory;

Container ships have to make the voyage from the US back to China, why do it empty? They need massive tonnage to bring back, and the US just doesn’t export enough into China so let’s carry recycling? (This assumes the ships that bring X from China to the US can bring Y from the US back to Chine without expensive reconfiguration, and perhaps also that the ports of entry are reasonably close?)

Also, the amount of money that China was willing to pay for the material (or be paid for taking the material) was so outside the market price as to essentially be “dumping” (economically speaking) their recycling waste capture product on the US. In the presence of Chinese dumping no US facility could fairly exist in the market, so they all shut down. Now that the Chinese economic dumping had ceased, the US is left without a functioning market.

Yes, it pleases me to no end to frame the problem of US recycling as China dumping. No, I haven’t been able to determine if there is any factual basis to this hypothesis!

Re: India Imposes Complete Ban on Solid Plastic Waste Imports

#8

Post by INTPenis »

andrewstuart wrote: post #4

The dumping of "recycling" onto other countries just goes to show what a lie recycling actually is. It's not recycling, it's just garbage, but the word recycling makes us feel good about sending it to some other country to be dumped. With India and China refusing it, look to the "recycling" companies to make deals with countries that don't have the political will to say no to accepting the worlds plastic and paper ga…

>It's not recycling, it's just garbage, but the word recycling makes us feel good about sending it to some other country to be dumped.

I've worked at a recycling plant so I know that it's different than the old landfills. But we just separated parts, components and fabrics out of various items. Never saw where they ended up.

Re: India Imposes Complete Ban on Solid Plastic Waste Imports

#9

Post by sydd »

leggomylibro wrote: post #6

I wonder if this trend will inspire more people to look into DIY recycling. Plastics are pretty easy to melt down and reuse, if you know what sort of plastic you are working with. You should research the types of recycleable plastics and how they are marked[0] - some types can release toxic fumes which are bad for both you and the planet. I've heard you can develop allergies to plastics from breathing some of the nas…

You can buy a machine for $300 that recycles plastic at home for your 3D printer. https://www.filastruder.com/collections/filastruders-accesso...
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