3 ms·

Very little gets recycled, in reality. It mostly goes to landfill - e.g. https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2019/jun/21/us-plastic-recycling-landfills https://

by hnhg 4y ago

Very little gets recycled, in reality. It mostly goes to landfill - e.g. https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2019/jun/21/us-plastic-recycling-landfills https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2019/jun/21/us-plastic-r...

picture 4y ago
Landfills are a very effective solution for disposing of stuff when they can't otherwise be economically reused or recycled. As long as food waste stays out, landfills are quite inert. They should have clay lining to prevent waste seeping into the ecosystem.
maxerickson 4y ago
Please be more specific if you are going to spread that may-may. It's non bottle plastic that ends up in landfills. Paper, cardboard, metal, #1 plastic bottles and #2 plastic bottles all recycle well.
- hnhg 4y ago
  I'll try on my side below but that goes both ways - where are your figures coming from, and for which country/geography? You also seem to have switched the topic from how much gets recycled to what can be recycled well. This says that the vast majority of plastic globally is not recycled: https://ourworldindata.org/plastic-pollution https://ourworldindata.org/plastic-pollution Recycling rate for paper is much, much better, granted, in many countries: https://ourworldindata.org/grapher/recycling-rates-paper-and-cardboard?tab=chart&country=~ESP https://ourworldindata.org/grapher/recycling-rates-paper-and... The recycling of metals depends on which metal, of course. In general, IMO there is far too much depressing reading like this - 'An estimated 70–80% of the MSW generated in Africa is recyclable, yet only 4% of MSW is currently recycled': https://wedocs.unep.org/bitstream/handle/20.500.11822/30975/Africa_WMO_Poster.pdf https://wedocs.unep.org/bitstream/handle/20.500.11822/30975/... I can't find any figures that say recycling is a success story across the world, or even economically viable and sustainable across most popular types of waste.
bromuro 4y ago
Even done properly, “recycling” is not environmentally friendly: “reuse” is always the better choice. That is, consume less.

by hnhg 4y ago

picture 4y ago

Landfills are a very effective solution for disposing of stuff when they can't otherwise be economically reused or recycled. As long as food waste stays out, landfills are quite inert. They should have clay lining to prevent waste seeping into the ecosystem.

maxerickson 4y ago

Please be more specific if you are going to spread that may-may. It's non bottle plastic that ends up in landfills. Paper, cardboard, metal, #1 plastic bottles and #2 plastic bottles all recycle well.

hnhg 4y ago
I'll try on my side below but that goes both ways - where are your figures coming from, and for which country/geography? You also seem to have switched the topic from how much gets recycled to what can be recycled well. This says that the vast majority of plastic globally is not recycled: https://ourworldindata.org/plastic-pollution https://ourworldindata.org/plastic-pollution Recycling rate for paper is much, much better, granted, in many countries: https://ourworldindata.org/grapher/recycling-rates-paper-and-cardboard?tab=chart&country=~ESP https://ourworldindata.org/grapher/recycling-rates-paper-and... The recycling of metals depends on which metal, of course. In general, IMO there is far too much depressing reading like this - 'An estimated 70–80% of the MSW generated in Africa is recyclable, yet only 4% of MSW is currently recycled': https://wedocs.unep.org/bitstream/handle/20.500.11822/30975/Africa_WMO_Poster.pdf https://wedocs.unep.org/bitstream/handle/20.500.11822/30975/... I can't find any figures that say recycling is a success story across the world, or even economically viable and sustainable across most popular types of waste.

bromuro 4y ago

Even done properly, “recycling” is not environmentally friendly: “reuse” is always the better choice. That is, consume less.