What if everything we know about recycling is wrong? • Hacker News Board

Re: What if everything we know about recycling is wrong?

#71

Post by Yizahi » Fri, Sep 04, 2026, 3:27 PM UTC

happymellon wrote: post #67

Yizahi wrote: post #50

The language gives off some climate denialist vibes, but the substance is nonetheless true - recycling become both a magical word which is forbidden to be challenged on merit, and it also become a crude hammer to just bash peons to distract from real problems and real solutions. I also appreciate that finally someone says that DAC should happen as a more effective climate change tool. Lately I'm getting a feel that i…

It makes so much sense. Single use > than reusing. This is why coal is so much cheaper than solar. Oh. There is so much cherry picking here they could make a pie. Energy use to make a cotton bag is greater than a plastic bag, ignoring any other metric, therefore we should just throw everything in the landfill because who reuses a bag more than once??? A lot of people it turns out. Greenwashing is certainly a problem,…

I'm not saying NOT to recycling. I'm moderately carefully recycle what I can for the past decade. But when I read the inane requests to like wash tetrapacks from inside, or separate every bone from the bio bag, or get a career in chemistry to differentiate between polystyrene and polyurethane and polyethylene and polypropylene and [insert 50 other common plastics] and then on top of that learn how to deal with composite packaging and then study glues used in the packaging and then study what are the latest innovations in the laminated cartons and... and.. It's leaning into craziness imo. Same with demands like for example keep plastic and metal bottles undamaged, taking a 120L stinking bad for months at home, instead of flattening all them into compact flat material pieces and sort them into proper recycling bins. Or stuff like Swiss paying an extortion level tax for every small black mixed bin bag (unsorted or nonrecyclable).

In my opinion that's the path to make people hate recycling instead of voluntarily engaging in it.

Re: What if everything we know about recycling is wrong?

#72

Post by butvacuum » Fri, Sep 04, 2026, 5:47 PM UTC

delichon wrote: post #34

nancyminusone wrote: post #29

That's fine if said trash actually ends up in the landfill. When it ends up ont the grass next to the parking lot is when you start to get the idea that we're all living in each others filth. Also I disagree that energy should be the item to minimize. It makes sense if you are burning stuff for it, but we've known how to get free energy from the sky for quite a while.

If solar energy is free, or close enough not to matter, it's odd that the quote I got for installing it for my house is tens of thousands of dollars. Or that about 700M people don't have electricity, or that 2B people cook with wood, charcoal, dung, etc. But I can see why, if you believe that energy is free, you would have an entirely different view of global and local economics.

using 'roof solar is expensive, therefor solar is expensive" is borderline disingenuous. It's well established that roof solar is freqently not cost effective.

Which has little relation to installing 100 acres worth. and, its likely the ROI will get even higher as we build more solar fields, and more HV transmission lines.

Re: What if everything we know about recycling is wrong?

#73

Post by butvacuum » Fri, Sep 04, 2026, 5:55 PM UTC

ChristopherDrum wrote: post #65

josefritzishere wrote: post #17

I have a cotton bag in my car. I've been using it for 20 years. It was used 173 times probably in the first 3 years. I have a ceramic coffee mug on my desk. It's moved with me through multiple jobs over the last 25 years. It's been used tens of thousands of times. Some goods are naturally disposable like a Kleenex, but much more could be reusable. The math is right there.

Yes, that is the same point I came in to make about mugs. The author cites "1,000 uses" like its some grand, rarely achieved accomplishment in the life of a mug, when 1/3 of that count represents a single year of once-a-day usage. My two mugs are 20 and 10 years old, and when I use one I use it multiple times a day for weeks. Both have far exceeded "1,000 uses" by now, with probably another 30K (?) uses before I die.

I've never seen a coffee mug, or glass drinking vessel wear out. They always end up broken first.

Re: What if everything we know about recycling is wrong?

#74

Post by maerF0x0 » Fri, Sep 04, 2026, 7:08 PM UTC

prmoustache wrote: post #24

maerF0x0 wrote: post #7

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Based on my own usage patterns i'd get really roughly that number before they fell apart. The trader joes "burlap" style bag I like would get me about 1 trip a week for about 3 years. It is, notably, plastic lined though.

"fell appart", really? Or do they sometimes have a part of the stitching failing that takes 2 minutes to repair with a needle and a cotton thread?

catastrophic failure, like objects falling through and fraying that makes repair silly for a $3 bag

Re: What if everything we know about recycling is wrong?

#75

Post by marojejian » Sat, Sep 05, 2026, 8:56 PM UTC

schiffern wrote: post #62

sustainalady wrote: post #44

As someone who works in sustainability, and life cycle analysis, it's quite frustrating to see someone who is clearly not technically trained lay out an argument for single-use based on LCA data. Establishing a functional unit is critical for this type of analysis, otherwise yeah, it looks like every single-use item is "more sustainable" than a reusable. That isn't actually how you measure a sustainability scenario i…

Any good blogs or articles you can recommend?

I'd like to 2nd schiffern' s comment. Your comment gives a persuasive perception of competence. But that's not sufficient to accept your point. I'd love to have more data and details to work with so I can decide which viewpoint to trust here. So any sources you could provide would be really helpful. otherwise it doesn't sound responsible for me to just trust the "experts" either.

Re: What if everything we know about recycling is wrong?

#76

Post by rfool » Sun, Sep 06, 2026, 11:52 PM UTC

People argueing about regional differences in what is and isn't recyclable in different jurisdictions are kinda funny at some point. Elusive/Evasive actually.

Because they like to argue based on contemporary state of progress and process and well, about a state that incorporates anything from science to politics to whatever…

For example, where I live, we separate our waste, while its clear most of it is going to be burned in a cement factory anyway. Not perfect, but not an actual argument for or against recycling, right?