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The other day I noticed someone had deposited a disposable coffee cup in the compost bin. The top was a plastic lid. This plastic lid will wind up in an industr

The other day I noticed someone had deposited a disposable coffee cup in the compost bin. The top was a plastic lid. This plastic lid will wind up in an industrial composter, and degrade into a few largish chunks of plastic. This compost (with the plastic remains) will then be dumped on a farm field somewhere. It will then rain, and those plastic fragments will then wind up washing in to the ocean. The point of this story: if you genuinely care about having clean water and a clean food chain, put the right materials in the right waste bins. Details: https://www.npr.org/sections/thesalt/2018/04/06/600174922/another-place-plastics-are-turning-up-organic-fertilizer-from-food-waste https://www.npr.org/sections/thesalt/2018/04/06/600174922/an...

speg 9y ago
Don't they float the plastic out? Our composter is starting to accept plastic bags and I think while reading about the process, I saw the plastic gets skimmed of somehow.
whiddershins 9y ago
Any system that can be so easily defeated by user mistakes is a terrible system. That’s self evident in a software development context, but I feel like people lose track of that in the real world. Asking people to correctly sort their trash in to more and more specific categories manually seems like a system set up to fail. People aren’t necessarily that trainable or malleable or conscientious. Yelling at people to be more careful is only going to get us so far. We need robust systems that can tolerate at least a certain threshold of abuse by the user. The ideal system would require no thought on the part of the user, it would be impossible to break it through misuse.
- quantum_magpie 9y ago
  The system does work in civilized societies, though. Getting a couple hundred euro fine for improper sorting fixes the issue really fast.
privacypoller 9y ago
our recycling allows/encourages coffee cups, lids and sleeves all together. plastic bags/wrap are really hard to recycle and some jurisdictions have stopped collecting them all together glass jars are probably the worst though - the energy to transport, sort and reclaim is far greater than making new jars. Some of the most committed recyclers throw them away rather than burden the system.
- greedo 9y ago
  Plastic bags are arguably better for the environment than the alternatives: https://www2.mst.dk/Udgiv/publications/2018/02/978-87-93614-73-4.pdf https://www2.mst.dk/Udgiv/publications/2018/02/978-87-93614-...
slededit 9y ago
PLA is biodegradable - not all plastics are around forever.

speg 9y ago

Don't they float the plastic out? Our composter is starting to accept plastic bags and I think while reading about the process, I saw the plastic gets skimmed of somehow.

whiddershins 9y ago

Any system that can be so easily defeated by user mistakes is a terrible system. That’s self evident in a software development context, but I feel like people lose track of that in the real world. Asking people to correctly sort their trash in to more and more specific categories manually seems like a system set up to fail. People aren’t necessarily that trainable or malleable or conscientious. Yelling at people to be more careful is only going to get us so far. We need robust systems that can tolerate at least a certain threshold of abuse by the user. The ideal system would require no thought on the part of the user, it would be impossible to break it through misuse.

quantum_magpie 9y ago
The system does work in civilized societies, though. Getting a couple hundred euro fine for improper sorting fixes the issue really fast.

privacypoller 9y ago

our recycling allows/encourages coffee cups, lids and sleeves all together. plastic bags/wrap are really hard to recycle and some jurisdictions have stopped collecting them all together glass jars are probably the worst though - the energy to transport, sort and reclaim is far greater than making new jars. Some of the most committed recyclers throw them away rather than burden the system.

greedo 9y ago
Plastic bags are arguably better for the environment than the alternatives: https://www2.mst.dk/Udgiv/publications/2018/02/978-87-93614-73-4.pdf https://www2.mst.dk/Udgiv/publications/2018/02/978-87-93614-...

slededit 9y ago

PLA is biodegradable - not all plastics are around forever.