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For decades I have meticulously washed and sorted my blue bin recyclables. Now they are banning plastics because people on the other side of the world treat the

For decades I have meticulously washed and sorted my blue bin recyclables. Now they are banning plastics because people on the other side of the world treat their rivers as garbage dumps. I don’t litter. Don’t punish me. I see this as a cynical re-election strategy. The election is in four months and the polls are not looking good for Trudeau. Awash in scandal and forseeing a strong Conservative turnout, he’s trying to grab votes from the Greens and NDP.

srj 7y ago
Your blue bin recyclables were shipped to Asia and then dumped into a river. There's no economic sense to plastic recycling. The only viable strategies are to standardize on reuse or promote materials that are recyclable (i.e. aluminum).
- brandon272 7y ago
  Not to mention that plenty of people are not "meticulously washing and sorting" their recyclables and the popular method of single stream recycling is producing contaminated recycling streams filled with trash and non-compliant items. https://fivethirtyeight.com/features/the-era-of-easy-recycling-may-be-coming-to-an-end/ https://fivethirtyeight.com/features/the-era-of-easy-recycli...
mmartinson 7y ago
The problem is, it seems like much of the careful recycling didn't really work. It was never a circular system, just one in which a couple extra uses could be rinsed out due to some extra shipping capacity on container ships making it cheap to get it overseas. How would it be for you if instead of a ban, a heavy disposal fee was added at the time of purchase to fund extensive waste sorting and recycling locally? How much is single use convenience worth to you? $1 per plastic fork? It may be an awkward vote grab, but it's an glaring problem nonetheless.
- kmlx 7y ago
  "How would it be for you if instead of a ban, a heavy disposal fee was added at the time of purchase to fund extensive waste sorting and recycling locally?" how about the recycling companies pay us instead? we provide them with the raw materials, they profit. see plastic bottles' recycling all across europe. or the (ancient) glass bottles.
  - lozenge 7y ago
    Recycled material isn't worth enough to pay you, due to: * cost of sorting * contamination, which can cause huge batches to be thrown out * decreasing quality and decreasing possibilities for use - what was once food safe plastic, can become bleach bottle plastic, which then becomes insulation or paving slabs. There is insufficient demand for paving slabs compared to the amount of plastic going into the recycling stream. The only exception is aluminium cans, as it is much cheaper than smelting new aluminium, and just as useful. The recycling industry is subsidised because trash is an externality.
rocky1138 7y ago
Our current recycling methods are not working. Less than 11% of plastic in Canada is recycled. https://www.narcity.com/news/environment-officials-reveal-that-90-of-canadas-plastic-is-not-recycled https://www.narcity.com/news/environment-officials-reveal-th...

srj 7y ago

Your blue bin recyclables were shipped to Asia and then dumped into a river. There's no economic sense to plastic recycling. The only viable strategies are to standardize on reuse or promote materials that are recyclable (i.e. aluminum).

brandon272 7y ago
Not to mention that plenty of people are not "meticulously washing and sorting" their recyclables and the popular method of single stream recycling is producing contaminated recycling streams filled with trash and non-compliant items. https://fivethirtyeight.com/features/the-era-of-easy-recycling-may-be-coming-to-an-end/ https://fivethirtyeight.com/features/the-era-of-easy-recycli...

mmartinson 7y ago

The problem is, it seems like much of the careful recycling didn't really work. It was never a circular system, just one in which a couple extra uses could be rinsed out due to some extra shipping capacity on container ships making it cheap to get it overseas. How would it be for you if instead of a ban, a heavy disposal fee was added at the time of purchase to fund extensive waste sorting and recycling locally? How much is single use convenience worth to you? $1 per plastic fork? It may be an awkward vote grab, but it's an glaring problem nonetheless.

kmlx 7y ago
"How would it be for you if instead of a ban, a heavy disposal fee was added at the time of purchase to fund extensive waste sorting and recycling locally?" how about the recycling companies pay us instead? we provide them with the raw materials, they profit. see plastic bottles' recycling all across europe. or the (ancient) glass bottles.
- lozenge 7y ago
  Recycled material isn't worth enough to pay you, due to: * cost of sorting * contamination, which can cause huge batches to be thrown out * decreasing quality and decreasing possibilities for use - what was once food safe plastic, can become bleach bottle plastic, which then becomes insulation or paving slabs. There is insufficient demand for paving slabs compared to the amount of plastic going into the recycling stream. The only exception is aluminium cans, as it is much cheaper than smelting new aluminium, and just as useful. The recycling industry is subsidised because trash is an externality.

rocky1138 7y ago

Our current recycling methods are not working. Less than 11% of plastic in Canada is recycled. https://www.narcity.com/news/environment-officials-reveal-that-90-of-canadas-plastic-is-not-recycled https://www.narcity.com/news/environment-officials-reveal-th...