5 ms·

Varies widely across country and the type of thing you're recycling. People are so extreme with recycling, it's either "recycle everything!" or "it's a scam, ju

by rjh29 10mo ago

Varies widely across country and the type of thing you're recycling. People are so extreme with recycling, it's either "recycle everything!" or "it's a scam, just chuck it all in the garbage"

vasco 10mo ago
It varies very widely indeed. In some countries it isn't a scam because it gets burned like Denmark but other than that majority of recycling just means shipping it to a landfill in a poor country that they promise to recycle.
- nandomrumber 10mo ago
  > because it gets burned I wouldn’t really call that recycling.
  - johannes1234321 10mo ago
    As long as the heat is used for something (electricity, building heating etc.) there is at least some reuse of parts of it. And if exhaust ist filtered pollution is also limited. Better than just putting it on a garbage dump and forgetting about it. But yes, not proper recycling.
- eru 10mo ago
  Well, it depends a lot on material. Metals, especially aluminum, get widely recycled because it actually makes financial sense. Plastics, well, you are probably better off burning them for electricity.
- chpatrick 10mo ago
  In Hungary it gets sorted out locally. We also recently implemented a bottle return system that (although it's annoying) produces clean stacks of PET, aluminium and glass, all of which are recyclable.
  - mikkupikku 10mo ago
    Even with PET, arguably the most recyclable plastic, most of it doesn't go bottle-to-bottle but rather bottle-to-textile. Because most PET "recycling" doesn't close the loop, so it's dubious to even call it recycling. That said, some bottle-to-bottle recycling of PET is done, and this has been getting better.
adrianN 10mo ago
I’m relatively sure that electronics are not recycled properly anywhere. At best some of the metals are extracted (hopefully not by mixing the ashes with mercury).
- Fargren 10mo ago
  What would be properly recycling electronics, if not extracting the metals? should the worthless based board to be melted and used for bottles?
  - sejje 10mo ago
    Isn't that the point of recycling? To reuse the reusable materials like plastic?
    - Fargren 10mo ago
      If salvaging 100% of the materials that make up something is the only way to "properly" recycle, we are not recycling anything properly. Some components are not recyclable. I won't speculate about whether the plastic on the board is recyclable, or ecological to recycle. I don't know. This is what I'm asking.
  - adrianN 10mo ago
    Not burning all the ICs and all the other components that still work perfectly fine would be a good start imo.
    - Fargren 9mo ago
      That would fall under Reuse rather than Recycle. Reduce, Reuse and Recycle are in the order of best to worst. Recycling is the last ditch effort to not completely waste something. It's always going to feel like a half measure, because it is.
      - adrianN 9mo ago
roadside_picnic 9mo ago
> "it's a scam, just chuck it all in the garbage" This sentiment is the case because very often that's where recycling ultimately ends, we just pay someone to move it far away from us so we don't have to see it when it happens. Until 2018, when they finally stopped accepting it, one of the US largest exports to China was cardboard boxes sent over for "recycling". We burned tons of bunker fuel shipping back the boxes Chinese goods arrived in. The net environmental impact would likely have been less had we just kept the boxes at home. It's strange to me how often people prefer a widely acknowledged lie than to simply admit the truth. I always recycle though because the recycle bin in my city is larger than my trash bin, and I don't have enough room in my trash bin sometimes.

by rjh29 10mo ago

Varies widely across country and the type of thing you're recycling. People are so extreme with recycling, it's either "recycle everything!" or "it's a scam, just chuck it all in the garbage"

vasco 10mo ago

It varies very widely indeed. In some countries it isn't a scam because it gets burned like Denmark but other than that majority of recycling just means shipping it to a landfill in a poor country that they promise to recycle.

nandomrumber 10mo ago
> because it gets burned I wouldn’t really call that recycling.
- johannes1234321 10mo ago
  As long as the heat is used for something (electricity, building heating etc.) there is at least some reuse of parts of it. And if exhaust ist filtered pollution is also limited. Better than just putting it on a garbage dump and forgetting about it. But yes, not proper recycling.
eru 10mo ago
Well, it depends a lot on material. Metals, especially aluminum, get widely recycled because it actually makes financial sense. Plastics, well, you are probably better off burning them for electricity.
chpatrick 10mo ago
In Hungary it gets sorted out locally. We also recently implemented a bottle return system that (although it's annoying) produces clean stacks of PET, aluminium and glass, all of which are recyclable.
- mikkupikku 10mo ago
  Even with PET, arguably the most recyclable plastic, most of it doesn't go bottle-to-bottle but rather bottle-to-textile. Because most PET "recycling" doesn't close the loop, so it's dubious to even call it recycling. That said, some bottle-to-bottle recycling of PET is done, and this has been getting better.

adrianN 10mo ago

I’m relatively sure that electronics are not recycled properly anywhere. At best some of the metals are extracted (hopefully not by mixing the ashes with mercury).

Fargren 10mo ago
What would be properly recycling electronics, if not extracting the metals? should the worthless based board to be melted and used for bottles?
- sejje 10mo ago
  Isn't that the point of recycling? To reuse the reusable materials like plastic?
  - Fargren 10mo ago
    If salvaging 100% of the materials that make up something is the only way to "properly" recycle, we are not recycling anything properly. Some components are not recyclable. I won't speculate about whether the plastic on the board is recyclable, or ecological to recycle. I don't know. This is what I'm asking.
- adrianN 10mo ago
  Not burning all the ICs and all the other components that still work perfectly fine would be a good start imo.
  - Fargren 9mo ago
    That would fall under Reuse rather than Recycle. Reduce, Reuse and Recycle are in the order of best to worst. Recycling is the last ditch effort to not completely waste something. It's always going to feel like a half measure, because it is.
    - adrianN 9mo ago

roadside_picnic 9mo ago

> "it's a scam, just chuck it all in the garbage" This sentiment is the case because very often that's where recycling ultimately ends, we just pay someone to move it far away from us so we don't have to see it when it happens. Until 2018, when they finally stopped accepting it, one of the US largest exports to China was cardboard boxes sent over for "recycling". We burned tons of bunker fuel shipping back the boxes Chinese goods arrived in. The net environmental impact would likely have been less had we just kept the boxes at home. It's strange to me how often people prefer a widely acknowledged lie than to simply admit the truth. I always recycle though because the recycle bin in my city is larger than my trash bin, and I don't have enough room in my trash bin sometimes.