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> There was no doubt in her mind: Smyla had put that envelope into her recycling bin. “That's polyethelene, and I'd recycle that. If it’s got the recycling symb

> There was no doubt in her mind: Smyla had put that envelope into her recycling bin. “That's polyethelene, and I'd recycle that. If it’s got the recycling symbol on it, into the bin it goes,” she says. “I get a lot of Amazon packages, and they all go into the bin, too.” This thanks to Big Oil. https://www.npr.org/2020/09/11/897692090/how-big-oil-misled-the-public-into-believing-plastic-would-be-recycled https://www.npr.org/2020/09/11/897692090/how-big-oil-misled-...

downrightmike 4y ago
And Big Plastic, consumer recycling was never designed to effectively recycle, it was designed to effectively get people to buy more plastic.
- AceJohnny2 4y ago
  > it was designed to effectively get people to buy more plastic. I hate this kind of cynicism, because it's disempowering when the truth is so much more actionable. In reality, it was designed to be cheap and useful, and with the disposal costs handwaved [1] away. Plastic can be overcome by developing equally useful and cheap materials. [1] "handwaved" really understates the amount of effort that went into dealing with the disposal costs. You don't create national recycling programs and international standards by handwaving. But reality didn't pan out relative to the hopes.
  - downrightmike 4y ago
    https://www.npr.org/2020/09/11/897692090/how-big-oil-misled-the-public-into-believing-plastic-would-be-recycled https://www.npr.org/2020/09/11/897692090/how-big-oil-misled-...
sokoloff 4y ago
> If it’s got the recycling symbol on it, into the bin it goes I wonder if she actually means the resin identification code (RIC) and is confusing that with a recycling symbol. (Edit to add: as in “this is recyclable in your particular blue bin”)
- LarryMullins 4y ago
  It's an easy mistake for people to make. Even identifying something as "polyethylene" is ambiguous. If it's polyethylene terephthalate (PET) or "high-density polyethylene" (HDPE) then it is very likely recyclable. But if it's "low-density polyethylene" (plastic bags) then in principle it is recyclable but likely isn't through normal curbside pickup.
  - duderific 4y ago
    I could be wrong, but it seems like if it's plastic and you can easily crumple it into a ball, you probably can't put it into your recycling bin.
- deleted 4y ago
  [deleted]
- burkaman 4y ago
  She's not confused, the RIC literally is the recycling symbol by any useful definition of the word "symbol". The plastic industry intentionally adopted it in order to lie to their customers. Another example of a symbol is a stop sign. When you see a stop sign with a slightly different color or font than you're used to, you (correctly) think "that's a stop sign, I should slow to a stop before proceeding". You don't think "that orange octagon that says STOP isn't the exact vector image that I saw in the textbook, so it could mean anything and I will just ignore it". It's like if I bought fat-free milk that actually had fat in it, and the company said "oh you must have been confused, Fat-Free™ is our line of products for those who feel liberated to consume as much fat as they want".
  - sokoloff 4y ago
    It is a recycling symbol for sure. It doesn’t mean “so put this in your blue bin” because your blue bin processing is probably not set up to separate all the different resins.
    - burkaman 4y ago
andrewstuart 4y ago
I put glass, paper and metal into recycle. I throw all plastics into the garbage bin - this is because I don’t believe in plastic recycling.
- therealdrag0 4y ago
  I put heavy plastic in the recycling (like laundry detergent bottles) because an interview with a recycler on PlanetMoney implied that was still valuable stuff.

downrightmike 4y ago

And Big Plastic, consumer recycling was never designed to effectively recycle, it was designed to effectively get people to buy more plastic.

AceJohnny2 4y ago
> it was designed to effectively get people to buy more plastic. I hate this kind of cynicism, because it's disempowering when the truth is so much more actionable. In reality, it was designed to be cheap and useful, and with the disposal costs handwaved [1] away. Plastic can be overcome by developing equally useful and cheap materials. [1] "handwaved" really understates the amount of effort that went into dealing with the disposal costs. You don't create national recycling programs and international standards by handwaving. But reality didn't pan out relative to the hopes.
- downrightmike 4y ago
  https://www.npr.org/2020/09/11/897692090/how-big-oil-misled-the-public-into-believing-plastic-would-be-recycled https://www.npr.org/2020/09/11/897692090/how-big-oil-misled-...

sokoloff 4y ago

> If it’s got the recycling symbol on it, into the bin it goes I wonder if she actually means the resin identification code (RIC) and is confusing that with a recycling symbol. (Edit to add: as in “this is recyclable in your particular blue bin”)

LarryMullins 4y ago
It's an easy mistake for people to make. Even identifying something as "polyethylene" is ambiguous. If it's polyethylene terephthalate (PET) or "high-density polyethylene" (HDPE) then it is very likely recyclable. But if it's "low-density polyethylene" (plastic bags) then in principle it is recyclable but likely isn't through normal curbside pickup.
- duderific 4y ago
  I could be wrong, but it seems like if it's plastic and you can easily crumple it into a ball, you probably can't put it into your recycling bin.
deleted 4y ago
[deleted]
burkaman 4y ago
She's not confused, the RIC literally is the recycling symbol by any useful definition of the word "symbol". The plastic industry intentionally adopted it in order to lie to their customers. Another example of a symbol is a stop sign. When you see a stop sign with a slightly different color or font than you're used to, you (correctly) think "that's a stop sign, I should slow to a stop before proceeding". You don't think "that orange octagon that says STOP isn't the exact vector image that I saw in the textbook, so it could mean anything and I will just ignore it". It's like if I bought fat-free milk that actually had fat in it, and the company said "oh you must have been confused, Fat-Free™ is our line of products for those who feel liberated to consume as much fat as they want".
- sokoloff 4y ago
  It is a recycling symbol for sure. It doesn’t mean “so put this in your blue bin” because your blue bin processing is probably not set up to separate all the different resins.
  - burkaman 4y ago

andrewstuart 4y ago

I put glass, paper and metal into recycle. I throw all plastics into the garbage bin - this is because I don’t believe in plastic recycling.

therealdrag0 4y ago
I put heavy plastic in the recycling (like laundry detergent bottles) because an interview with a recycler on PlanetMoney implied that was still valuable stuff.