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Recyclable is a scam perpetuated by the plastic industry. You should be using reusable glass which is expensive to replace but cheap to refill.
by radicaldreamer 3y ago
Recyclable is a scam perpetuated by the plastic industry. You should be using reusable glass which is expensive to replace but cheap to refill.
- rightbyte 3y agoWhere I live only restaurants can buy glass bottle soda. It is quite sad, since I like those. They are way nicer to drink from.
- vladvasiliu 3y agoWhere I live, everyone can buy bottled water in glass bottles. I think there are now glass bottles with Coca Cola, too, though I'm not certain (I don't drink soda). The catch is they're obscenely expensive.
- mavhc 3y agoThere's free water in the tap
- AlecSchueler 3y ago> a scam perpetuated by the plastic industry What does this actually mean and what are you basing it on? Without any sources or references it reads a bit like FUD.
- stavros 3y agoThere have been a few articles about that recently. However, you can notice it for yourself if you notice how many products claim to be "recyclable" but how few are recycled. If recycling were widespread, you'd expect the vast majority of products to be made with recycled plastic.
- AlecSchueler 3y agoThe ineffectives of recycling is one thing, but the person above posited that the paid industry were up to no good as well.
- peoplefromibiza 3y agoI guess it might refer to the fact that 80% of the plastic produced ends up in landfills and it's not recycled, for different reasons, one of them is that recycling plastic is very expensive. Also there are several different types of plastic that do not melt together, or do not melt at all, and can't be easily recycled or reused. It also degrades and becomes more toxic on every cycle and, unlike glass, health safety of recycled plastic cannot be guaranteed so to package food the only safe option is to make new plastic.
- distances 3y agoIs the 80% a number for the US? In northern Europe I assume that a small percentage is recycled and the rest is incinerated for electricity and heat -- landfill usage has restrictions in the EU. Some countries like Sweden and Finland use incineration to such extent that they have a lack of domestic waste and have to import it [0]. [0] https://yle.fi/a/74-20076606 https://yle.fi/a/74-20076606
- peoplefromibiza 3y agoaccording to Our World in data While we might think that much of the world's plastic waste is recycled, only 9% is. Half of the world's plastic still goes straight to landfill. Another fifth is mismanaged – meaning it is not recycled, incinerated, or kept in sealed landfills – putting it at risk of being leaked into rivers, lakes, and the ocean. I misworded my first sentence, I meant that 80% either goes to the landfill or it's not recycled, but apparently it's more like 70%.
- AlecSchueler 3y agoThat's fine but calling it a scam by the plastic industry suggests intention, bad inventing, from the plastic industry. I'm asking if that's the case.
- apendleton 3y agoHere's an article: https://newrepublic.com/article/179267/recycling-doesnt-work-plastics-industry-knew https://newrepublic.com/article/179267/recycling-doesnt-work... The gist: similar to Big Tobacco, etc., internally with the plastics industry, there seems to have been a much greater degree of pessimism about the long-term economic viability of plastics recycling, but it was sold to the public anyway via ad campaigns and lobbying to forestall regulation or legislation limiting plastics as public sentiment was shifting towards a greater sense of environmental awareness.
- Ensorceled 3y agoIt takes mere moments to google "how much plastic is actually recycled" You would have to be naive to believe that executives in the petroleum and plastic industries are unaware of how little plastic is actually recycled rather than complicit.
- AlecSchueler 3y agoI'm aware of how much plastic is recycled. I'm not convinced that the plastic industry conspired to pull the wool over the publics eyes about it.
- kalleboo 3y agoWhere I grew up the reason stated when they replaced glass with plastic was that the weight of the glass alone caused more pollution from transport than the plastic bottles that replaced them
- leadingthenet 3y agoIt's not just about emissions, though. Single-use plastics literally just accumulate in landfills until the end of time, while glass is highly recyclable (and one of the few economically viable ones).
- bombcar 3y agoArguably putting plastic back in landfills is just returning oil back to earth, but it’s not a pretty site.
- kalleboo 3y agoI've never lived anywhere that landfills garbage so I don't know about that.
- ssl-3 3y agoGlass is infinitely recyclable, but is seldom actually-recycled since making new glass is often the least expensive route.
- pfdietz 3y agoI view recycling schemes for plastics as a way to make burning the stuff more convenient. Which is not necessarily a bad thing. After fossil fuels are done, the reduced carbon in the waste stream (including plastics, but also cellulosic materials) will become more valuable as feedstock for various chemical processes. Garbage refining will be a thing. It will be an aggressive chemical endeavor, more akin to petroleum refining than to recycling.
- RandallBrown 3y agoThere's a book I read as a kid that takes place in the sort of near future after we've run out of oil. The only people that have plastic in this future society are extremely wealthy and poor people "mine" old landfills looking for plastic to sell. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Ear,_the_Eye_and_the_Arm https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Ear,_the_Eye_and_the_Arm
- pfdietz 3y agoThat's not plausible, IMO. Plastic may become somewhat more expensive, but it doesn't require fossil fuels. Overall secular increase in societal wealth should overcome any transient increase in price.
- lm28469 3y agoIn Germany we have reusable thick plastic bottles, and a deposit system that's attractive enough for people to bother bringing them back (or for homeless people to collect them). Not perfect but much better than single use plastic
- tastyfreeze 3y agoGlass bottles require local cleaning and filling infrastructure to make refilling economical. We don't have that infrastructure anymore.