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The recycling myth: A plastic waste solution littered with failure
- saddlerustle 5y ago> It’s being trucked to a cement plant northeast of Salt Lake City that burns it for fuel. That seems way worse than putting it in a landfill?
- ashtonkem 5y agoOn which metric? For global warming it’s worse, but it’s probably better in terms of water and soil pollution.
- saddlerustle 5y agoThe water and soil pollution from a landfill is predominantly caused by biodegradable waste. Hard plastics aren't a big contributor because they're stable for a hundred years.
- TheRealPomax 5y ago"This is future humanity's problem, if there ever is one" is not a great argument though. Eventually it destabilized, and 400 years from now all the plastic we've put in the grounds in the last few decades will "suddenly" all create a whole new problem.
- saddlerustle 5y agoYes, but climate change is definitely going to cause problems in far less than 400 years, and landfill soil pollution is highly regional problem, not a global problem.
- zug_zug 5y agoWell, I'd presume it's releasing a lot of chemicals into the air. https://www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/2015/jul/21/bpa-exposure-hormone-disrupting-fda-missouri-study-bisphenol-endocrine https://www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/2015/jul/21/bpa-exp...
- Spooky23 5y agoCement is a cornucopia of nasty stuff anyway.
- ashtonkem 5y agoIt also releases CO2 at roughly a 1:1 ratio too. One ton of cement is roughly one ton of CO2.
- ashtonkem 5y agoI skimmed, but I don’t see anything in that article about burning. Given that BPA begins to decompose at a measly 227C, I doubt a lot of it would escape a proper incinerator.
- ju-st 5y agoIt's better for global warming when the plastic is replacing oil/gas in the cement plant.
- Forge36 5y agoIs burning the waste to CO2 worse than the methane from decay in a landfill?
- saddlerustle 5y agoPlastics don't decay into methane in significant quantities.
- toast0 5y agoBurning waste for fuel is generally a good thing, if done with reasonable emissions controls. Less waste to store in a landfill. Less new fossil fuel extracted to run the cement plant. Less fuel used to transport the fuel.
- saddlerustle 5y agoIt makes no difference to the atmosphere whether you're burning oil or plastics made out of oil. It's better to not burn oil at all!
- escape_goat 5y agoThis is a somewhat blinkered perspective. It's true in a sense, but the emissions can be offset by not burning some oil that's in the ground not causing any problems. In the meantime, it is an optimal way of getting rid of huge categories of toxic or otherwise intransigent waste that will have harmful effects if they are not removed from the biosphere.
- saddlerustle 5y agoBut carbon in the atmosphere has a much worse effect on the biosphere than plastics in a landfill.
- escape_goat 5y agoThis is a false assertion. There is always carbon in the atmosphere and there should always be carbon in the atmosphere. The only thing that has a negative impact is when the total amount of carbon is excessive. "Plastics in a landfill" are poorly and temporarily sequestered and are a potential source of future groundwater contamination.
- saddlerustle 5y agoIt’s very well established that the current amount of carbon is the atmosphere is excessive.
- thrower123 5y agoWith modern emissions controls in an incinerator, you take a tractor trailer load of waste and turn it into a coffee can of ash that needs to go in the landfill. And you get a megawatt/hour of electricity out.
- saddlerustle 5y agoA landfill is a far more sensible place for the waste to end up than the atmosphere.
- crisdux 5y agoNot necessarily. In countries like Japan and Sweden, they claim that their waste to energy (trash burning) operations reduce greenhouse gases when all factors are considered. So much so that Sweden imports trash to burn. Landfills arent the best place either. For example, organic waste decomposing in landfills produces methane gas, which is way more potent than carbon dioxide. There is an argument to be made that burning organic waste is better than burying it. Trash incinerations are too controversial in the US to expand much. I think because of a ill-informed public.
- saddlerustle 5y agoVolatile organic waste yes, but most plastic waste doesn't decay into methane in significant quantities.
- crisdux 5y agoBut still, America has a large untapped opportunity to curb greenhouse gas emissions through more use of trash burning power plants. What's required is the right controls, technology and public education. That included mixed trash with plastics. Our efforts to reduce emissions need to be multi pronged.
- lou1306 5y agoSomewhat related: John Oliver recently did a segment [0] on plastics and how we recycle it (spoiler: mostly we can't). It seems regulations are sorely needed: differentiating domestic plastic waste will not get us very far. Still, research on waste reuse must continue: I'm afraid we won't put effort into really cleaning up our mess unless it becomes a somewhat profitable business. [0] https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=Fiu9GSOmt8E https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=Fiu9GSOmt8E
- dccoolgai 5y agoI remember when the film "plastic China" came out and blew the lid off this whole "industry". Looking back, I think it's in the running for one of the most impactful works ever produced on film.
- relax88 5y agoOne thing I’m always curious about is why we are so concerned with plastic waste. My local grocery store recently switched to paper bags. So I got curious. Turns out you have to re-use a paper bag 43 times for the energy use to be the same as plastic grocery bags. This is impossible since they are made of paper. Aluminum and glass bottles require several hundred times more energy to produce as well (between 170-250x). Then when you look at plastic pollution and see that for the most part North America is quite good at properly disposing of plastic you wonder why we are so obsessed with this as a problem. Plastic waste really isn’t a big problem unless you’re talking about developing nations. North America is responsible for about 3% of mismanaged plastic waste. Asia and Africa account for 86% of it. Don’t get me started on plastic straws. They make up 0.03% of plastic waste in the ocean. If we want to make a difference here we should be helping developing nations to better manage their plastic waste so that it doesn’t end up in waterways. The Yangtze and Ganges are releasing plastic into the ocean at a rate far greater than all of North America combined, and our response is to expend huge amounts of energy produced by fossil fuels trying to recycle our plastic instead of burying it in a landfill where it is unlikely to pose a major ecological threat. Like many environmental initiatives I worry that we’re more concerned about making ourselves feel better than actually solving the problem.
- deleted 5y ago[deleted]
- MattGaiser 5y agoMostly because it is clearly visible and enduring pollution I think.
- beached_whale 5y agoA large chunk of the recycled materials in Canada and the US is not recycled domestically and a majority of that is sent to countries with inadequate controls. So the culpability starts with the users/manufacturers.
- vimy 5y agoI often see this claim but never any evidence for it. How do we know it’s Western plastic being dumped in rivers instead of their own thrash?
- speeder 5y agoI was thinking these days, that when I was a kid some 20 years ago, people were all the rage against paper, because you had to cut trees and whatnot, everything was switching to plastic so you could "save the trees" I still wonder what that was about, all it did was screw the paper companies that had their own private forests, and cause the stupid plastic patch on the pacific ocean, and now everyone has to switch BACK to paper.
- hoppyhoppy2 5y agoMaybe the overarching moral of the story is that single-use "disposable" products aren't a good environmental option regardless of what material they're made of.
- jolux 5y agoThis is true but the incentives are currently not calibrated to ensure that more durable products are used. Making disposable bags more expensive, or similar to, reusable bags would go a long way here, I think. And there are some cases where disposables are important for hygiene and safety, like medical usage. But it would be best to reduce production to those things that have a strong reason to be disposable.
- cogman10 5y agoI have a little bit of a different take here. Paper products represent carbon sequestration. Single use paper products are great in that they are capturing and locking atmospheric carbon. Trees are renewable resources that can be farmed. I never understood the "save the trees" argument. From what? Most modern lumber harvesting not only cuts down trees, but plants new trees for later harvest. Same way we plant other consumables. Where's the "save the potato!" movement?
- the-smug-one 5y agoWell, the slogan should be something like "Save diverse fauna, flora and funghi which goes through a natural life cycle inside of a vast forest with trees of varying species and ages", but that doesn't fit on a t-shirt :). Edit: Apparently all living organisms are collectively called "biota", cool.
- gotoeleven 5y agoI mean I guess it's nice that a mainstream press outlet is finally admitting what has been known for 20+ years--that recycling, with few exceptions like aluminum, is a big waste of energy and wealth and is a net negative for the environment overall--but only when they can somehow blame it on "big oil." Maybe we can end the idiotic ritual of sorting our garbage like hobos now? The focus should be on reducing plastic usage overall and using paper-based materials except where absolutely necessary. The recycling catechism telling us the answer to waste is recycling has probably done more harm than good because it has prevented us from thinking properly about the problem.
- stewbrew 5y agoAgain? This is getting tiresome.
- ggcdn 5y agoWe’ve been misled for so long into thinking this is a consumer problem that needs downstream solutions. Actually I think it’s a regulatory problem that needs upstream regulation
- samstave 5y agoI agree, I have always thought that these biggest CPG (Consumer packaged goods) companies, oil and plastics companies should be required to have a larger % of their packaging as glass, paper, mycelium, etc. and they should be required to accept any and all used products containers and recycle them themselves. We think of milk men and the reusable coke bottle programs as archaic in the day of instant gratification from something that you then just throw away after single use. Milk companies, and the coke cleaning recycling program (in the Philippines) for example are good examples of a more closed loop packaging solution.
- samstave 5y agoAnd dont forget that California looted the CRV fund that was supposed to go to help pay for these programs and spent/stole the money for other things... NPR had a story on it a few years back. https://duckduckgo.com/?t=ffab&q=npr+story+on+california+crv+recycling+progam+funds&atb=v268-1&ia=web https://duckduckgo.com/?t=ffab&q=npr+story+on+california+crv...
- aurizon 5y agoOn the face of it, this is like a bottle deposit - an incentive to return the glass bottles = clean, check and refill. This works well with beer/soda bottles made of glass. Enter plastic bottles. The soft nature of plastics make wash/test/inspect/re-use impractical with a high fail rate(unless you started with better bottles) makes recycled bottles cost more than new ones. The basic nature of packaging must be changed so the life-cycle cost is applied at the front end. So Coca-Cola sells a 1 liter of coke = they pay a recycle cost of - say 39 cents and that is collected by an account bot, which prints a unique ~48 bit unique ID on the bottle and which follows to the recycle end and which can be redeemed to grab and segregate the bottles into unique piles of pure plastic and the bot tallies and funds each stage = the motivation that replaces altruism to make it happen. Money works this way, if you throw away or lose money, people will 'recycle' it... I feel the only way to deal with the amount of trash we create is to interdict the production in the first place (if possible) and to adequately monetize the trapping and re-use of whatever waste we make. We are in a 'stern chase', so it will take years. The border is a good check point. Imports bar code and the fee charged at importation - no matter how they wiggle/squirm/lobby - they must pay the end case recycle/reuse fee up front. Same for all domestic manufacturers. It will take years to implement, but the crap in the ocean has taken years to build up = the build-down will take as long - but it must be done.
- jvanderbot 5y agoI agree with the sentiment of the article: Inter-state and global companies making cost-saving moves to plastic benefiting big plastic producers and passing the pollution blame to consumers / local governments is a move we've seen far too often. > The trouble, it said, was that Boise’s waste was contaminated with other garbage at 10 times the level it was told to expect. > Boise spokesperson Colin Hickman said the city was not aware of any statements or assurances made to Renewlogy about specific levels of contamination. Classic. There's definitely contamination level agreements for recycling companies, which Renewlogy probably got, yet Hickman said he never made statements or assurances to Renewlogy. (Which is probably true -- they were communicated to the recycling pickup companies!). And hang on: > It’s being trucked to a cement plant northeast of Salt Lake City that burns it for fuel. That's ... a win? > Most of those endeavors are agreements between small advanced recycling firms and big oil and chemicals companies or consumer brands, including ExxonMobil Corp, Royal Dutch Shell Plc and Procter & Gamble Co (P&G). All are still operating on a modest scale or have closed down, and more than half are years behind schedule on previously announced commercial plans, according to the Reuters review. Sounds like the ``perpetrators'' are funding possible solutions instead of shutting down entirely. Demonizing this is not going to help, you know.
- legitster 5y agoI don't understand the argument against plastics. - Extract oil from underground - Buy oil off the market, prevent it from being burned - Turn it into affordable and useful goods - Properly dispose of it by burying it underground again Obviously a bit simplistic, but it seems like plastics are a rudimentary carbon sequestration technology!
- ceejayoz 5y agoIf the goal is carbon sequestration, just skip... all of your steps, and leave the oil in the ground, where it is already-sequestered carbon.
- NullPrefix 5y agoNo way to pay VAT and increase GDP if you skip all the steps
- deleted 5y ago[deleted]
- dahart 5y agoToo bad the steps where you extract oil and turn it into goods produce and emit a whole bunch of co2 into the atmosphere, otherwise this might make a believably simplistic solution. Oh, and the pesky problem with needing to burn a bunch of oil just to produce plastic and get it delivered. BTW the term carbon sequestration is talking about extracting co2 from the atmosphere today to slow co2 pollution. It is not referring to using fossil fuel carbons from the ground or carbon that was in the atmosphere millions of years ago. It doesn’t even make sense to suggest you’re ‘sequestering’ carbon by pulling it out the ground and then putting it back. Curious, what parts of the argument against plastic aren’t making sense? The main problems with plastic is it’s non-renewable and doesn’t decompose, so we’re going to run out and we can’t get it back. If you’re a proponent of plastic, these facts should worry you, no?
- londons_explore 5y agoPlenty of paper bags don't really break down either. From the 'inks' which are actually a plastic coating, to the plastic based glue, to the paper itself which seems to rot far far slower than wood fibers, presumably because of some additive. Try it today - put a grocery store paper bag in your compost, and watch it still be there in a decade.
- antattack 5y agoWe need to disincentivize use of food containers that are hard to recycle. For example: Some yogurt containers are pure plastic with paper ring around that has text/graphic. After use paper ring is easy to take off and plastic easy to recycle and better quality. Also, I recently found that black plastic is not being recycled at all because it's impossible for current technology to sort it (because it's black).
- brisance 5y agoThe tone of this article feels like fear-mongering. There are bioplastics which are less harmful on the environment, are compostable and sourced from 100% renewable and sustainable sources. Some bioplastics like PLA are biocompatible; sutures and tea bags are made from it. We're still in the early stages of this technology and it seems premature to tar everything with such a broad brush.
- fmajid 5y agoPlastic recycling is a scam designed to lull people's conscience with the illusion that it will be taken care of, when the reality is it ends up in landfill or worse. I think we should phase out plastic for aluminum instead. It's estimated 75% of all the aluminum ever produced is still in use because of recycling. Instead of wasting time and effort in trying to make material that is inherently hard and unprofitable to recycle recyclable, use one that has a proven track record of being profitably recycled.
- beckman466 5y agoFrom the top comment and others like it, it seems many of us are looking at this from a non-systemic viewpoint. Example: > Plastic waste really isn’t a big problem unless you’re talking about developing nations. North America is responsible for about 3% of mismanaged plastic waste. Asia and Africa account for 86% of it. Except when you look at the logos that are on the waste, you see that they are all products made by Global North/Western companies (Coca Cola bottles, etc.). So is it really fair to blame workers who buy things in unsustainable packaging that is produced by a big company? I love the short movie 'The Story of Stuff'. It does a great job of illustrating that we should focus on the point of production (and the pollution caused there by big companies), instead of looking at the point where we meet the products for the first time (on a shelf in a store). The Story of Stuff by Annie Leonard: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9GorqroigqM https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9GorqroigqM
- Meandering 5y agoThanks for linking "The Story of Stuff". I remembered the content but forgot the title. I would look at how gasification is evolving for waste disposal. So, who is responsible for improper disposal of waste? I would say that the end consumer has a responsibility to dispose waste correctly. However, it seems the ability to do so has been tainted by a horrible waste management system. Plastic Wars: https://www.pbs.org/wgbh/frontline/film/plastic-wars/ https://www.pbs.org/wgbh/frontline/film/plastic-wars/ Plastic is a cheap and versatile material. It is a by-product of an independently lucrative business; oil. I would love to see alternatives but, the development of sustainable packaging is hiding behind a research market barrier and the economic cost difference between the cheap "waste" product of oil. I hope consumer choice leads use to a better system... where those choices are informed and have influence.
- throwaway984393 5y agoI love this classic journalistic style. No editorializing, simply stating collected facts - and actually following up on information, and then reaching out to all parties for comment, and publishing it, whether it fits "the narrative" or not. I know pop journalism will never go back to this style, but I wish we could make it popular so that people don't lull themselves into seeking entertainment over information.
- burlesona 5y agoThat is Reuters house style. Dry, dry news. It’s great!
- olivermarks 5y agoThe Chinese used to manually process imported western recycling, they stopped in 2017. https://youtu.be/jnNNnHTLjmg https://youtu.be/jnNNnHTLjmg It's a complicated global issue far greater than the use of oil to run vehicles via petroleum/gasoline which is highly energy efficient. We are focusing on ending this instead of the use of oil to make tires (22 gallons per unit,Tire particulate pollution in cities is a huge issue for clean air) and plastics which produce a lot of pollution and waste and which vehicles are increasingly made out of. . There are bio product alternatives for many plastic packaging products but little pressure to evolve...
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- 6gvONxR4sf7o 5y ago> Pressure is also building for “polluter-pays” laws that would shift the cost of waste collection from taxpayers to the companies that make and use plastic. Earlier this month, Maine became the first U.S. state to pass such legislation… The American Chemistry Council (ACC), an industry group whose membership is dominated by plastics makers, says polluter-pays measures would hurt the economy. This is the kind of solution that seems to appeal to HN and appeals to me personally. It’s a system-wide incentives problem. So just change the incentives and price in the externality, right? Same goes for carbon taxes. I hope these kinds of laws catch on.
- mothsonasloth 5y agoRenewlogy sounds like the Theranos of recycling.
- pessimizer 5y agoNo, Theranos's entire purpose was to attract huge amounts of investment. Renewology is filing for $250,000 grants and has garbage piled up behind an empty warehouse. Renewology is one of many excuses propped up by the oil industry as a reason for us to continue to produce disposable plastic (or to produce even more disposable plastic.)
- ezconnect 5y agoAs much as we hate plastic waste it made our food distribution safer and cleaner.
- dang 5y agoRecycling threads, recycled: Oil Companies Touted Recycling to Sell More Plastic - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=24454067 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=24454067 - Sept 2020 (232 comments) How Big Oil Misled the Public into Believing Plastic Would Be Recycled - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=24441979 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=24441979 - Sept 2020 (313 comments) Pringles tube tries to wake from 'recycling nightmare' - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=24440516 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=24440516 - Sept 2020 (395 comments) Plastics pile up as coronavirus hits Asia recyclers - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=23040674 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=23040674 - May 2020 (19 comments) 'Horrible hybrids': the plastic products that give recyclers nightmares - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=22927072 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=22927072 - April 2020 (40 comments) Industry spent millions selling recycling, to sell more plastic - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=22741635 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=22741635 - March 2020 (105 comments) Coke and Pepsi are getting sued for lying about recycling - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=22467015 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=22467015 - March 2020 (170 comments) Is Recycling a Waste of Time? - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=22318165 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=22318165 - Feb 2020 (94 comments) Recycling Rethink: What to Do with Trash Now China Won’t Take It - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=21837414 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=21837414 - Dec 2019 (152 comments) The Great Recycling Con [video] - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=21742196 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=21742196 - Dec 2019 (77 comments) How Coca-Cola Undermines Plastic Recycling Efforts - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=21303618 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=21303618 - Oct 2019 (132 comments) All plastic waste could be recycled into new plastic: researchers - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=21297639 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=21297639 - Oct 2019 (150 comments) We asked three companies to recycle plastic and only one did - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=21102560 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=21102560 - Sept 2019 (64 comments) Exposing the Myth of Plastic Recycling - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=21043986 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=21043986 - Sept 2019 (17 comments) Plastics: What's Recyclable, What Becomes Trash and Why - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=20762789 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=20762789 - Aug 2019 (215 comments) Smart plastic incineration posited as solution to global recycling crisis - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=20728911 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=20728911 - Aug 2019 (84 comments) 'Plastic recycling is a myth': what really happens to your rubbish - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=20726689 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=20726689 - Aug 2019 (63 comments) Americans' plastic recycling is dumped in landfills - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=20549804 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=20549804 - July 2019 (282 comments) Landfill is underrated and recycling overrated - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=20433851 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=20433851 - July 2019 (336 comments) I work in the environmental movement. I don’t care if you recycle - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=20134641 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=20134641 - June 2019 (15 comments) Why Recycling Doesn't Work - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=19889365 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=19889365 - May 2019 (216 comments) Reycling Plastic from the Inside Out - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=19844551 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=19844551 - May 2019 (46 comments) Bikes, bowling balls, and the balancing act that is modern recycling (2015) - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=19799348 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=19799348 - May 2019 (35 comments) Just 10% of U.S. plastic gets recycled. A new kind of plastic could change that - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=19728391 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=19728391 - April 2019 (116 comments) America Finally Admits Recycling Doesn’t Work - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=19483074 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=19483074 - March 2019 (35 comments) The World's Recycling Is in Chaos. Here's What Has to Happen - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=19399543 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=19399543 - March 2019 (25 comments) What Happens Now That China Won't Take U.S. Recycling - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=19346342 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=19346342 - March 2019 (219 comments) The Era of Easy Recycling May Be Coming to an End - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=18893252 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=18893252 - Jan 2019 (84 comments) Recycling in the United States is in serious trouble. How does it work? - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=17841584 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=17841584 - Aug 2018 (94 comments) Trash piles up in US as China closes door to recycling - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=17677698 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=17677698 - Aug 2018 (272 comments) Californians love to recycle, but it's no longer doing any good - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=17495872 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=17495872 - July 2018 (14 comments) Plastic recycling is a problem consumers can't solve - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=17409152 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=17409152 - June 2018 (441 comments) An enzyme that digests plastic could boost recycling - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=16856246 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=16856246 - April 2018 (122 comments) Plastics Pile Up as China Refuses to Take the West’s Recycling - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=16174719 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=16174719 - Jan 2018 (71 comments) Recycling Chaos in U.S. As China Bans 'Foreign Waste' - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=15888827 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=15888827 - Dec 2017 (233 comments) China Bans Foreign Waste – What Will Happen to the World's Recycling? - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=15528740 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=15528740 - Oct 2017 (63 comments) Is it time to rethink recycling? - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=11083898 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=11083898 - Feb 2016 (147 comments) The Reign of Recycling - https://archive.is/o8LBm https://archive.is/o8LBm - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=10327585 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=10327585 - Oct 2015 (34 comments) Recycling is Garbage (1996) - https://archive.is/JKG7y https://archive.is/JKG7y - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=9757853 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=9757853 - June 2015 (55 comments) Is Recycling Worth It? - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=7778956 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=7778956 - May 2014 (13 comments) Recycling is Bullshit; Make Nov. 15 Zero Waste Day, not America Recycles Day - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=1186666 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=1186666 - March 2010 (18 comments) The Recycling Myth - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=937097 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=937097 - Nov 2009 (36 comments)
- golemiprague 5y agoJapan burns most of its plastic for energy in a pretty clean way, why not copy it to other places? Maybe not ideal but pretty decent solution
- softwaredoug 5y agoHonest question: isn’t putting plastics in landfills the ultimate form of carbon capture? Or is there a version of doing this that is net negative carbon?
- rapjr9 5y agoPlasma gasification seems like an ideal way to deal with all waste, including plastics: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Plasma_gasification https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Plasma_gasification
- doggodaddo78 5y agoThe plastics industry pushed recycling (Reduce, Reuse, Recycle) as an individual's duty to return piles of packaging and single-use items, not the manufacturer's, to subtly shift the blame for microplastics and plastic pollution.