Not sure what's up with all the "plastics aren't recyclable" posts in this thread. Recycling plants have been ramping up here in .au for a while and I'm pretty sure we're lagging way behind the rest of the world: https://circularplasticsaustralia.com/
Cups tossed in recycling bins at Starbucks tracked to incinerators and landfill
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Re: Cups tossed in recycling bins at Starbucks tracked to incinerators and landfill
#12I see some commenters claiming that plastic recycling is not a thing and that the concept have been pushed by big-plastic in (what I assume is) a greenwashing attempt.
While you can be as jaded as you want, it's always worth checking if your oppinion has any merit before posting it on an online forum for the rest of the internet to read.
Plastic recycling is a thing. It's more difficult than paper and metal (for instance), due to degradation of polymers and the difficulty of seperating different polymer types from one-another. It's less widespread than some companies would like you to believe (how many times haven't you read "this product was made by X% recycled plastic"?). Most plastic still ends up burned as fossile fuel substitute due to a lack of cost-effective recycling programs, but that does not mean the programs does not exist.
One success story is PET, which is found in drinking bottles. Polymer degration in PET can be repaired and countires with a PET recycling program usually seperates that plastic from other sources before entering a waste compound (such as through designated waste bins). When PET polymers are too damaged to make new bottles they are instead downcycled into synthetic fibers (similar to how degraded paper fibers are downcycled to toilet paper). If you want to read more on the process, why not have a look at Wikipedia?
Re: Cups tossed in recycling bins at Starbucks tracked to incinerators and landfill
#13I see some commenters claiming that plastic recycling is not a thing and that the concept have been pushed by big-plastic in (what I assume is) a greenwashing attempt. While you can be as jaded as you want, it's always worth checking if your oppinion has any merit before posting it on an online forum for the rest of the internet to read. Plastic recycling is a thing. It's more difficult than paper and metal (for inst…
I haven't done my research but I guess the idea is that only a small percent of plastics actually get recycled vs glass/paper/metals. Regardless of the existence of a plastics recycling process. I'm curious about how true this is. Ie see https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=mXVjZjAple8&pp=ygUWcGxhc3RpYyB....
If it's true that most plastics can't get recycled then perhaps saying "plastics is a scam" is an untruth but a useful shortcut to express the idea that plastic recycling has been largely ineffective and should largely be dismissed in the calculus of environmental impact. Now I might be wrong about this but simply checking out wikipedia for that may be difficult no. One needs proper commentary and analysis not merely a list of facts?
Re: Cups tossed in recycling bins at Starbucks tracked to incinerators and landfill
#14Not sure what's up with all the "plastics aren't recyclable" posts in this thread. Recycling plants have been ramping up here in .au for a while and I'm pretty sure we're lagging way behind the rest of the world: https://circularplasticsaustralia.com/
It's recyclable in very limited ways. Most plastics can't be recycled and reused for the same purpose it was initially intended, it degrades every time it's recycled which means you're just delaying the inevitable
It's a miracle solution on paper but when you dig into it it just doesn't work, a bit like electric cars
Re: Cups tossed in recycling bins at Starbucks tracked to incinerators and landfill
#15Not sure what's up with all the "plastics aren't recyclable" posts in this thread. Recycling plants have been ramping up here in .au for a while and I'm pretty sure we're lagging way behind the rest of the world: https://circularplasticsaustralia.com/
Recycling almost always involves regulation.
The people who don't like regulation are particularly annoyed by popular regulations like recycling.
So there's been a decades long propaganda campaign against recycling from people connected to libertarianism and funded by fossil fuel producers (the main input source for plastic currently).
A few years back they switched from taking money from fossil fuels to publicly say recycling doesn't work (falling back to plastic recycling doesn't work when challenged on the absurdity of that broad statement) to saying that fossil fuels pushed recycling while secretly claiming it wouldn't work and that's why we should not recycle.
If we stopped using plastic entirely then that would be bad for fossil fuels, but that's not going to happen in most cases, so plastic without recycling is best for fossil fuels.
Notably, when any kind of plastic ban seems likely to be implemented say on single use items, the libertarians that have fought recycling for decades suddenly start claiming it works.
https://reason.com/2022/05/31/environmentalists-ban-single-u...
"These Environmentalists Want To Ban Single-Use Plastics Because Recycling Them 'Will Never Work' And yet infinitely recyclable plastics are on the horizon.”
This propaganda worked particularly well in the US and people in the US are only vaguely aware that other countries exist, and wild tales of them having better recycling, healthcare, EVs or gun policy are obviously just myths as the US is the best of all possible worlds.
Re: Cups tossed in recycling bins at Starbucks tracked to incinerators and landfill
#16Recyclable or not, it's completely absurd that one-time-use cups are used for on-premises consumption in the first place. Given that it (surely!) takes vastly more resources to manufacture from scratch, transport to the place of use, and then dispose of an entire plastic cup than to rinse out a reusable container, there is clearly something desperately wrong with the accounting of the "invisible hand", which is meant to eliminate such inefficiencies.
I've no doubt that it "costs less", but in any sane world it shouldn't.
Re: Cups tossed in recycling bins at Starbucks tracked to incinerators and landfill
#17Well Starbucks, you designed them to be recycled and you certainly have the volume and the existing logistics network, how about you collect and recycle them yourselves?
Plastic is not recyclable
I get where you're coming from but that just isn't true. Plenty of common plastics are recyclable they're just not economical to do so.
Plastic isn't recycled would be a more accurate description.
Re: Cups tossed in recycling bins at Starbucks tracked to incinerators and landfill
#18no shit. recycling doesnt work
Recycling of glass works. Steel is basically 100% recyclable. Aluminum recycles. Plastic is not recyclable and never has been.
yes i wasnt specific. however, most city recycling is just plastic and sometimes but not always paper.
the majority of city recycling is a waste.
Re: Cups tossed in recycling bins at Starbucks tracked to incinerators and landfill
#19Not sure what's up with all the "plastics aren't recyclable" posts in this thread. Recycling plants have been ramping up here in .au for a while and I'm pretty sure we're lagging way behind the rest of the world: https://circularplasticsaustralia.com/
Recycling almost always involves regulation. The people who don't like regulation are particularly annoyed by popular regulations like recycling. So there's been a decades long propaganda campaign against recycling from people connected to libertarianism and funded by fossil fuel producers (the main input source for plastic currently). A few years back they switched from taking money from fossil fuels to publicly say…
Most people's opinions are better evidence of what they want to be true, instead of what actually is true.
Re: Cups tossed in recycling bins at Starbucks tracked to incinerators and landfill
#20Recyclable or not, it's completely absurd that one-time-use cups are used for on-premises consumption in the first place. Given that it (surely!) takes vastly more resources to manufacture from scratch, transport to the place of use, and then dispose of an entire plastic cup than to rinse out a reusable container, there is clearly something desperately wrong with the accounting of the "invisible hand", which is meant…
I also dislike the lack of mugs in coffee shops. Big chains don't have them at all, and local shops you need to specifically ask for it or they assume a paper cup.
I'm often the only person drinking out of a mug in a coffee shop full of people.
But I'm a grumpy old man that doesn't understand today's world, and I accept that. Leaving work to drive to Starbucks and buy a coffee (instead of using the kuerig or espresso machine in the break room) is gen z's version of stepping out for a smoke break.