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Surely plastic waste is a local problem for only some places? America has no shortage of empty land for landfills, but perhaps India or Singapore has more of a

Surely plastic waste is a local problem for only some places? America has no shortage of empty land for landfills, but perhaps India or Singapore has more of a struggle to put it all somewhere. I live in a country with plenty of wasteland close to my city, and the landfills are well managed to prevent leaching, but people are still really passionate about not using them for plastic. Nobody seems to be able to explain why except to refer to the Pacific garbage patch, which isn't caused by us because our landfills are on land and not spilling into the sea (except that one time when a flooded river broke one open).

chomp 8y ago
>Nobody seems to be able to explain why except to refer to the Pacific garbage patch, which isn't caused by us It's probably caused by us in part. The US ships a huge amount of trash to Asia. [1] In fact, recycling as we know it in many places in the US only works by shipping it to Asia. For example, my city had problems when China created new recycling processing rules, which altered the economics of its recycling program. [2] Its been shown that shipping this stuff over the Pacific isn't a totally clean process. When trash goes to Asian countries, it can fall off the container ships. And the receiving country doesn't have any standards on processing. Impurities can be tossed to the ocean with the country's regular garbage. But yes, Asian countries count for the lion's share of trash in the Pacific. [3] [1] https://unearthed.greenpeace.org/2018/10/05/plastic-waste-china-ban-united-states-america/ https://unearthed.greenpeace.org/2018/10/05/plastic-waste-ch... [2] https://www.houstonchronicle.com/business/article/Can-sputtering-recycling-market-find-a-second-13505492.php https://www.houstonchronicle.com/business/article/Can-sputte... [3] https://science.sciencemag.org/content/347/6223/768 https://science.sciencemag.org/content/347/6223/768
- balfirevic 8y ago
  So... If you want to help the environment, you should not separate your plastic waste and instead put it with the general garbage so it ends up safely in a landfill. Honestly, I myself can't tell if I'm serious.
- lopmotr 8y ago
  That's a problem of recycling, not of using the local landfills. Though not being accepted by China is kind of funny because they tightened their standard for contamination so if western households actually put the effort in to correctly cleaning and sorting their recycling, the contamination would be low enough that it can still be sent. I've heard there's a problem caused by people being too keen on recycling and putting greasy pizza boxes and plastic toys in because they don't realize it's not recyclable. I'm not sure why the collectors don't enforce strict rules and stop collecting from violators.

chomp 8y ago

>Nobody seems to be able to explain why except to refer to the Pacific garbage patch, which isn't caused by us It's probably caused by us in part. The US ships a huge amount of trash to Asia. [1] In fact, recycling as we know it in many places in the US only works by shipping it to Asia. For example, my city had problems when China created new recycling processing rules, which altered the economics of its recycling program. [2] Its been shown that shipping this stuff over the Pacific isn't a totally clean process. When trash goes to Asian countries, it can fall off the container ships. And the receiving country doesn't have any standards on processing. Impurities can be tossed to the ocean with the country's regular garbage. But yes, Asian countries count for the lion's share of trash in the Pacific. [3] [1] https://unearthed.greenpeace.org/2018/10/05/plastic-waste-china-ban-united-states-america/ https://unearthed.greenpeace.org/2018/10/05/plastic-waste-ch... [2] https://www.houstonchronicle.com/business/article/Can-sputtering-recycling-market-find-a-second-13505492.php https://www.houstonchronicle.com/business/article/Can-sputte... [3] https://science.sciencemag.org/content/347/6223/768 https://science.sciencemag.org/content/347/6223/768

balfirevic 8y ago
So... If you want to help the environment, you should not separate your plastic waste and instead put it with the general garbage so it ends up safely in a landfill. Honestly, I myself can't tell if I'm serious.
lopmotr 8y ago
That's a problem of recycling, not of using the local landfills. Though not being accepted by China is kind of funny because they tightened their standard for contamination so if western households actually put the effort in to correctly cleaning and sorting their recycling, the contamination would be low enough that it can still be sent. I've heard there's a problem caused by people being too keen on recycling and putting greasy pizza boxes and plastic toys in because they don't realize it's not recyclable. I'm not sure why the collectors don't enforce strict rules and stop collecting from violators.