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Posted on 12/21/2024 1:38:12 PM PST by rktman
Millions of Americans dutifully fill their recycling bins each week, motivated by the knowledge that they're doing something good for the environment. But the sad fact is that much of what is tossed in the recycling bin is eventually heaped into landfills.
John Stossel brought attention to the issue in a video segment shared on X Thursday morning, to which Tesla and SpaceX CEO Elon Musk replied, "Recycling is pointless."
While this bombshell might be jarring – especially if you're someone who dutifully cleans their recyclables before caringly placing them in bins – Thomas Kinnaman, an environmental economist from Bucknell University, says it's actually not as bad as you think.
As Kinnaman discovered in a 2014 study – a complete life cycle analysis of the recycling process – it doesn't make much economic or environmental sense to recycle plastic and glass in much of the developed world. Despite claims that plastics are recyclable, really only PET and HDPE (types 1 and 2 in North America) can be readily reused. In total, only 9% of plastic is melted and reformed. The rest goes into landfills or the wider environment.
(Excerpt) Read more at wnd.com ...
Recycling is 99% performative nonsense.
Gee, recycling is like the face masks, but we have a garbage can for recyclables only and another for all other garbage.
“really only PET and HDPE (types 1 and 2 in North America) can be readily reused”
That’s what I believe and act on.
Metal is worth recycling.
Glass and rubber may be, there are any number of caveats to that.
But plastic and paper are not. At all.
Use them as fuel.
I thought it was 5 and 2? Does anyone really know? Does anyone really care?
If it’ll burn, it goes into the wood stove.
You will know recycling makes economic sense the day someone offers to buy your trash.
Until then, its just wasteful virtue-signaling nonsense.
It seems the only one that makes some sense is aluminum cans but I don’t use such very often. Most of the time my recycling pickup would be nothing but if I have some of those I’d toss them in.
We burn our trash here in Maine to create electricity. Somehow the environment weenies don’t get all up in a bunch when they find out.
I save glass jars and reuse them. They don’t use glass jars much anymore. But small jars can be used as jelly jars and I wax them, so the lid doesn’t matter much. I do recycle plastic because it’s cheaper than throwing it in the trash. It’s $2.00 a 50 gallon bag and .45 cents a pound for trash.
It may be better to use plastic for fuel since scientists have found plastic particulate matter in our blood. We sure need to quit using plastic in the manufacture of plastic cutting boards since that may be the primary source of plastic in our bloodstreams.
It’s obeisance to the new orthodoxy as much as anything.
Certainly nothing wrong with re-using/recycling things to not be wasteful and leave less garbage.
But it is exploited for the new control regime as a quasi- or fully religious obligation.
all trash except glass is burned in a fire pit at my place...
At first glance, I thought the post would be about throwing away credit cards.
Our association requires 2 bags - blue=recycle, white/green=other
I literally just rotate between them. And one day a week no recycle so EVERYTHING goes in white/green.
Recycling has been a scam from the beginning.
I don’t recycle anything because most of it goes in the landfill anyway and I refused to be the puppet of virtue signaling watermelon Marxists.
Recycling is just another government jobs program that wastes our money.
If there is a true market for material to be recycled then businesses will pay for you to bring in the material to be recycled.
“
You will know recycling makes economic sense the day someone offers to buy your trash.
Until then, it’s just wasteful virtue-signaling nonsense.”
Damn! You beat me to it. Great minds think alike. Apologies for the near identical comment.
Created a post on the nextdoor app about recycling about a year ago.
One guy said he used to work at our county landfill and recycling center.
He said make no mistake, the recycle stuff just goes in a different hole.
Ever since then, I couldn’t care less.
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