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-Plastic is recyclable. Why would you think it's not? -Besides that, paper bags are made up of (dun dun dun) plant material. Which means CO2 is being brought i

-Plastic is recyclable. Why would you think it's not? -Besides that, paper bags are made up of (dun dun dun) plant material. Which means CO2 is being brought into the equation. -The energy required to make a paper bag versus a plastic one are still neck and neck. https://ecomyths.org/2014/05/27/myth-paper-bags-are-greener-than-plastic/ https://ecomyths.org/2014/05/27/myth-paper-bags-are-greener-... I'm not saying plastic bags are better than paper, but they're not really worse, aside from the fact that people suck at disposing of them. You need to get society better at recycling. It's not really the bag's fault.

koube 8y ago
IIRC plastic bags are not recyclable, you cannot meaningfully put them in the recycle bin[0], and the plastic bag collection bins outside of grocery stores go directly to the trash. Looks like that may have changed recently[1] but I'm a bit skeptical that all grocery stores have set up the correct supply chain to have the plastic bags be recycled. [0]: https://livegreen.recyclebank.com/because-you-asked-can-i-recycle-plastic-grocery-bags-in-the-recycling-bin https://livegreen.recyclebank.com/because-you-asked-can-i-re... [1]: https://sfenvironment.org/plastic-bags-plastic-wrap-recyclable https://sfenvironment.org/plastic-bags-plastic-wrap-recyclab...
- tialaramex 8y ago
  The plastic bags are made from can be recycled. If you're determined you can recycle almost anything. However, the bags are a total nightmare for automated or semi-automated sorting of mixed recycling. If you give me 10 trucks per day of mixed soda cans and newspapers, I can build a factory the size of a small building that separates and processes them into bales of crushed steel cans, bales of crushed aluminium cans, and bales of newspaper, all three have recycling markets and I can sell them. If we add "some plastic bags" to those truckloads my machine is now a nightmare. The bags will tangle with anything, and they might more or less at random "hop" over or fall into holes sized to match objects, the machine that sorts alumium cans can't handle them, the machine that bales newspapers can't handle them, everywhere is now "also plastic bags", and all my customers don't want plastic bags, their specifications are clear, a little bit of Pepsi or Budweiser in the bale of steel cans is tolerable, a plastic bag is not; One cardboard loo roll mixed in with the newspaper is tolerable, a plastic bag is not; And so on. I visited a plant in Central London that handles their area's recycling - very noisy, very interesting, they said if visitors took away just one single idea from their visit that idea should be "Don't put any fucking plastic bags in the general recycling".
  - _bxg1 8y ago
    This is a great insight. I always knew they didn't recycle well but I never really understood why, given that they are in fact made of plastic.
  - telchar 8y ago
    Does this apply to bags that aren't of the grocery bag type? Take for example the large linked plastic bubbles that Amazon and such use as padding in their boxes. They have a recycling mark on them (#4, I think), but I'm never sure whether to mix them in with the grocery bags, which I separate from other recyclables, or with the other recyclables.
  - kingosticks 8y ago
    They should probably invest a bit of money in communicating that fact to the general public. For example, on the side of council recycling bins. I can't work out if my neighbours are ignorant or just lazy but it might help a little.
    - sbov 8y ago
      Lazy. Whenever I see it happen, I tell people I know: not to recycle plastic bags, not to recycle food stained paper products. I tell them, and explain why; no one I've told cares, and they all just keep their old habits. "How do they expect us to remember this?" is the response I usually get. How do they expect you to remember what to do in a decision you make literally every day of your life? Too difficult!
      - mmt 8y ago
        That's more than a bit dismissive and ignores what has been the reality, at least here in the US: The rules are different in every (small) municipality, often different between all three of home, work, and other commercial locations and can change remarkably frequently. So, no, it's not something anyone does every day of ones life, at least not in the same way every time, not unless it was, "throw all trash into the one trash can". Food stained paper? Well, actually, today, in some locality, it is recyclable, because it's "compost". For the general public to know the details of the particular waste management program du jour of every geographic location they happen to be in is, indeed, too difficult.
bcheung 8y ago
Recyclable is a relative term. Given a really long time you could say fossil fuels are a renewable energy source too. I think the point here is that other types of bags are either sturdy enough to be reused, or paper, that decomposes MUCH faster and is not anywhere near as harmful to wildlife. In the ocean, paper would break down even faster than on land.

koube 8y ago

IIRC plastic bags are not recyclable, you cannot meaningfully put them in the recycle bin[0], and the plastic bag collection bins outside of grocery stores go directly to the trash. Looks like that may have changed recently[1] but I'm a bit skeptical that all grocery stores have set up the correct supply chain to have the plastic bags be recycled. [0]: https://livegreen.recyclebank.com/because-you-asked-can-i-recycle-plastic-grocery-bags-in-the-recycling-bin https://livegreen.recyclebank.com/because-you-asked-can-i-re... [1]: https://sfenvironment.org/plastic-bags-plastic-wrap-recyclable https://sfenvironment.org/plastic-bags-plastic-wrap-recyclab...

tialaramex 8y ago
The plastic bags are made from can be recycled. If you're determined you can recycle almost anything. However, the bags are a total nightmare for automated or semi-automated sorting of mixed recycling. If you give me 10 trucks per day of mixed soda cans and newspapers, I can build a factory the size of a small building that separates and processes them into bales of crushed steel cans, bales of crushed aluminium cans, and bales of newspaper, all three have recycling markets and I can sell them. If we add "some plastic bags" to those truckloads my machine is now a nightmare. The bags will tangle with anything, and they might more or less at random "hop" over or fall into holes sized to match objects, the machine that sorts alumium cans can't handle them, the machine that bales newspapers can't handle them, everywhere is now "also plastic bags", and all my customers don't want plastic bags, their specifications are clear, a little bit of Pepsi or Budweiser in the bale of steel cans is tolerable, a plastic bag is not; One cardboard loo roll mixed in with the newspaper is tolerable, a plastic bag is not; And so on. I visited a plant in Central London that handles their area's recycling - very noisy, very interesting, they said if visitors took away just one single idea from their visit that idea should be "Don't put any fucking plastic bags in the general recycling".
- _bxg1 8y ago
  This is a great insight. I always knew they didn't recycle well but I never really understood why, given that they are in fact made of plastic.
- telchar 8y ago
  Does this apply to bags that aren't of the grocery bag type? Take for example the large linked plastic bubbles that Amazon and such use as padding in their boxes. They have a recycling mark on them (#4, I think), but I'm never sure whether to mix them in with the grocery bags, which I separate from other recyclables, or with the other recyclables.
- kingosticks 8y ago
  They should probably invest a bit of money in communicating that fact to the general public. For example, on the side of council recycling bins. I can't work out if my neighbours are ignorant or just lazy but it might help a little.
  - sbov 8y ago
    Lazy. Whenever I see it happen, I tell people I know: not to recycle plastic bags, not to recycle food stained paper products. I tell them, and explain why; no one I've told cares, and they all just keep their old habits. "How do they expect us to remember this?" is the response I usually get. How do they expect you to remember what to do in a decision you make literally every day of your life? Too difficult!
    - mmt 8y ago
      That's more than a bit dismissive and ignores what has been the reality, at least here in the US: The rules are different in every (small) municipality, often different between all three of home, work, and other commercial locations and can change remarkably frequently. So, no, it's not something anyone does every day of ones life, at least not in the same way every time, not unless it was, "throw all trash into the one trash can". Food stained paper? Well, actually, today, in some locality, it is recyclable, because it's "compost". For the general public to know the details of the particular waste management program du jour of every geographic location they happen to be in is, indeed, too difficult.

bcheung 8y ago

Recyclable is a relative term. Given a really long time you could say fossil fuels are a renewable energy source too. I think the point here is that other types of bags are either sturdy enough to be reused, or paper, that decomposes MUCH faster and is not anywhere near as harmful to wildlife. In the ocean, paper would break down even faster than on land.