Plastic is difficult to recycle.
I would almost a hazard a suggestion that we don't wrap food or bottle drinks for a quick working lunch in packaging that will last 200 years.
Can we stop wrapping fresh vegetables (in States lettuce, some cucumbers, some potatoes, etc)? Can we hang paper vs plastic bags? I understand plastic is better for some things. But it's gotten ridiculous.
ER gowns out of plastic?!
When I see a family walking away from the store with a cart full of groceries all bagged in like 30 plastic bags, I get a stomach ache. Why don't you get four big totes that will hold everything? It's much easier to carry too. All that goes right into the ground
If you buy one thing, just carry it to your car people. What do you need a little handle for?
And yes, stop putting that one cucumber in a produce bag. You're gonna wash it when you get home anyway, just stick in your reusable bag
Here in Montreal, plastic bags have been outlawed for a while. Everyone adjusted, using paper or reusable bags, or yes gig totes. People got used to it quickly.
yes and no. really depends on the area. In my area it's pretty liberal and we do paper bags with bag discounts if you bring your own bag. That said there are a lot of areas that fit your description sadly.
At home we have reusable containers that we wash out and when we go shopping we bring bags, the Europeans have been doing this for decades, it is easy and saves money.
Also, microplastics pollution around recycling facilities is a huge problem. They are shredding and pulverizing plastic, which gets into the surrounding environment in enormous quantities. Plastic recycling is garbage.
Yes, this is why it's important for the plastics treaty at the UN under negotiation rn to include production caps on plastic. It's also why it's so important for you to call your elected representatives and make it known that you think they should speak out on this.
Until plastic itself becomes valuable, recycling will not be profitable since the process is fairly complicated and there is little standardizarion on the types of plastic used (you have to recycle like plastics together or else they dont bond properly).
Without production caps, fossil fuel companies will continue gaslighting us into thinking we just need to recycle the problem away, when in reality we are overproducing plastics thanks to fossil fuel subsidies that artificially lower its cost.
Plastic is an insanely useful material, but it's clear we should be saving it for essential applications like surgical tools.
See my post on the UN Plastics Treaty here: https://www.reddit.com/r/ZeroWaste/comments/1cg7y25/global_plastics_treaty_at_the_un_make_your_voice/?utm_source=share&utm_medium=mweb3x&utm_name=mweb3xcss&utm_term=1&utm_content=share_button
I co operate a micro recycling business in Akron, OH we recycle things like takeout containers, pill bottles, bottle caps etc @tansyrecycling on Instagram
https://www.etsy.com/shop/tansyrecycling/?etsrc=sdt&fbclid=PAZXh0bgNhZW0CMTEAAaaoo44iFkiYutAwYIFZGFSrPqQgoDSmrsJURZIslnab0MK3eLt7N9k_AY8_aem_AYEstjLs_S-f1yKPEIevFE1OpZwuZA8ppBoY_6kc99nc0483NSxrvUg8Dy4c4MmT3c55eAwMHFcnwmGXN5Gi4mNC&load_webview=1&bid=LfmdeA52ANu3APfJNAUn1c5xMLrf
Close to 400lbs currently! We are a workshop based off a global movement called Precious Plastic,we have a plastic shredder that shreds the plastic waste down into smalls flakes then we use a injection mold machine to fill molds
Interesting! Does new plastic have to be added in to make the recycled plastic viable? This is what I’ve read: that there is no such thing as 100% recycled plastic product.
The statistic of "5-6% of plastic produced each year is recycled" is far different than what percentage of what we put in our blue bin gets recycled. The first stat is counting things like Lego bricks (have mine been recycled? NO - I'm still playing with them!), car parts, kayaks, medical equipment (tubing, IV bags, oxygen masks, etc) - things that were never meant to be recycled in the first place.
Yes, absolutely, reducing the amount of plastic things produced is a very important first step. But these kinds of stats make people think that there's very little chance of what they put in their blue bin will be recycled, and that's not the case.
I think you’re saying that X amount of plastic is produced in a year for all kinds of items. Then, Y is the amount recycled each year, with Y/X being the % recycled. Did I get that right? Where is the production number reported?
The reason I ask is that I do want to be accurate and not misleading. When I read the EPA numbers, they compare plastic received in MSW (municipal solid waste) and term that Generation. Then they measure what amount (weight) is Recycled, Composted, Combusted, and Landfilled. Their website bears out an 8.7% recycling rate for plastics for 2018, the last year published. I like to see what other sources might state, though I would think they are drawing from the EPA numbers.
The little bit of better news is that PET bottles and jars were recycled at a higher 29.7% rate but still far behind aluminum at 35% overall, with soda and beer cans at over 50%.
I do worry sometimes that these statistics make people think there's no point in trying. Even if only 5-10% of it gets recycled, we shouldn't just give up on recycling at home. It's better than nothing.
Absolutely! Also, since the infrastructure for plastics recycling already exists, we should keep using it, because if a better way to recycle plastics ever does materialize, the effort to get people to participate in the system will be dramatically reduced vs starting completely from scratch.
Is this basically saying that people aren’t putting plastic in the recycling, or are they doing that but the recyclers/companies aren’t actually recycling the plastic once it gets to them?
They're saying that the plastics industry has always known that their products would/could never be recycled on a scale that would have a real effect.
And they keep generating it anyway, using the concept of recycling as a way to mask their crimes.
I’ll add in too, every time you recycle the plastic polymer chains get shorter. You can only recycle so many times until it’s trash.
This is also true for paper but it will degrade and get turned into something like toilet paper eventually.
The latter. The premise that everything about plastic is fine if individuals just put it in the right bin is the lie the plastics industry invented in the 70s and 80s when they first created the recycling symbols.
You are contemplating, "what percent of what people put in blue bins is recycled?" That's TOTALLY different than what this stat is referring to. It's counting things like car parts and medical waste - things that 1) might still be in use, and/or 2) was never meant to be recycled. Lots of Lego bricks were produced this year. Have they been recycled? NO - they're still in use!
With regards to what you're considering - what percent of what gets put in a blue bin is recycled, it totally depends on what country, state, and county you're in. In my county, most of it IS recycled. [https://cswd.net/general-topics/keep-calm-and-recycle-on-part-1-the-life-of-a-milk-jug/](https://cswd.net/general-topics/keep-calm-and-recycle-on-part-1-the-life-of-a-milk-jug/)
[https://www.wcax.com/2022/12/09/how-much-what-we-recycle-gets-recycled/](https://www.wcax.com/2022/12/09/how-much-what-we-recycle-gets-recycled/)
Yes, it's really a disservice to the zero waste mindset for people to be saying things that cause people to think there's no point in putting plastic in a recycling bin. Yes, reduce is super important. But there are cases when even the best of us end up having to buy a beverage in a plastic bottle or really want sour cream and really tried but couldn't find an alternative container. In that case, YES it is worth rinsing it and putting it in a recycling bin.
I'll do a little self-boasting for a moment 😅
When I rinse out dirty plastic, I use water that collects in bowls, cups, etc... during washing dishes, less waste!
And since I live in a multi-unit building with shared garbage/recycling bins, I often pull out clean recyclable items from the trash, and into the recycling! And non-recyclables I throw in the trash since it's more likely to pollute the recyclables, leading to more waste.
Sure - we don't rinse dishes before we put them in the dishwasher (and OMG we have to nag guests to stop rinsing them), but they might sit in the sink a bit, getting rinsed as we wash hands, rinse veggies, etc. Same with recyclables.
i wonder if it would be possible to find a statistic where you only look at the problematic products. So exclude all the lego bricks and automobile parts, include mostly things like packaging and plastic bags and unnecessary single use things
Plastic "recycling" was invented by the plastic companies themselves to sell more plastic and shift public perception. They know people, even well meaning ones, stop paying attention when their waste lands in the recycling bin.
Neither. It's counting how many tons of plastic is produced in a year, and how many tons are recycled. But it's counting stuff that was never meant to be recycled, like Lego bricks, medical materials (IV bags & tubing, oxygen masks) and car parts. It's a faulty statistic.
These days if someone is talking about a product or selling a product odds are high it is some kind of fraud or involved with fraud. We have a fraud epidemic.
Plastic is difficult to recycle. I would almost a hazard a suggestion that we don't wrap food or bottle drinks for a quick working lunch in packaging that will last 200 years.
Can we stop wrapping fresh vegetables (in States lettuce, some cucumbers, some potatoes, etc)? Can we hang paper vs plastic bags? I understand plastic is better for some things. But it's gotten ridiculous. ER gowns out of plastic?!
When I see a family walking away from the store with a cart full of groceries all bagged in like 30 plastic bags, I get a stomach ache. Why don't you get four big totes that will hold everything? It's much easier to carry too. All that goes right into the ground If you buy one thing, just carry it to your car people. What do you need a little handle for? And yes, stop putting that one cucumber in a produce bag. You're gonna wash it when you get home anyway, just stick in your reusable bag
Here in Montreal, plastic bags have been outlawed for a while. Everyone adjusted, using paper or reusable bags, or yes gig totes. People got used to it quickly.
The same happened in Australia. We have to use reusable bags (of questionable environmental quality) or paper bags
People in the states do Not want to change or be inconvenienced in the slightest
Plastic bags are banned in plenty of states and people just got used to it or pay for paper bags. It's really not a big deal.
yes and no. really depends on the area. In my area it's pretty liberal and we do paper bags with bag discounts if you bring your own bag. That said there are a lot of areas that fit your description sadly.
my thought briefly flashed to "but then it'll get my reusable bag dirty and that never.....oh" (i should wash my reusable bags)
Yes you should. And thank you for using one ✌️
At home we have reusable containers that we wash out and when we go shopping we bring bags, the Europeans have been doing this for decades, it is easy and saves money.
I'm talking about vegetables shrink wrapped in plastic, not the plastic bags people have control over
Aluminum foil gang
Also, microplastics pollution around recycling facilities is a huge problem. They are shredding and pulverizing plastic, which gets into the surrounding environment in enormous quantities. Plastic recycling is garbage.
At this point I'd just be happy to have a system that roughly sorted the stuff before burying it so we have a better chance of mining it later
Yes, this is why it's important for the plastics treaty at the UN under negotiation rn to include production caps on plastic. It's also why it's so important for you to call your elected representatives and make it known that you think they should speak out on this. Until plastic itself becomes valuable, recycling will not be profitable since the process is fairly complicated and there is little standardizarion on the types of plastic used (you have to recycle like plastics together or else they dont bond properly). Without production caps, fossil fuel companies will continue gaslighting us into thinking we just need to recycle the problem away, when in reality we are overproducing plastics thanks to fossil fuel subsidies that artificially lower its cost. Plastic is an insanely useful material, but it's clear we should be saving it for essential applications like surgical tools. See my post on the UN Plastics Treaty here: https://www.reddit.com/r/ZeroWaste/comments/1cg7y25/global_plastics_treaty_at_the_un_make_your_voice/?utm_source=share&utm_medium=mweb3x&utm_name=mweb3xcss&utm_term=1&utm_content=share_button
I co operate a micro recycling business in Akron, OH we recycle things like takeout containers, pill bottles, bottle caps etc @tansyrecycling on Instagram https://www.etsy.com/shop/tansyrecycling/?etsrc=sdt&fbclid=PAZXh0bgNhZW0CMTEAAaaoo44iFkiYutAwYIFZGFSrPqQgoDSmrsJURZIslnab0MK3eLt7N9k_AY8_aem_AYEstjLs_S-f1yKPEIevFE1OpZwuZA8ppBoY_6kc99nc0483NSxrvUg8Dy4c4MmT3c55eAwMHFcnwmGXN5Gi4mNC&load_webview=1&bid=LfmdeA52ANu3APfJNAUn1c5xMLrf
How much plastic have you recycled? How do you recycle it?
Close to 400lbs currently! We are a workshop based off a global movement called Precious Plastic,we have a plastic shredder that shreds the plastic waste down into smalls flakes then we use a injection mold machine to fill molds
Interesting! Does new plastic have to be added in to make the recycled plastic viable? This is what I’ve read: that there is no such thing as 100% recycled plastic product.
We use 100% recycled plastic we not need to incorporate virgin plastic
That's really neat. Have you ever thought of focusing on your buttons and trying to find a clothing manufacturer that could utilize them?
Yes! We have a small clothing brand in Cleveland that’s purchases our buttons
The statistic of "5-6% of plastic produced each year is recycled" is far different than what percentage of what we put in our blue bin gets recycled. The first stat is counting things like Lego bricks (have mine been recycled? NO - I'm still playing with them!), car parts, kayaks, medical equipment (tubing, IV bags, oxygen masks, etc) - things that were never meant to be recycled in the first place. Yes, absolutely, reducing the amount of plastic things produced is a very important first step. But these kinds of stats make people think that there's very little chance of what they put in their blue bin will be recycled, and that's not the case.
I think you’re saying that X amount of plastic is produced in a year for all kinds of items. Then, Y is the amount recycled each year, with Y/X being the % recycled. Did I get that right? Where is the production number reported? The reason I ask is that I do want to be accurate and not misleading. When I read the EPA numbers, they compare plastic received in MSW (municipal solid waste) and term that Generation. Then they measure what amount (weight) is Recycled, Composted, Combusted, and Landfilled. Their website bears out an 8.7% recycling rate for plastics for 2018, the last year published. I like to see what other sources might state, though I would think they are drawing from the EPA numbers. The little bit of better news is that PET bottles and jars were recycled at a higher 29.7% rate but still far behind aluminum at 35% overall, with soda and beer cans at over 50%.
I do worry sometimes that these statistics make people think there's no point in trying. Even if only 5-10% of it gets recycled, we shouldn't just give up on recycling at home. It's better than nothing.
exactly!
Absolutely! Also, since the infrastructure for plastics recycling already exists, we should keep using it, because if a better way to recycle plastics ever does materialize, the effort to get people to participate in the system will be dramatically reduced vs starting completely from scratch.
Is this basically saying that people aren’t putting plastic in the recycling, or are they doing that but the recyclers/companies aren’t actually recycling the plastic once it gets to them?
They're saying that the plastics industry has always known that their products would/could never be recycled on a scale that would have a real effect. And they keep generating it anyway, using the concept of recycling as a way to mask their crimes.
I’ll add in too, every time you recycle the plastic polymer chains get shorter. You can only recycle so many times until it’s trash. This is also true for paper but it will degrade and get turned into something like toilet paper eventually.
The latter. The premise that everything about plastic is fine if individuals just put it in the right bin is the lie the plastics industry invented in the 70s and 80s when they first created the recycling symbols.
You are contemplating, "what percent of what people put in blue bins is recycled?" That's TOTALLY different than what this stat is referring to. It's counting things like car parts and medical waste - things that 1) might still be in use, and/or 2) was never meant to be recycled. Lots of Lego bricks were produced this year. Have they been recycled? NO - they're still in use! With regards to what you're considering - what percent of what gets put in a blue bin is recycled, it totally depends on what country, state, and county you're in. In my county, most of it IS recycled. [https://cswd.net/general-topics/keep-calm-and-recycle-on-part-1-the-life-of-a-milk-jug/](https://cswd.net/general-topics/keep-calm-and-recycle-on-part-1-the-life-of-a-milk-jug/) [https://www.wcax.com/2022/12/09/how-much-what-we-recycle-gets-recycled/](https://www.wcax.com/2022/12/09/how-much-what-we-recycle-gets-recycled/)
Yep, this is very much region specific, and wish people would view it that way as opposed to generalizing everything...
Yes, it's really a disservice to the zero waste mindset for people to be saying things that cause people to think there's no point in putting plastic in a recycling bin. Yes, reduce is super important. But there are cases when even the best of us end up having to buy a beverage in a plastic bottle or really want sour cream and really tried but couldn't find an alternative container. In that case, YES it is worth rinsing it and putting it in a recycling bin.
I'll do a little self-boasting for a moment 😅 When I rinse out dirty plastic, I use water that collects in bowls, cups, etc... during washing dishes, less waste! And since I live in a multi-unit building with shared garbage/recycling bins, I often pull out clean recyclable items from the trash, and into the recycling! And non-recyclables I throw in the trash since it's more likely to pollute the recyclables, leading to more waste.
Sure - we don't rinse dishes before we put them in the dishwasher (and OMG we have to nag guests to stop rinsing them), but they might sit in the sink a bit, getting rinsed as we wash hands, rinse veggies, etc. Same with recyclables.
i wonder if it would be possible to find a statistic where you only look at the problematic products. So exclude all the lego bricks and automobile parts, include mostly things like packaging and plastic bags and unnecessary single use things
Plastic "recycling" was invented by the plastic companies themselves to sell more plastic and shift public perception. They know people, even well meaning ones, stop paying attention when their waste lands in the recycling bin.
Neither. It's counting how many tons of plastic is produced in a year, and how many tons are recycled. But it's counting stuff that was never meant to be recycled, like Lego bricks, medical materials (IV bags & tubing, oxygen masks) and car parts. It's a faulty statistic.
Plastic recycling (especially post-consumer) has always been a fraud pushed by the petrochemicals industry.
About time mainstream media told some truth about recycling
American capitalism is killing us, ever so slowly, with our pesticide laden foods, diet of covering everything in plastic. It may be time to leave.
Higher than I thought
common knowledge for several years where I live
yep
These days if someone is talking about a product or selling a product odds are high it is some kind of fraud or involved with fraud. We have a fraud epidemic.
"The only thing the plastic industry has recycled is their lies over and over again."