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Asian countries take a stand against the rich world’s plastic waste

latimes.com

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Re: Asian countries take a stand against the rich world’s plastic waste

#151

Post by saluki »

LeifCarrotson wrote: post #102
shados wrote: post #100

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Is there really much of a point in recycling anything but reasonably clean paper/cardboard (I know stuff like greasy pizza boxes won't get recycled), and clean metals (like aluminum cans). Like, aside for those, will much realistically get recycled? Aside for the insane amount of amazon boxes I toss in recycling, so very little of my trash fits the bill of things that will reasonably get recycled...

Glass is another (the other?) material which is worthwhile to recycle. Like plastic, glass never decomposes. Unlike plastic and unlike paper/cardboard, it can be endlessly remelted and remade into new products without a loss in quality. It's a huge savings in material and energy cost to use recycled glass in the manufacture of new glass. If you have a recycling bin labeled "glass", absolutely do throw (place) glass b…

We visited a local recycling center where ours goes for a tour for our FLL Robotics team. It seemed pretty modern and it appeared they were actually recycling everything they could, sorting by machine and hand. So hopefully our single stream is getting recycled properly.

It does seem wasteful to ship trash across the ocean to be recycled. But maybe it makes sense to do so.

Re: Asian countries take a stand against the rich world’s plastic waste

#152

Post by colechristensen »

tomc1985 wrote: post #4

Why can't the US develop domestic waste-processing capabilities? We could be generating power from incineration plants.

To be useful people have to actually sort and clean their recyclables.

For example, plastic bottle caps and rings on soda, milk, etc. are a different plastic than the rest of the container and must be removed as they are not recyclable.

Many people don't understand recycling at all and fill it with garbage.

Re: Asian countries take a stand against the rich world’s plastic waste

#153

Post by basilgohar »

snthd wrote: post #36
butisaidsudo wrote: post #30

From what I understand, shipping containers are sent out from Asia stuffed with goods, but there isn't nearly as much going in the other direction. The containers need to go back whether they're full or not, which is why it ends up being so cheap to ship plastic. And the CO2 caused doesn't really change as a result. To the rest of your point though, I agree. My wife is a hardline recycler. I generally am too, but I h…

Cargo ships are designed to float at a certain level in the water - if they're too empty they carry ballast instead. This causes it's own problems - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ballast_water_discharge_and_th...

Thank you for the included link. This is an aspect of international shipping about which I was wholly ignorant. The particular section mentioning the "international exchange" occurring in Singapore was particularly concerning because even species from areas not visited by the transiting vessels can "hitch a ride", so to speak.

Re: Asian countries take a stand against the rich world’s plastic waste

#154

Post by CydeWeys »

shados wrote: post #100
butisaidsudo wrote: post #30

From what I understand, shipping containers are sent out from Asia stuffed with goods, but there isn't nearly as much going in the other direction. The containers need to go back whether they're full or not, which is why it ends up being so cheap to ship plastic. And the CO2 caused doesn't really change as a result. To the rest of your point though, I agree. My wife is a hardline recycler. I generally am too, but I h…

Is there really much of a point in recycling anything but reasonably clean paper/cardboard (I know stuff like greasy pizza boxes won't get recycled), and clean metals (like aluminum cans). Like, aside for those, will much realistically get recycled? Aside for the insane amount of amazon boxes I toss in recycling, so very little of my trash fits the bill of things that will reasonably get recycled...

My understanding is that the temperature used to melt aluminum, steel, and other metals for recycling is so high that food waste burns off quickly and doesn't pose any contamination problems. At worst you might have some slag to skim off the top.

Paper is the main thing that frequently has contamination problems, because it can't be treated with high heat during the recycling problem lest you just end up paper. Even plastic is heated pretty decently during the recycling process.

Re: Asian countries take a stand against the rich world’s plastic waste

#155

Post by exabrial »

Asia is not "taking a stand", that's quite the spin on reality. It was never economically profitable, and they tightened import controls as a pawn in the current trade war.

Coincidently: https://www.weforum.org/agenda/2018/06/90-of-plastic-polluti...

It's not to say that the move will undoubtedly benefit the environment, but we should call a spade a spade.

Re: Asian countries take a stand against the rich world’s plastic waste

#156

Post by undersuit »

jlawson wrote: post #96
opportune wrote: post #3

As far as I can understand it, the recycling industry is a well-intentioned waste of resources. It would be much better for the environment for all this waste to be sequestered in a landfill than for people to pay to ship it around the world only for most of it to be dumped or rejected (which, even when the Asian countries in question do accept it, they are likely to do anyway). These materials (plastics) are so chea…

Non-biodegradeable plastic is a carbon sequestering scheme.

Breaking windows stimulates the local economy.

Re: Asian countries take a stand against the rich world’s plastic waste

#157

Post by deanCommie »

I understand the pro landfill arguments because landfills are certainly better than lugging plastic across half the planet, burning bunker fuel the whole way, only for it to get dumped into a river, and wind up essentially all back in the ocean.

But let's not pretend like landfills are an indefinite solution for humanity's problem either. Space is still finite.

Re: Asian countries take a stand against the rich world’s plastic waste

#158

Post by toastal »

deanCommie wrote: post #157

I understand the pro landfill arguments because landfills are certainly better than lugging plastic across half the planet, burning bunker fuel the whole way, only for it to get dumped into a river, and wind up essentially all back in the ocean. But let's not pretend like landfills are an indefinite solution for humanity's problem either. Space is still finite.

But actual space is basically infinite. Futurama taught me sending our garbage in a gooey mass was a good solution for our garbage problem.

Re: Asian countries take a stand against the rich world’s plastic waste

#160

Post by Joakal »

rishav_sharan wrote: post #69

This is simply a political issue at this point. If there is political will, then we can ban all consumer plastic. We used to live fine without them 40 years ago. We can do so again. Damn the inconvenience. We must plug this at both source and disposal.

Alternative is that the companies must take back un-recycable waste as condition to sell. Then suddenly, garbage is allowed to be sent back to Asian countries!!
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