Plastic Recycling Is a Hoax. Environmental groups say the plastics industry has been lying all along.

Robert59

Robert59

Well-known Member
Location
Now I live in Tennesee. Did live in Michigan.
I been plastic recycling for years now to find out this is a waste of time.

Last year, Americans recycled at most 6% of their plastic waste, according to a report released Wednesday by a pair of environmental groups. It's a number that's even worse than it used to be. Every American produced an average 218 pounds of plastic waste in 2018, per Reuters, and the recycling rate stood at 8.7% that year, the last for which the EPA published relevant data. As for the decrease, it's not just that people aren't using recycling bins; the problem is that plastic isnā€™t very recyclable, and it never has been.​


https://www.newser.com/story/320175/plastic-recycling-is-a-hoax.html
 

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It is a sad situation Robert, yet with the growing price of
oil, it would be good business for somebody to turn it back
into oil, add a little alcohol and you get petrol, or leave it as
it is and use in diesel engines, that is that simple answer, but
the real process will be a little more complicated I think.

All you need to start is something like a "Moonshiner's Still"
and a drop of "Ethanol".

Mike.
 
We managed perfectly well without plastic not so long ago. Surely we can go back to those days? I have just been to the greengrocers and there was not a plastic bag in sight. The cucumber was not wrapped in clingfilm, so hopefully it won't 'sweat' and will last longer. Anything which needed wrapping was put in a paper bag.
 

Same problem here in Canada. A lot of the plastics end up in landfills. Apparently, some of Canada's junk has been sent overseas to Asia.......... can you believe that? Now, there are stories that those countries are fed up and are sending the junk back to us. Canada is a huge producer of junk due to our addiction to shopping.
 
NOoooooooo

iu
 
Murrmurr said:
I posted about this quite a while back. Others have too.

It's not always recycled. (5 minutes)


This one shows exactly where recycled plastics go...not where you'd expect. (14 minutes)

Click to expand...
I saw that one about a week ago about plastic winding up in Poland... and recycled. There must be a better way. If we got our best scientists and engineers together, I'm sure they could come up with a solution. Hell, we put a man on the moon back in the '60s when computers were still in their infancy. Surely, we could figure out practical ways to recycle plastic.
 
This is very true, recycling plastics is difficult to impossible. I think the only real solution is to try and turn them into relatively clean fuel, high btu value there. Sometimes I burn plastics in my woodstove, but I don't think that is very clean.

Banning or outlawing plastics would be a big hit to our way of life, we use plastics for too many things. However banning some of the most obnoxious, like the lightweight shopping bags might make sense... maybe.

I think a tax on plastics could help limit use a bit.

@Murrmurr I watched that video when you originally posted it, very informative!
 
Alligatorob said:
This is very true, recycling plastics is difficult to impossible. I think the only real solution is to try and turn them into relatively clean fuel, high btu value there. Sometimes I burn plastics in my woodstove, but I don't think that is very clean.

Banning or outlawing plastics would be a big hit to our way of life, we use plastics for too many things. However banning some of the most obnoxious, like the lightweight shopping bags might make sense... maybe.

I think a tax on plastics could help limit use a bit.

@Murrmurr I watched that video when you originally posted it, very informative!
Click to expand...
A LOT of plastic could simply be eliminated, especially in packaging.

Did you know that the heavier plastic bags actually put out more environmental toxins than the light ones? imo, they should just make shopping bags that break down naturally....maybe plant-based ones.
 
Alligatorob said:
This is very true, recycling plastics is difficult to impossible. I think the only real solution is to try and turn them into relatively clean fuel, high btu value there. Sometimes I burn plastics in my woodstove, but I don't think that is very clean.

Banning or outlawing plastics would be a big hit to our way of life, we use plastics for too many things. However banning some of the most obnoxious, like the lightweight shopping bags might make sense... maybe.

I think a tax on plastics could help limit use a bit.

@Murrmurr I watched that video when you originally posted it, very informative!
Click to expand...
In the second video, the recycling plant in Poland uses the plastic that can't be recycled for fuel to power the machinery and the building. That's a pretty efficient operation.
 
Recycling plastic is difficult here, only plastics that have a redemption value have a clear path, but there's so much more plastic packaging that just goes into the landfills as rubbish. Edit: if there were a home device like a trash compactor that could process plastics into a recyclable form, that would be a welcome step.
 
Maybe they could grind it up, add some kind of bonding agent, and form panels that could be used to build housing for the poor.
 
They could go back to cardboard milk cartons like they had before going to plastic. They could go back to glass bottles for soft drinks instead of plastic. They could make car bumpers and dashboards out of metal again instead of plastic. Paper shopping bags instead of plastic. Lots of things were made with other materials before plastic.
 
Lavinia said:
We managed perfectly well without plastic not so long ago. Surely we can go back to those days? I have just been to the greengrocers and there was not a plastic bag in sight. The cucumber was not wrapped in clingfilm, so hopefully it won't 'sweat' and will last longer. Anything which needed wrapping was put in a paper bag.
Click to expand...
And streets used to be littered with shattered glass everywhere! Flat tires from it etc. because if you get rid of plastic they will use glass instead. šŸ˜–
 
Here in NJ, much of the garbage business, the waste disposal business, has long been associated with the Mafia. And everyone here knew, there was no way those guys were going to be scrupulous about getting things recycled.

And it is across the board, not just plastics.

And even if it is not the Mafia, if businesses are faced with reducing costs dramatically by illegally dumping what they are supposed to recycle...then greed is going to take over and a lot of things are not going to get recycled.

I don't think the point is to give up and not at least try to recycle some things.


The solution is to get government to do its job and properly regulate and supervise companies so that illegal dumping does not exist and so that proper recycling is done.


But, of course, no one wants government to spend the necessary money to do this.

So, nothing gets done.


But, that is now. If we slowly, bit by bit, take steps to make recycling work, we can get it done.

And, I am sure, there are various areas around the country and around the world, where it is accomplished successfully.


We really need to drive the criminals out of all our business and institutional endeavors. Their greed is really obstructing our society's well being.
 
Our council got a shiny new incinerator a year or so ago
and everything, I am told, goes there, including all the
recycling, they even accept stuff from other councils for
a fee.

So recycling here really is a joke and if you don't put it in
the correct bin, you get a fine.

Mike.
 
I'm still able to buy milk in cardboard containers so I do. Veggies go into produce bags and any bakery stuff goes in paper. My poultry does have plastic on top but that is almost all and I bring my own reusable bags everywhere now. So I think I am doing my part, if the other end isn't recycling properly, what can I say.
 
Today I saw the most ridiculous use of plastic.
I ordered a coffee at McDonalds and it came with this hard plastic insert about 2" long which covered the drinking hole in the lid
 
I was so sad when condiments started showing up on the grocery shelves in plastic. I never felt that it was safe for food items to be stored in. I still don't and buy as little in plastic as I can. I would be happy to pay a deposit on glass jars like we have to pay for soda bottles (which are plastic of course) or cans. No matter how much I try not to use plastic it is in every kitchen appliance or anything new that I buy. I gave up the fight.
 

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