Posted on 02/15/2024 2:21:22 PM PST by ChicagoConservative27
Plastics producers have promoted recycling their products as an environmental solution for decades despite firsthand knowledge that it was not feasible, according to a report published Thursday.
More than 99 percent of plastics are produced using fossil fuels, and of these, the vast majority cannot be “recycled” in the sense of being processed and turned into entirely new products, according to the report from the Center for Climate Integrity. Viable end markets, or businesses that buy recyclables to make new products, only exist for polyethylene terephthalate and high-density polyethylene plastic containers, according to the report. Environmental Protection Agency materials have documented this since for at least 30 years.
Moreover, while some local and city recycling programs collect other categories of plastics, they do not fully recycle them. Those other plastics are burned or deposited in landfills, instead. In many cases, chemical additives or coloring make it impossible to recycle the same types of plastic together, while even plastic products that can be legitimately repurposed degrade in quality over time, and the cost of the process is more than that of producing entirely new plastic.
(Excerpt) Read more at thehill.com ...
Who will be in their death bed wishing they spent more time sorting their garbage. I watch a friend who washes cans and bottles like regular dishes before tossing them in to the recycle bin. The most precious commodity we have is time. I for one am not wasting any of my time worrying about putting a piece of trash in the bin.
Metal is the only thing we can actually recycle.
This has been known for over fifty years when recycling got started. I remember hippies pushing the recycle hype back then, so people started separating colored and clear glass, paper, plastic. then after the pickup, they were followed and it was found they went to the trash dump and all that separated material were dumped together and buried.
I spent one Christmas in the emergency room after trying to open a plastic wrapped present and slicing my hand down to the bone because it was so tough.
Great story.
In my workplace before I retired we had a variation on that theme.
We had recycle bins everywhere in the fifteen story high rise where I worked.
One of my coworkers had to stay really late and decided to follow the janitorial contractors around to see exactly what they did with the recycle containers.
It turned out that when they got to the bottom floor and the main dumpster they just dumped all the to be recycled stuff into the main regular trash dumpster.
This may be going on almost everywhere at this point.
I’d be happy never to see another glass shampoo bottle, and I doubt that toothpaste will ever again be sold in lead tubes. You are right, though, that most plastic packaging could be eliminated.
If recycling made economic sense, people would be bidding for my (unsorted and unwashed) garbage.
what exactly is fossil fuel? It is fossilized sunlight.
The ancient sun warmed the earth. The plants absorbed it and produced cellulose. When those leaves died they fell and piled up for millions of years. Covered by natural winds they compressed into carbon. COAL! When burned they release the trapped sunlight in the carbon. So when you turn on the lights you are using ancient sunlight. The original Solar Power.
I recall an article talking about the newer packaging. It was amazing how much less food waste there was due to the better packaging. And that is better for the producer, probably better for the environment, and a better product for the consumer.
Fossilized sunlight (energy) is a good way to put it. Don’t forget it energy content is also augmented by the energy of the geologic forces that formed these resources.
More Horsepuckey from Horsepuckey Central.
The Earth is a giant recycling center
I remember when the Deepwater Horizon oil spill occurred. There were ‘scientists’ who tried to questimate the total amount of oil that was released into the Gulf. After they determined an amount, they set off to find the huge underwater and surface oil. There was much less than expected. What real scientists found were huuuuge plumes of microorganisms that eat, yes eat, oil. A massive (more than huuuuge) amount of oil naturally seeps into the oceans from the ocean floor. IT’S PART OF THE EARTH. It is food for some parts of the Earth.
A quick search finds much information on our little buddies that dine on petroleum and plastic.
“”Natural and synthetic plastics are degraded by the action of microorganisms including bacteria, actinomycetes, and fungi (Ishigaki et al., 2004; Alshehrei, 2017).””
The boxes of cereal and candy bar wrappers are made that way deliberately so you can not open the package, sneak something in and put it back on the shelf. You can probably thank James Lewis for this. No security is fool proof of course but that is the reason things are made that way.
Fire boilers. Run generators...
Used paper bags for decades.
Eco-nuts: “save the trees”
Presto: plastic
Almost any plastic will burn. They can always be used as fuel of some kind.
That whole set is solid.
“Hardly any plastics can be truly recycled”
FAKE NEWS - There’s a RECYCLE Bin just a block from me and it says PLASTICS - therefore, plastics CAN be recycled.
I wonder when someone will open their eyes about ROOFING SHINGLES???
They are about 96% of roofing materials now-—What happens when no more fossil fuels???
ALSO-—BLACKTOP ROADS.
I’m a true environmentalist in that I believe in reducing, reusing things, and recyling as appropriate....we are such a wasteful society....
MY DESK PHONE IS WHITE—SO IS MY BEDROOM PHONE & MY LIVING ROOM PHONE.
And who then decides that?
Do you really want the government to be inspecting every product looking for plastic?
I don’t. If you don’t want stuff packaged that way, don’t buy it.
The government gets involved too often in industry and market decisions and usually that causes increased costs to business and consumers. Laissez-faire.
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