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> Plastic recycling is simply not very practical in the current day. Of course it is practical. Here in Norway we recycle about 30% of all plastic from domest

> Plastic recycling is simply not very practical in the current day. Of course it is practical. Here in Norway we recycle about 30% of all plastic from domestic and industrial waste already. We have some way to go though, glass and metal is over 80%. Some plastic is especially well suited to re-use; for instance, we recycle 73% of PET used for drinks containers. See https://bellona.no/assets/Avfall-Rapport-5.pdf https://bellona.no/assets/Avfall-Rapport-5.pdf

kube-system 5y ago
Or in other words, even with only 5 million people’s plastic in a rich liberal western democracy, you still can’t manage to recycle the vast majority of your plastic. That 70% needs to go somewhere, and a landfill is the best place for it. Not an incinerator, a low income country, or the bottom of the ocean.
- kwhitefoot 5y ago
  Or in yet other words, it takes time to change the habits of a thousand years. None of it goes to a low income country, and very little to the ocean. And our plastic waste per person is less than half of that of the US. Reducing plastic waste isn't merely a question of recycling, one must decide which plastics to allow for which purposes so that recycling can be effective. But not using it in the first place is the most effective. And lastly what does the population of the country have to do with the problem? I this mentioned over and over again in various contexts.
  - kube-system 5y ago
    Scale is a huge part of the current problem with global plastics recycling. There is only so much capacity at recyclers, and there is a massive global oversupply of material to be recycled at the moment. In recent history, much of this oversupply has ended up being shipped to recycling processors in lower income countries where much of it has ended up being dumped. This outcome is much worse for the world than putting it into a landfill in a high income country, despite being officially reported as "recycled". Reducing the amount of plastic used is certainly a good goal, but it's a non-solution to the current problem. Non-recyclable plastics and the recyclable plastics which are destined to be mismanaged on a truck tomorrow are all better off in modern landfills.

kube-system 5y ago

Or in other words, even with only 5 million people’s plastic in a rich liberal western democracy, you still can’t manage to recycle the vast majority of your plastic. That 70% needs to go somewhere, and a landfill is the best place for it. Not an incinerator, a low income country, or the bottom of the ocean.

kwhitefoot 5y ago
Or in yet other words, it takes time to change the habits of a thousand years. None of it goes to a low income country, and very little to the ocean. And our plastic waste per person is less than half of that of the US. Reducing plastic waste isn't merely a question of recycling, one must decide which plastics to allow for which purposes so that recycling can be effective. But not using it in the first place is the most effective. And lastly what does the population of the country have to do with the problem? I this mentioned over and over again in various contexts.
- kube-system 5y ago
  Scale is a huge part of the current problem with global plastics recycling. There is only so much capacity at recyclers, and there is a massive global oversupply of material to be recycled at the moment. In recent history, much of this oversupply has ended up being shipped to recycling processors in lower income countries where much of it has ended up being dumped. This outcome is much worse for the world than putting it into a landfill in a high income country, despite being officially reported as "recycled". Reducing the amount of plastic used is certainly a good goal, but it's a non-solution to the current problem. Non-recyclable plastics and the recyclable plastics which are destined to be mismanaged on a truck tomorrow are all better off in modern landfills.