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Planet Money (NPR) did an excellent episode about this. Short answer, yes, recycling is a scam. #925: A Mob Boss, A Garbage Boat and Why We Recycle

crazygringo 1y ago
To be clear, plastic recycling is pretty much a scam. Recycling aluminum cans is fantastic. Clear glass bottles and corrugated cardboard are also great for recycling.
- diggan 1y ago
  Honest/naive question: If something like https://www.preciousplastic.com/universe/how-does-it-work https://www.preciousplastic.com/universe/how-does-it-work was in much, much wider use, would it have any realistic impact on the problem about recycling plastic? Since it's doing it in a very different way, and seems better at actually reusing the material.
  - ahi 1y ago
    Calling it "precious" is just a bit too on the nose. That looks more like an art project than an actual solution. One of their shredders working 24/365 can get through <500 tons. In 2018, US generated 35.6 million tons of plastic. Industrial problems require industrial (or legislative) solutions.
  - lesuorac 1y ago
    The general problem is that new plastic is cheaper to produce than recycled plastic is to re-use. So, something like preciousplastic doesn't occur wide spread because it's more expensive and therefore worse under a capitalistic model. You'd need to add a tax to new plastic to change that fact.
- Dig1t 1y ago
  Glass bottle recycling is a pretty cool process, the “How It’s Made” episode on fiberglass insulation is awesome. They basically crush the bottles and make glass cotton candy out of it. It’s nearly a 100% conversion and it ends up going into creating new housing for people. Basically the best kind of recycling.
  - ip26 1y ago
    Lead battery recycling is pretty incredible, with allegedly 80% of the lead in a new battery being recycled lead.
    - aerostable_slug 1y ago
      Lead recycling is so successful that there are no longer American primary smelters extracting the metal from ore. All lead smelting in the US is secondary, making use of recycled materials.
  - nofunsir 1y ago
    In my area, most of the glass recycled gets sent to the landfill as a daily layer drainage cover.
- ploxiln 1y ago
  What gets me about public recycling communications/outreach/programs is that they always emphasize "recycle more" and never "recycle carefully". Really it should be "First, don't put junk in the recycling (do no harm). Second, if you have clean appropriate objects, put them in the recycling." In fancy office buildings and residential buildings around NYC I've seen inappropriate junk in the recycling all the time, practically every time I put in my recycling. Plastic wraps and plastic milk cartons in the paper. Paper and food in the bottles/cans. It's always unclear about toys and household plastic objects that very likely have additives that make them not recyclable. Nobody ever emphasizes recycling correctly, but in any documentary where they look inside recycling centers you see them dealing with machines clogged with inappropriate materials, huge bales of negative-value mixed materials, etc. This is the stuff that was getting secretly shipped to Asia for dubious handling because it was too low-value for actual processing/usage in the US. I don't blame oil companies, or manufacturers, really everyone has been in on this collective delusion: teachers, politicians, community organizers, everyone I see is all about more recycling, recycling good. While actually we've been trashing the recycling systems/processes for decades, while cheering it on. And I'm some weird nerd engineer type who cares if thing work or not.
  - beAbU 1y ago
    I worked in a wework building for a while, there they made a huuuuge fuss about the separated recycling bin. We had to be super careful about what we put in which bins. My desk was near a kitchen area. Every day, without fail, the cleaner would come and empty the separate bins into one large bin when taking out the trash.
- bryanlarsen 1y ago
  post-industrial recycling of many different materials are even more fantastic than post-consumer aluminum recycling.
- Ekaros 1y ago
  Isn't glass actually bit questionable? The energy difference between pristine material and glass isn't very big. Unlike aluminium where it is massive. Still, it is probably good to remove it from other places.

crazygringo 1y ago

To be clear, plastic recycling is pretty much a scam. Recycling aluminum cans is fantastic. Clear glass bottles and corrugated cardboard are also great for recycling.

diggan 1y ago
Honest/naive question: If something like https://www.preciousplastic.com/universe/how-does-it-work https://www.preciousplastic.com/universe/how-does-it-work was in much, much wider use, would it have any realistic impact on the problem about recycling plastic? Since it's doing it in a very different way, and seems better at actually reusing the material.
- ahi 1y ago
  Calling it "precious" is just a bit too on the nose. That looks more like an art project than an actual solution. One of their shredders working 24/365 can get through <500 tons. In 2018, US generated 35.6 million tons of plastic. Industrial problems require industrial (or legislative) solutions.
- lesuorac 1y ago
  The general problem is that new plastic is cheaper to produce than recycled plastic is to re-use. So, something like preciousplastic doesn't occur wide spread because it's more expensive and therefore worse under a capitalistic model. You'd need to add a tax to new plastic to change that fact.
Dig1t 1y ago
Glass bottle recycling is a pretty cool process, the “How It’s Made” episode on fiberglass insulation is awesome. They basically crush the bottles and make glass cotton candy out of it. It’s nearly a 100% conversion and it ends up going into creating new housing for people. Basically the best kind of recycling.
- ip26 1y ago
  Lead battery recycling is pretty incredible, with allegedly 80% of the lead in a new battery being recycled lead.
  - aerostable_slug 1y ago
    Lead recycling is so successful that there are no longer American primary smelters extracting the metal from ore. All lead smelting in the US is secondary, making use of recycled materials.
- nofunsir 1y ago
  In my area, most of the glass recycled gets sent to the landfill as a daily layer drainage cover.
ploxiln 1y ago
What gets me about public recycling communications/outreach/programs is that they always emphasize "recycle more" and never "recycle carefully". Really it should be "First, don't put junk in the recycling (do no harm). Second, if you have clean appropriate objects, put them in the recycling." In fancy office buildings and residential buildings around NYC I've seen inappropriate junk in the recycling all the time, practically every time I put in my recycling. Plastic wraps and plastic milk cartons in the paper. Paper and food in the bottles/cans. It's always unclear about toys and household plastic objects that very likely have additives that make them not recyclable. Nobody ever emphasizes recycling correctly, but in any documentary where they look inside recycling centers you see them dealing with machines clogged with inappropriate materials, huge bales of negative-value mixed materials, etc. This is the stuff that was getting secretly shipped to Asia for dubious handling because it was too low-value for actual processing/usage in the US. I don't blame oil companies, or manufacturers, really everyone has been in on this collective delusion: teachers, politicians, community organizers, everyone I see is all about more recycling, recycling good. While actually we've been trashing the recycling systems/processes for decades, while cheering it on. And I'm some weird nerd engineer type who cares if thing work or not.
- beAbU 1y ago
  I worked in a wework building for a while, there they made a huuuuge fuss about the separated recycling bin. We had to be super careful about what we put in which bins. My desk was near a kitchen area. Every day, without fail, the cleaner would come and empty the separate bins into one large bin when taking out the trash.
bryanlarsen 1y ago
post-industrial recycling of many different materials are even more fantastic than post-consumer aluminum recycling.
Ekaros 1y ago
Isn't glass actually bit questionable? The energy difference between pristine material and glass isn't very big. Unlike aluminium where it is massive. Still, it is probably good to remove it from other places.