6 ms·

Plastic breaks down is horrible ways and gets everywhere. It's hard to clean well enough to be recycled. Even when recycled it's still constantly breaking d

by Lio 6y ago

Plastic breaks down is horrible ways and gets everywhere. It's hard to clean well enough to be recycled. Even when recycled it's still constantly breaking down into micro-particles and getting everywhere. If we can't persuade retailers to use something else I kind of think that the best and cleanest use for single use plastic might be to just incinerate it with a very good scrubber system on the exhaust from the incinerator. Get the energy back and do something useful with it. e.g. use it as base load for renewable energy sources like wind and solar. Anything but let it get buried or broken down and into water courses.

specialist 6y ago
> persuade retailers to use something else I've been daydreaming about alternatives. Wrapping bars of deodorant in rice paper. Making it like a bar of soap that you can hold. I found a (mostly) bamboo toothbrush. It's ok. The bamboo dental floss is pretty terrific. Hoping to never buy fleece or spandex again, I'm still looking for hemp (or whatever) "athleisure" clothing. Like pullovers. (My lame attempts to learn to my make own clothing didn't get very far.)
- erikcw 6y ago
  I really like Smart Wool[0]. Really durable product and hi performing — seems to be much more environmentally friendly than synthetic textiles. [0] https://www.smartwool.com/ https://www.smartwool.com/
  - awestroke 6y ago
    They sell clothes made of wool and plastic mix. Nylon, elastane, polyester.
    - intergalplan 6y ago
      Pretty much anything wool that's form-fitting or otherwise meant for athletics or other activity is gonna have some plastic in it, for the stretchiness. Socks, undershirts, athletic shirts, all that kind of thing.
- adamsiem 6y ago
  Deodorant in Cardboard https://www.heyhumans.com/ https://www.heyhumans.com/
  - specialist 6y ago
    Exactly! Just like a push up pop. https://i.redd.it/lnwb4plu2kuy.jpg https://i.redd.it/lnwb4plu2kuy.jpg They have some other interesting products too. Thank!
- dr_orpheus 6y ago
  I see a lot of replacements for more stiff plastics that can be done another way such as the "push pop" deodorants mentioned in other comments. I'm curious what alternatives there are for squeeze bottle items (ketchup, shampoo, etc.) I know that there are alternatives (obviously ketchup comes in glass bottles) but how do you replicate the squeeze bottle with something other than plastic. Right now I have an image in my mind of a juice box full of shampoo, but I haven't actually seen any replacements like this around.
  - specialist 6y ago
    Me too. I anticipate many products will return to powder form. eg I intend to try powder shampoos next time I have to restock.
  - remir 6y ago
    I think we should also focus on reusable containers ideally made of glass or aluminium. You bring your containers to the grocery store and refill it with whatever you need.
admiral33 6y ago
Consumers don't have much choice besides a recycling bin and a trash bin. Landfills are actually a decent option for plastics because the plastic stays in tact (no shredding - creating more microplastics) and in one place - stopping it from escaping into the local ecosystem. Most will use the recycling bin for plastics because they see that as the best option while not knowing the implications of recycling plastic in the United States. Norway has a good system where plastic bottles are made with more plastic to make them thicker/durable, and when the bottles are recycled they are cleaned and reused [0]. [0]: https://www.sciencealert.com/norway-s-recycling-scheme-is-so-effective-92-percent-of-plastic-bottles-can-be-reused https://www.sciencealert.com/norway-s-recycling-scheme-is-so...
- boatsie 6y ago
  The recent articles about delivery drivers peeing in those bottles gives me pause.
- maxerickson 6y ago
  That article doesn't say the bottles are cleaned and reused, it says they have a bottle deposit system and process the recycled material to a high standard.
  - deleted 6y ago
    [deleted]
  - admiral33 6y ago
    "What's more, 92 percent of the bottles recycled yield such high quality material, it can be used again in drink bottles. In some cases, the system has already reused the same material more than 50 times." Also: "Its success is unarguable – 97% of all plastic drinks bottles in Norway are recycled, 92% to such a high standard that they are turned back into drinks bottles. Maldum says some of the material has been recycled more than 50 times already. Less than 1% of plastic bottles end up in the environment." [0] Just articles I found quickly, my friend who split his time between the US and Norway before the pandemic was telling me about it. [0]: https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2018/jul/12/can-norway-help-us-solve-the-plastic-crisis-one-bottle-at-a-time https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2018/jul/12/can-norw...
Syonyk 6y ago
> Get the energy back and do something useful with it. I fully agree about burning the stuff. You accomplish several important things that way: - Destroying it, so it's not going to get washed up on random beaches after claiming to be "recycled" by shoving it in a shipping container and sending it to some country who doesn't have the systems in place to say "No." - Fighting against the marketing of plastics as "clean" and "recyclable." If the stuff is so awful you can't come up with anything better to do than burn it, maybe it's not as nice as it's claimed to be. - Offset some coal use. Out in Boise (and a few other places), there's a pilot program to use the "weird plastics" (not #1/#2, which are now collected in a combined system most places, so I wonder if they're actually getting recycled at all) and burn them in a cement kiln. It's the Hefty Energy Bag program, and while one might rightly question a plastic bag company promoting plastics for energy, they've done what looks to be a pretty solid lifecycle analysis on the various alternatives, and "just burning the stuff instead of coal" works out, by far, the best. https://www.hefty.com/sites/default/files/2021-01/Hefty-EnergyBag-Program-Life-Cycle-Assessment-Aug-2020.pdf https://www.hefty.com/sites/default/files/2021-01/Hefty-Ener...

by Lio 6y ago

specialist 6y ago

> persuade retailers to use something else I've been daydreaming about alternatives. Wrapping bars of deodorant in rice paper. Making it like a bar of soap that you can hold. I found a (mostly) bamboo toothbrush. It's ok. The bamboo dental floss is pretty terrific. Hoping to never buy fleece or spandex again, I'm still looking for hemp (or whatever) "athleisure" clothing. Like pullovers. (My lame attempts to learn to my make own clothing didn't get very far.)

erikcw 6y ago
I really like Smart Wool[0]. Really durable product and hi performing — seems to be much more environmentally friendly than synthetic textiles. [0] https://www.smartwool.com/ https://www.smartwool.com/
- awestroke 6y ago
  They sell clothes made of wool and plastic mix. Nylon, elastane, polyester.
  - intergalplan 6y ago
    Pretty much anything wool that's form-fitting or otherwise meant for athletics or other activity is gonna have some plastic in it, for the stretchiness. Socks, undershirts, athletic shirts, all that kind of thing.
adamsiem 6y ago
Deodorant in Cardboard https://www.heyhumans.com/ https://www.heyhumans.com/
- specialist 6y ago
  Exactly! Just like a push up pop. https://i.redd.it/lnwb4plu2kuy.jpg https://i.redd.it/lnwb4plu2kuy.jpg They have some other interesting products too. Thank!
dr_orpheus 6y ago
I see a lot of replacements for more stiff plastics that can be done another way such as the "push pop" deodorants mentioned in other comments. I'm curious what alternatives there are for squeeze bottle items (ketchup, shampoo, etc.) I know that there are alternatives (obviously ketchup comes in glass bottles) but how do you replicate the squeeze bottle with something other than plastic. Right now I have an image in my mind of a juice box full of shampoo, but I haven't actually seen any replacements like this around.
- specialist 6y ago
  Me too. I anticipate many products will return to powder form. eg I intend to try powder shampoos next time I have to restock.
- remir 6y ago
  I think we should also focus on reusable containers ideally made of glass or aluminium. You bring your containers to the grocery store and refill it with whatever you need.

admiral33 6y ago

Consumers don't have much choice besides a recycling bin and a trash bin. Landfills are actually a decent option for plastics because the plastic stays in tact (no shredding - creating more microplastics) and in one place - stopping it from escaping into the local ecosystem. Most will use the recycling bin for plastics because they see that as the best option while not knowing the implications of recycling plastic in the United States. Norway has a good system where plastic bottles are made with more plastic to make them thicker/durable, and when the bottles are recycled they are cleaned and reused [0]. [0]: https://www.sciencealert.com/norway-s-recycling-scheme-is-so-effective-92-percent-of-plastic-bottles-can-be-reused https://www.sciencealert.com/norway-s-recycling-scheme-is-so...

boatsie 6y ago
The recent articles about delivery drivers peeing in those bottles gives me pause.
maxerickson 6y ago
That article doesn't say the bottles are cleaned and reused, it says they have a bottle deposit system and process the recycled material to a high standard.
- deleted 6y ago
  [deleted]
- admiral33 6y ago
  "What's more, 92 percent of the bottles recycled yield such high quality material, it can be used again in drink bottles. In some cases, the system has already reused the same material more than 50 times." Also: "Its success is unarguable – 97% of all plastic drinks bottles in Norway are recycled, 92% to such a high standard that they are turned back into drinks bottles. Maldum says some of the material has been recycled more than 50 times already. Less than 1% of plastic bottles end up in the environment." [0] Just articles I found quickly, my friend who split his time between the US and Norway before the pandemic was telling me about it. [0]: https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2018/jul/12/can-norway-help-us-solve-the-plastic-crisis-one-bottle-at-a-time https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2018/jul/12/can-norw...

Syonyk 6y ago

> Get the energy back and do something useful with it. I fully agree about burning the stuff. You accomplish several important things that way: - Destroying it, so it's not going to get washed up on random beaches after claiming to be "recycled" by shoving it in a shipping container and sending it to some country who doesn't have the systems in place to say "No." - Fighting against the marketing of plastics as "clean" and "recyclable." If the stuff is so awful you can't come up with anything better to do than burn it, maybe it's not as nice as it's claimed to be. - Offset some coal use. Out in Boise (and a few other places), there's a pilot program to use the "weird plastics" (not #1/#2, which are now collected in a combined system most places, so I wonder if they're actually getting recycled at all) and burn them in a cement kiln. It's the Hefty Energy Bag program, and while one might rightly question a plastic bag company promoting plastics for energy, they've done what looks to be a pretty solid lifecycle analysis on the various alternatives, and "just burning the stuff instead of coal" works out, by far, the best. https://www.hefty.com/sites/default/files/2021-01/Hefty-EnergyBag-Program-Life-Cycle-Assessment-Aug-2020.pdf https://www.hefty.com/sites/default/files/2021-01/Hefty-Ener...