Posted on 06/17/2019 9:51:18 AM PDT by Hojczyk
A new Guardian series, United States of Plastic, will scrutinize the plastic crisis engulfing America and the world, publishing several more stories this week and continuing for the rest of 2019.
“People don’t know what’s happening to their trash,” said Andrew Spicer, who teaches corporate social responsibility at the University of South Carolina and sits on his state’s recycling advisory board. “They think they’re saving the world. But the international recycling business sees it as a way of making money. There have been no global regulations – just a long, dirty market that allows some companies to take advantage of a world without rules.”
In the past, it made economic sense to ship the plastic to Asia, because shipping companies that transport China’s manufactured goods to the US end up with thousands of empty shipping containers to carry back. In the absence of American goods to fill them, the companies have been willing to ship out America’s recycling at rock-bottom rates
.What is nearly killing his business is the fact that many countries have soured on the recycling industry, after unscrupulous operators set up shop, operating as cheaply as possible, with no regard for the environment or local residents.
“In our industry, if you do it properly, you save the environment,” Wong said. “If you do it improperly, you destroy the environment.”
As far as profits go, the numbers just barely favor recycling.
Wong said he might spend $150 to buy a ton of plastic scrap from a US recycler. Once it is shipped abroad, sold to a processor, turned into pellets and then again shipped to a manufacturer, the seller might ask as much as $800 per ton.
Yet the cost of similar virgin plastic, which is often higher quality, is just $900 to $1,000 a ton.
(Excerpt) Read more at theguardian.com ...
“Was it better with paper bags and glass bottles?”
Absolutely, paper/carboard is very easy to recycle here in the US. It is made into more paper.
Glass can also easily be recycled into more glass.
Aluminum is actually the only thing worth recycling. If you fill up a compacted 24’ dumpster. It is worth some cash.
Recycling, generally, doesn’t work from a cost perspective... that’s the sad reality.
When recycled material is nearly as much as new material, there is little incentive to use recycled.
Plastic recycling should be a priority from an environment perspective, we are literally killing ourselves, slowly with it.... I have ZERO doubt that many of the endocrine disorders we are dealing with today, are largely due to the ingestion of plastics that most folks have no idea they are ingesting.
Exactly right.
I sent the report and the following comments to my email list-—
“”For those ‘virtuous’ people, who feel so good about themselves because they have religiously recycled for decades without ever giving a second thought as to what happens with their garbage after it leaves their house, they may want to start asking some questions about what happens with their recycles.
Is there a difference if our garbage ends up in the Indian Ocean vs the Gulf of Mexico?
Having just returned from our trip to Malaysia and India, I can report on the amount of plastic garbage on their lands, rivers, and seas. Much of that garbage is compliments of ‘virtuous’ American recyclers!!!!!”””
As far as profits go, the numbers just barely favor recycling. Wong said he might spend $150 to buy a ton of plastic scrap from a US recycler. Once it is shipped abroad, sold to a processor, turned into pellets and then again shipped to a manufacturer, the seller might ask as much as $800 per ton. Yet the cost of similar virgin plastic, which is often higher quality, is just $900 to $1,000 a ton.
"We need to TAX virgin plastic!!!" [big applause from the Demagogic Party's lemmings]
“Virgin Plastic” = “BIG OIL”
That is REALLY where the Left is going with this.
George Carlin was a Unstable Genius.
Saw him in Vegas way back when. His Act did not go over well to an Audience full of Vegas Tourists.
He just wasn’t that funny and even though I liked his schtick, it seemed pretty flat. Maybe he was having one of his deep Depression days.
Just got back from a trip to London. The thing there are disposable wooden flatware and pressed wood plates, made from bamboo. They suck! The tines on the fork are not long enough and don’t stab the food well enough to get it from the plate to your mouth. The knives don’t do their job either and all combined, add the flavor or raw wood to your food. Another inconvenient way of life from an inconvenient country.
In the past, it made economic sense to ship the plastic to Asia, because shipping companies that transport China’s manufactured goods to the US end up with thousands of empty shipping containers to carry back. In the absence of American goods to fill them, the companies have been willing to ship out America’s recycling at rock-bottom rates.
Banning plastic gracery bags will (directly or indirectly) further reduce demand for recycled plastic.
I use plastic grocery bags as trash bags.
I probably haven’t used a “trash bag” for around six months.
Melt it down and turn it into shoes.
I hate drinking or eating from plastic for a number of reasons. The safest thing to do with it is turn it into shoes. Everybody wears shoes. Good market.
So we are sending all the plastic crap back to China that they sent here.
pushing plastic bags as a way to save the world by saving trees.
Ironically, trees are the original renewable resource. Cut 100 down, plant 125 (just to be safe). Done. Renewed.
It used to go into our burn pile and buried but that was before laws were passed that we had to pay for the garbage truck to haul it off to be burned and buried.
Fake news
Coming from the guardian and a corporate social responsibility “professor,” the article is worth nothing.
Perhaps the Guardian should worry about its own country.
Here in Canada we have millions of little anti-plastic Nazis obsessed about the rivers of plastic. Some of even suggesting we ban diapers. No end to their fascism.
1. China - 8.8 million metric tons
2. Indonesia - 3.2
3. Phillipines
4. Vietam.....
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.