11 ms·

I'm not convinced of that. If you watch any documentaries or read any articles about the processing that goes on you'll see that it's very labor intensive. That

• rusk 8y ago
  It's all a matter of process innovation. When there's enough financial incentives somebody will figure out how to do it cost effectively. Up until now it was more cost effective to export it.
  • HillaryBriss 8y ago
    > When there's enough financial incentives somebody will figure out how to do it cost effectively. Indeed they have. In Los Angeles, thousands of individual profiteers, usually pushing wheeled carts, comb through tens of thousands of large blue recycling bins in residential areas extracting the most valuable bottles and cans. They exchange these containers for cash at automated recycling centers. (The mitigating circumstance is that the state of California subsidizes the recycling centers.)
    • rusk 8y ago
      Nice try. The scale of your problems will require a little more coordination than a few tramps and lazy sarcasm however
      • schiffern 8y ago
        >lazy sarcasm I took it as anything but. Ethical issues aside, it's a proven, low cost solution that does scale. Why should a more coordinated solution be superior (see: planned economies)? Label everything, put bottle deposits on everything (an idea which greenwashing groups like KAB hate and fight strongly against), and the return rates skyrocket and contamination rates plummet. It's the only proven formula.
      • HillaryBriss 8y ago
        I wasn't being sarcastic and I wouldn't use the insulting term 'tramps' to label them.