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The specific question was about recycling. Whether we recycle, landfill or incinerate, I'm not sure what difference that makes to plastic pollution. To deal w

The specific question was about recycling. Whether we recycle, landfill or incinerate, I'm not sure what difference that makes to plastic pollution. To deal with plastic pollution, we need to reduce overall plastic usage and improve collection and waste management.

deleted 4y ago
[deleted]
lm28469 4y ago
Pretty sure the plastic your recycle has less chance to end up in the ocean, soil, your body, &c.
- scatters 4y ago
  Compared to burning it?
- HPsquared 4y ago
  Counterintuitively, recycling plastic tends to involve shipping plastic waste long distances and trading in the waste. Incinerating or burying it is simpler and more reliable. From the wiki article: "The trade in plastic waste has been identified as "a main culprit" of marine litter."
  - gruez 4y ago
    >Counterintuitively, recycling plastic tends to involve shipping plastic waste long distances and trading in the waste. Only 2% of plastic waste is traded between countries. Further, most of that is traded within the same region, so the amount of waste that's shipped across "long distances" is probably under 1%. https://ourworldindata.org/plastic-waste-trade https://ourworldindata.org/plastic-waste-trade
  - lm28469 4y ago
    > Counterintuitively, recycling plastic tends to involve shipping plastic waste long distances and trading in the waste That's just because the clown world we developed only cares about money, as long as the numbers fit in the excel tables we'll do all kind of dumb shit like sending trash to Africa to have it burned in open dumps There is a very easy solution which seemingly isn't even conceived, recycle it locally... really mind blowing I know...
BobbyJo 4y ago
The rate of new production is an upper limit on plastic pollution. Produce less and there is less to leak out into the environment. If you're still using the plastic, then it's not currently degrading in the ocean.
- marginalia_nu 4y ago
  > If you're still using the plastic, then it's not currently degrading in the ocean. I'm curious why the ocean appears to be the terminal destination for plastics. After I throw it in the rubbish bin, which mechanism transports it to the pacific?
  - b112 4y ago
    Because people try to recycle it, it gets shipped to a port, put on a barge, and lots falls off? Or it just gets dumped, when being sent overseas for "recycling"? I've said for decades, that each bit of plastic made, is less plastic used as fuel. Create the plastic, then after, bury it deep in a plastic landfill. It came from deep in the Earth, back it can go. Meanwhile, people have wild schemes to put CO2 deep in the Earth, and that's OK? When not used plastic?
    - sidibe 4y ago
      I'm not against burying plastic but the amount of carbon that's going to contain isn't going to make a big impact in terms of CO2 vs burying timber or other stuff that's much easier to collect in significant mass.
  - ceejayoz 4y ago
    NOAA has you covered. A lot of it starts in the ocean; fishing gear and stuff falling off ships are big sources. https://marinedebris.noaa.gov/where-does-marine-debris-come/ocean-based-marine-debris https://marinedebris.noaa.gov/where-does-marine-debris-come/... Of the stuff that starts on land, it's often carried there by wind and river: https://marinedebris.noaa.gov/where-does-marine-debris-come/land-based-marine-debris https://marinedebris.noaa.gov/where-does-marine-debris-come/...
sokoloff 4y ago
If one of those strategies can be done locally and another requires long distance transport and multiple on/off-loads, I can see how the local one will have less lost to leakage. That might be even more true in communities that assign high priority to less leakage and/or where the process produces energy or other economic benefit for every ton. Moving and handling waste plastic less is a form of improving waste management.

deleted 4y ago

[deleted]

lm28469 4y ago

Pretty sure the plastic your recycle has less chance to end up in the ocean, soil, your body, &c.

scatters 4y ago
Compared to burning it?
HPsquared 4y ago
Counterintuitively, recycling plastic tends to involve shipping plastic waste long distances and trading in the waste. Incinerating or burying it is simpler and more reliable. From the wiki article: "The trade in plastic waste has been identified as "a main culprit" of marine litter."
- gruez 4y ago
  >Counterintuitively, recycling plastic tends to involve shipping plastic waste long distances and trading in the waste. Only 2% of plastic waste is traded between countries. Further, most of that is traded within the same region, so the amount of waste that's shipped across "long distances" is probably under 1%. https://ourworldindata.org/plastic-waste-trade https://ourworldindata.org/plastic-waste-trade
- lm28469 4y ago
  > Counterintuitively, recycling plastic tends to involve shipping plastic waste long distances and trading in the waste That's just because the clown world we developed only cares about money, as long as the numbers fit in the excel tables we'll do all kind of dumb shit like sending trash to Africa to have it burned in open dumps There is a very easy solution which seemingly isn't even conceived, recycle it locally... really mind blowing I know...

BobbyJo 4y ago

The rate of new production is an upper limit on plastic pollution. Produce less and there is less to leak out into the environment. If you're still using the plastic, then it's not currently degrading in the ocean.

marginalia_nu 4y ago
> If you're still using the plastic, then it's not currently degrading in the ocean. I'm curious why the ocean appears to be the terminal destination for plastics. After I throw it in the rubbish bin, which mechanism transports it to the pacific?
- b112 4y ago
  Because people try to recycle it, it gets shipped to a port, put on a barge, and lots falls off? Or it just gets dumped, when being sent overseas for "recycling"? I've said for decades, that each bit of plastic made, is less plastic used as fuel. Create the plastic, then after, bury it deep in a plastic landfill. It came from deep in the Earth, back it can go. Meanwhile, people have wild schemes to put CO2 deep in the Earth, and that's OK? When not used plastic?
  - sidibe 4y ago
    I'm not against burying plastic but the amount of carbon that's going to contain isn't going to make a big impact in terms of CO2 vs burying timber or other stuff that's much easier to collect in significant mass.
- ceejayoz 4y ago
  NOAA has you covered. A lot of it starts in the ocean; fishing gear and stuff falling off ships are big sources. https://marinedebris.noaa.gov/where-does-marine-debris-come/ocean-based-marine-debris https://marinedebris.noaa.gov/where-does-marine-debris-come/... Of the stuff that starts on land, it's often carried there by wind and river: https://marinedebris.noaa.gov/where-does-marine-debris-come/land-based-marine-debris https://marinedebris.noaa.gov/where-does-marine-debris-come/...

sokoloff 4y ago

If one of those strategies can be done locally and another requires long distance transport and multiple on/off-loads, I can see how the local one will have less lost to leakage. That might be even more true in communities that assign high priority to less leakage and/or where the process produces energy or other economic benefit for every ton. Moving and handling waste plastic less is a form of improving waste management.