An MIT researcher says we should trash all our recyclable plastic, and he's probably right

yahoo.com ^ | October 8, 2019 | Hilary Brueck

[grundle]

Recycling plastic uses up a lot of resources, and after all the hauling around, sorting, and processing of bottles and containers, it often ends up getting thrown away or burned.

MIT business researcher Andrew McAfee says we'd be better off putting our plastic waste into well-managed landfills.

He argues we should spend our "mental budget for thinking about the Earth on more high-impact changes," like carbon taxes on major polluters and nuclear energy.

[captain_dave]

Plasma burning of garbage was feature in, I think, the March 2007 edition of Popular Science.
See: http://large.stanford.edu/publications/power/references/behar/

[TheNext]

Burn it.

Burn plastic burn.

[Fido969]

Turn the plastic into credit cards, and use those to give everyone a basic minimum income, and solve the national debt at the same time.

[poconopundit]

Every week on TV Japan my wife and I watch a TV show called "Ryu Talking Live".  It's a showcase for innovative companies throughout Japan who are succeeding in all sorts of entrepreneurial businesses.  It's an entertaining show because it combines half video in the stores or factory, then they bring the CEO into the studio to talk about his business strategies.  These are the hosts of the show: 

They profile successful restaurant chains, specialty bakeries, retail/wholesale firms, and niche manufacturers, and service firms.  To me, this kind of show is better than the TEDtalks because it's practical ideas and success thinking for business. A Make Japan Great Again show :- )

Last week they profile Kao Corporation, a kind of consumer goods like Procter and Gamble.  But Kao specializes in consumer products that the large firms do not carry.

And they showed a remarkable "pouch" they invented that greatly reduces the need for bulky plastic shampoo bottles and the like.  See below:

The consumer buys an attractive -- but collapsable -- package from the local store.  Then, at home the pouch loads directly into the plastic bottle you already own. See below:

A cool thing about this packaging is they designed the spout of the pouch in a way that drains the pouch completely so there's not even a drop of liquid wasted.

If packaging like this was adopted, it would lower costs and cut down on bulky plastic containers in a big way.

[Bommer]

Actually rotting garbage produces methane. Put in a few power plants.

[fso301]

Landfills are not free either, and take up land, and usually cannot be built on top of

They can be converted into nice parks once filled up.

[V K Lee]

What a concept! A company attempts to eliminate waste.
How many here constantly bemoan the fact that many containers are made
which only make it more difficult to get 'the last drop'.
Bad, bad, bad party here.
No recycling. No attempt to recycle.
No rules that we must recycle. Occasionally, will recycle egg shells (eggshell mosaics)
or plastic jars with plastic lids: peanut butter jars (homemade hummingbird feeders).

The American market place certainly needs a solid shake up and could use new concepts such as this.

Are we so arrogant we will never attempt a new idea? A small pouch takes so little room in a land fill as opposed to a 'refill bottle' of liquid soap (for example)

[Chickensoup]

except for cardboard, every recyclable is burned in this state.

Therefore I no longer recycle.

It is a trained chimp act.

another government intrusion and demand without merit or meaning.

[Chickensoup]

Paper.

That what starts the woodstove fire the best.

[FreedomPoster]

Based on that, he wants to return us to the early 20th Century, economy wise. If that.

You’re right, not a smart guy.

[Secret Agent Man]

Now if my local community would actually recycle it.

Most of what i separate out doesn’t get recycled because the place that recycles it cant handle the volume.

[Secret Agent Man]

CO2 IS PLANT FOOD.

[Falconspeed]

MIT business researcher Andrew McAfee is correct.

Integral fast reactors for nuclear, plasma recyclers for energy, and boron for cars.

God the Father is always one step ahead of us: plenty of boron for cars, plenty of waste for plasma recyclers and, well, plenty of space for integral fast reactors.

Physics brings freedom.

[cherry]

I've always recycled....but I do it also because it saves on the garbage bill....where we live you can take all your recyclables and dump them into large bins for free...

the real answer to all of this is to stop using plastic and start drinking our coffee and juice etc from real cups and glasses.....

[21twelve]

My batteries and electronics all get put in the trash. Break the old laptop up, etc. It goes to a modern, double-lined landfill about 20 miles from the house. That is more environmentally conscious than shipping it 3000 miles to China where little kids will burn them to get the copper and other metals out of the devices. With the smoke and leachate polluting the environment and poisoning them.

[trebb]

Down here on the MS Gulf Coast, they provided recycle bins for quite a while but have stopped...it’s not cost effective and a bad business model to try to recycle plastics and such.

[Mogger]

And they showed a remarkable "pouch" they invented that greatly reduces the need for bulky plastic shampoo bottles and the like.

About a year ago, Amsoil was the first company in the USA to introduce this form of packaging for lubricants.

They started with gear lube, as this packaging makes it easier to get gear oil into differentials, transmissions, and other places it needs to go.

Now they are packaging other lubes in the pouches.

Amsoil

[Wuli]

“Actually rotting garbage produces methane. Put in a few power plants.”

Rotting mixed garbage, as in regular household waste, produces methane. Not a pile of nothing but plastic. It takes too long to break down.

[poconopundit]

Great news! So the packaging is having an impact in the US already. Thanks.

[Malsua]

I suspect most of what we put in recycling bins is now going to landfills.

Companies that have a lot of waste cardboard will bail it and nearly all of that gets 100% recycled.

Most county level/town level recycle centers that have you place items in separate bits/compactors (i.e. Multi Steam) and whatnot gets nearly 100% recycled.

At least 1/4 of comingled/single stream "recycling" hits the dump. They will generally try to get most of the aluminum out, use air jets to blow some of the plastic into recyling but the rest isn't worth the effort. It's cheaper to haul to the dump. If they get too much in any particular period? Straight to the dump. If you don't live near one of the big recyclers? Same. It's easier to send one truck, pick up co-mingled, get some value out of it and dump the residual, even if the residual is greater than the recycled material.