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Great. Regulation and reduction of plastic production is long overdue. There are some places where it makes sense to use plastic, but we're far, far overproduc
by _qwfv 5y ago
Great. Regulation and reduction of plastic production is long overdue.
There are some places where it makes sense to use plastic, but we're far, far overproducing the stuff because it's convenient.
It's fantastically difficult to recycle in practice, burning it produces toxic smoke and carbon emissions, and putting it into the waste stream results in a bunch of it getting dropped on the sides of roadways.
- deleted 5y ago[deleted]
- belinder 5y agoHopefully reduction of plastic production does not lead to reduction in plastic recycling.
- Pfhreak 5y agoNot sure why it would?
- Mediterraneo10 5y agoIf there is less demand for plastic in general, then that means there could be less demand for recycling (properly sorted) old plastic to produce new plastic goods.
- Pfhreak 5y agoWe recycle less than 10% of our plastic. And of that, very little goes back to producing the same products -- plastic is typically degraded when recycled and converted from food packaging down into benches or clothing, both of which will shed microplastics into the environment before being sent to the landfill. Plastic recycling is not an eternal loop like metal recycling can be. It's almost entirely downcycling when it happens at all.
- lstamour 5y agoAs TFA says: > Plastic recycling was invented by the plastics industry in the 1970s to assuage environmental concerns without substantially reducing plastic consumption, according to Max Liboiron, an expert on plastic waste and a professor at Memorial University. > It has never worked. Despite decades of effort, only about nine percent of Canada’s plastic waste is currently recycled, according to the 2019 ECCC-commissioned study.
- belinder 5y agoRight. My point is if we stop producing plastic we are still going to have a lot of plastic waste. Perhaps we could invest instead in actually making recycling work for the waste we already have
- harles 5y agoI think the point is that plastic recycling has never worked and there’s no pathway to making it work in general - regardless of investment.
- mediaman 5y agoIt is true that most plastic is not recycled. It is not true that recycling does not work. California has 87% of its plastic beverage bottles recycled. British Columbia implemented an extended consumer responsibility policy that allows the mixed-stream plastic to get recycled through an automated sortation, shredding and sortation system. Their recovery rate of plastic beverage containers was 73.9% in 2017. Paper produces vastly more carbon than plastic for most disposable items. The existential risk to humans is climate change, more than litter. We need to control litter and excess plastic by increasing recycle rates. The unwillingness to adopt better recycling infrastructure is due to unwillingness to adopt taxes to fund the conversion (the cost of converting mixed streams is greater than the market price of the output commodity), not because it is technologically infeasible. The constant theme of recycling that works is government policy that increases the cost of plastic packaging, and uses those funds to stabilize markets or invest in the expensive equipment that it takes to process the material. But it's worth it to do that compared to the wasteful, CO2 blasting approach of "just switch to paper."
- 29athrowaway 5y agoReducing and reusing are much more important than recycling.
- galangalalgol 5y agoIs there a good list of what things we can reasonably replace? As I'm typing this I wonder what we would use for shock absorbant things like phone cases or water proof seals like cv boots on car suspensions. Edit:. Looking around, electrical insulation, seals, and shock absorbers are the three things that I cant think of a good replacement for. Some seals like for weather proofing you could use spring bronze.
- Pfhreak 5y agoLarge, durable plastic use is less of a concern, if I understand correctly. Plastic use around food (and packaging in general), for instance, has a lifespan of approximately 6 months. Compare to the 13 years for plastics used by the automotive industry. https://advances.sciencemag.org/content/3/7/e1700782 https://advances.sciencemag.org/content/3/7/e1700782 There's TONS of packaging that could be replaced by other materials -- particularly materials that can non-toxically decompose in the environment in a reasonable time frame.
- lstamour 5y agoAnything that can be made from paper, should be. Primarily bags, shipping containers, product packaging, etc. I've seen Amazon replace plastic bubble wrap with paper-based bubble wrap, for example. They use really fine bits of paper and presumably glue to create the "bubbles". Instead of using plastic to wrap shipping containers, you could use a more re-usable material. Or perhaps we could come up with cardboard "rings" or other techniques to keep stuff together instead of wrapping it in plastic. We might have to use more soap or other sterilization techniques, but where practical, using glass containers and aluminum cans would still make sense. I'm certain that if plastic single-use containers were eliminated in convenience stores for a country, we'd see a switch to cans, glass and waxed paper instead, almost overnight. Same as in alcohol stores, perhaps.
- galangalalgol 5y agoCans for food is iffy, without the liners doesn't it disintegrate the metal? Jars work well and can be reused. Bring back deposits!
- datavirtue 5y agoThere is a process being developed where plastic can be recycled back into an oil be burning it and condensing the vapors/smoke into a liquid (capturing it). This is also very good news given the issues we have with recycling. This process would make it much easier since you would not have to sort.
- bogidon 5y agoCurious if we can put said oil back into the earth we extracted it from, or if there are reasons that ecologically would be a bad idea. It’s interesting to me thinking about restoring the environment to a state prior to human interference.
- hateful 5y agoThe fact that there isn't a standard form factor for phones is a big part of the problem IMO.
- ArkanExplorer 5y agoPhones are re-sold and re-used. They would account for a minor fraction of plastic use. It would be completely unreasonable to set a standard form factor and disrupt the market for an evolving product category. What could use a standard form factor would be packaging, especially for glass jars and bottles which could be endlessly re-cycled.