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The Era of Easy Recycling May Be Coming to an End

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Re: The Era of Easy Recycling May Be Coming to an End

#31

Post by omnimus »

forkLding wrote: post #7

Wonder what would happen if plastic bags and straws were just no longer used, I already pack my groceries in a school bag when I go shopping because the plastic bags are flimsy. Straws aren't also necessary, I don't drink coffee I buy with a straw and I'm managing fine. Soft drinks can probably just have those coffee caps and then gradually transition.

I think this is coming. Straws are getting banned in EU next year and many countries already implemented the ban. Where i am from they got replaced with paper ones and in bars etc with metal / glass ones that get washed like regular glasses. Plastic bags cannot be given for free so you have to buy them and many chains are transitioning to paper or more durable ikea style bags.

The big problem in my eyes are trash bags. Don't know how to replace those.

Re: The Era of Easy Recycling May Be Coming to an End

#32

Post by sjg007 »

forkLding wrote: post #7

Wonder what would happen if plastic bags and straws were just no longer used, I already pack my groceries in a school bag when I go shopping because the plastic bags are flimsy. Straws aren't also necessary, I don't drink coffee I buy with a straw and I'm managing fine. Soft drinks can probably just have those coffee caps and then gradually transition.

Paper straws are fine for a single use.

Re: The Era of Easy Recycling May Be Coming to an End

#33

Post by toufiqbarhamov »

nradov wrote: post #11

We need to focus more on reuse than on recycling. I'd like to see regulations and tax incentives to encourage beverage companies to use glass bottles that can be washed and reused, rather than disposable aluminum or (even worse) plastic. It's a common sight in Silicon Valley offices to see greasy empty pizza boxes in the recycling bin. People just don't seem to realize that greasy cardboard can't be recycled, and mig…

We need to focus on reducing production, with reuse as a secondary and complementary measure. We have a ton of disposable crap and packaging in our lives, much of it is inherently garbage. Reuse what we can, but reduce the production of things that become waste.

Re: The Era of Easy Recycling May Be Coming to an End

#34

Post by Mediterraneo10 »

yostrovs wrote: post #27
NorthOf33rd wrote: post #24

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Oh man, the Nordic nations. I remember studying abroad and being the industrious-borderline-alchoholic I am, taking the empties from any classmate I could, so I could re-up the beer supply for free. Here in salt lake, however, we actually have to pay extra to have a glass collection bin at home. There are a dozen or so sites in the city that one could dump the glass, if they were so inclined, or into the general tras…

No one gets paid for returning bottles in Nordic countries. They get the deposit back that was paid during purchase.

If you return other people’s bottles because they are willing to forego the deposit, then you do make some money. One of the ways that I survived my time as a skint foreign student in a Nordic country was picking up bottles in the city center on a Friday or Saturday night when everyone was drinking in the street and couldn’t be arsed to hold on to their bottles and take them back for the deposit. (I hear that now students find it harder to make money like this, because Roma immigrants have cornered this line of work.) Even later when I wasn’t so poor, there is pleasure in hosting a BYOB party and then being able to get the deposit for all the bottles and cans your guests brought.

Re: The Era of Easy Recycling May Be Coming to an End

#36

Post by TaylorAlexander »

Spooky23 wrote: post #25
Mediterraneo10 wrote: post #17

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> you can only make it work with a really low cost of labor. Yet, isn’t that what automation provides? It has been two decades since supermarkets in the Nordic countries have whizbang bottle-return machines that take back plastic, aluminium, and glass bottles as long as the barcode is still legible. Is there really no way to make a machine that scans the barcode of various other forms of plastic packaging (like yoghu…

Nobody is going to do that without a deposit, and that is hard to push through. IMO use tax policy to drive it. Put a $5 tax on plastic clamshells and they’ll be gone in six months.

And replaced with “reusable” clamshells that somehow don’t count as plastic and they’ll be five times as thick and use way more resources to produce. :-/

Re: The Era of Easy Recycling May Be Coming to an End

#37

Post by jaggederest »

forkLding wrote: post #7

Wonder what would happen if plastic bags and straws were just no longer used, I already pack my groceries in a school bag when I go shopping because the plastic bags are flimsy. Straws aren't also necessary, I don't drink coffee I buy with a straw and I'm managing fine. Soft drinks can probably just have those coffee caps and then gradually transition.

I think really it has to be a push that plastic is only for extremely durable things that are significant enough to be worth recycling.

Something like https://www.c2ccertified.org/ being applicable to every usage of plastic, essentially.

Re: The Era of Easy Recycling May Be Coming to an End

#38

Post by GordonS »

toufiqbarhamov wrote: post #33
nradov wrote: post #11

We need to focus more on reuse than on recycling. I'd like to see regulations and tax incentives to encourage beverage companies to use glass bottles that can be washed and reused, rather than disposable aluminum or (even worse) plastic. It's a common sight in Silicon Valley offices to see greasy empty pizza boxes in the recycling bin. People just don't seem to realize that greasy cardboard can't be recycled, and mig…

We need to focus on reducing production , with reuse as a secondary and complementary measure. We have a ton of disposable crap and packaging in our lives, much of it is inherently garbage. Reuse what we can, but reduce the production of things that become waste.

Does reducing production fit with our brand of capitalism?

Re: The Era of Easy Recycling May Be Coming to an End

#39

Post by askver »

NorthOf33rd wrote: post #24
Mediterraneo10 wrote: post #17

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> you can only make it work with a really low cost of labor. Yet, isn’t that what automation provides? It has been two decades since supermarkets in the Nordic countries have whizbang bottle-return machines that take back plastic, aluminium, and glass bottles as long as the barcode is still legible. Is there really no way to make a machine that scans the barcode of various other forms of plastic packaging (like yoghu…

Oh man, the Nordic nations. I remember studying abroad and being the industrious-borderline-alchoholic I am, taking the empties from any classmate I could, so I could re-up the beer supply for free. Here in salt lake, however, we actually have to pay extra to have a glass collection bin at home. There are a dozen or so sites in the city that one could dump the glass, if they were so inclined, or into the general tras…

A new giant type of automated recycling station has been installed around Sweden during the past couple of years, called the "Pantamera Express". I like this thing. You dump your stuff, it processes all kinds of things at a quite decent rate (~100/minute) and in the end you get a value check that can be redeemed in a grocery store.

Here's a cheesy video demoing it (turn down the volume):

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JWtJdB3-bwg

It's pretty big:

https://pantamera.nu/wp-content/uploads/2015/11/BFR_storpant...

Re: The Era of Easy Recycling May Be Coming to an End

#40

Post by ben_w »

diggernet wrote: post #8

I can't wait for the glorious era of fusion-powered recycling. Dump literally anything in the bin. It all gets vaporized (thanks to plentiful, cheap energy), and is centrifuge-sorted into its constituent atoms. Out of curiosity... Just how delusional am I?

It would work, but we can do much better than brute force. What you’re describing is how I’d turn the Moon and Mercury into a Dyson swarm (as the mineral extraction part of a clanking replicator), but I suspect that even in that example someone who only just managed a chemistry BSc could do vastly better than anything I can imagine.
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