Wait until plastic becomes the sole source of petrochemical demand. Big Oil is getting ready. https://www.nytimes.com/2020/08/30/climate/oil-kenya-africa-...
How Big Oil Misled the Public into Believing Plastic Would Be Recycled
231–240 of 324 posts
Re: How Big Oil Misled the Public into Believing Plastic Would Be Recycled
#232The whole recycling scam makes me upset. For decades the message was to recycle for the environment. But it was all just shipped to China and then dumped into the oceans. It actually would've been better if it went to landfills, at least then it's safely contained. Another lie was that we're running out of landfill space, there's so much land out there. Like most environmental issues, the focus should've been on prod…
I think govt subsidy on compostable biodegradable plastics would be good too. Especially if the subsidy was not just on the bags themselves, but the research and process engineering to make them more cost-competitive.
In the US at least, cities can also get creative, such as exempting compostable items from sales taxes.
Re: How Big Oil Misled the Public into Believing Plastic Would Be Recycled
#233Earlier quoted context omitted.
Can microplastics escape landfills, or is that an issue for trash that didn't get into a landfill? > We can't just keep adding and adding to it, we can't cover the planet in landfills of plastic, we aren't putting the "oils" back to where they came from. Why does it matter if it's the same spot? More importantly there's only so much oil and putting it all in landfills would not cover the planet.
Microplastics mostly come from fabric like nylon. Small fibers that can be easily broken off. Your crushed 4L milk jug in a landfill isn't much of a source of microplastics, nor is it much of a threat to the water table (I mean, we use that same plastic for food).
This doesn’t sound right. Do you have a source for this?
Re: How Big Oil Misled the Public into Believing Plastic Would Be Recycled
#234Earlier quoted context omitted.
Putting plastic toys and bottles into landfill also sequesters carbon, more effectively than putting paper in the landfill. (Only trivially more effectively in practice as paper in an anaerobic environment won’tbreak down to any material degree)
Producing plastic generates 5x the co2 contained in it.
How does paper compare?
Re: How Big Oil Misled the Public into Believing Plastic Would Be Recycled
#235Did ‘Big Oil’ mislead, or is our media incompetent? None of this information was hidden.
It reminds me of how CNN is blaming a ‘gender reveal’ party for the CA fires instead of talking about forest management challenges issues over the last decades. It seems like our media is actively out to disinform people.
Re: How Big Oil Misled the Public into Believing Plastic Would Be Recycled
#236Wait until plastic becomes the sole source of petrochemical demand. Big Oil is getting ready. https://www.nytimes.com/2020/08/30/climate/oil-kenya-africa-...
Honestly I look forward to that. It's a big improvement over using fossil fuels for energy — combine it with landfilling, and you're just re-burying oil after some transportation and manufacturing. And it gives a softer landing to the petroleum industry.
Over time we can replace petro-plastics with more sustainable materials. Bioplastics? Incineration-recycling, where you capture the CO2 and turn it back into plastic feedstock?
Edit: Also I think composting cardboard and paper would be great.
Re: How Big Oil Misled the Public into Believing Plastic Would Be Recycled
#237Earlier quoted context omitted.
Releasing plastics into the larger environment, especially microplastics, and confining them to landfills, are most definitely not the same thing.
Stuff often leaks out of landfills and into the environment. As an above comment said, landfills can be done correctly so this doesn't happen, but often aren't.
And the vast majority of the stuff does not leak out.
You're making an Argument from Homeopathy here.
Re: How Big Oil Misled the Public into Believing Plastic Would Be Recycled
#238Earlier quoted context omitted.
Where I live they are mainly banned as well and if you don’t bring your own bags then you have to pay a small tax for paper bags. I’m mainly ok with this since we drive to the store and can plan ahead. It’s a bit annoying when you go somewhere on the way home though and don’t have them with you. If the money was being used to actually fund proper recycling I wouldn’t care but it’s probably being used to pay off inter…
Pay a tax, or actually pay for the bag? The bag is not free. If previously they were being provided free, the cost of those bags was being folded into the cost of all the goods in the store.
All store goods using plastic in packaging should be heavily taxed.
Re: How Big Oil Misled the Public into Believing Plastic Would Be Recycled
#239Earlier quoted context omitted.
Is not recycleable for free . Always say that part. Because it can always be recycled for a little bit of money if we care a tenth as much as we pretend to.
Some containers could be recycled. Not all. The time to "care a tenth" is before we purchase goods that are packaged in problematic containers.
If every product was offered both ways, sure.
Going significantly out of your way to get differently-packaged product could easily cost more than recycling it.
And if it's exceptionally difficult to recycle a certain kind of plastic into new plastic, then turn it into completely inert ash. Either way it's all hydrocarbons and you can convert any of those into a non-problem form.
Re: How Big Oil Misled the Public into Believing Plastic Would Be Recycled
#240Earlier quoted context omitted.
I think the actions should go on both producers and consumers. Taxes, and also mentality changes, in my case, I produce almost no garbage, because I eat fruit foraged outside, and other local organic food. My only garbage in a year is: 10 rice plastic bag (5kg bags), a toothpaste tube and a toothbrush, a few soap bars plastic wrappings. That's all. That yearly volume you see, that's what most people produce in one da…
It's maybe doable, but just about every fresh food/ingredient ist wrapped in plastic. I can get lentils, rice, bread, maybe milk etc without packaging (Unverpackt-Läden in Germany) but not butter, eggs, cheese, spices and so on.
Aren't your eggs wrapped in a form of cardboard ?