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 ...
My question is how is all that plastic getting on the beaches of these areas recycling plastic?
Dump it all into an active volcano. Or open-pit mines. Or move it into underground mine shafts. The Earth will deal with it over time, breaking it down into new oil reserves.
My assumption is that unscrupulous recyclers are shoving it into rivers where it flows to oceans and ends up on beaches. Not all recyclers are honestly separating types, chopping it up and reselling as pellets.
Yes, we should all listen to the same people who told us to use plastic bags because paper bags were bad for the environment.
I am suspecting the ships find out the plastic processors are maxed out and dump the plastic at sea. They are not going to tie up a ship because there is no place to for the containers full of recycled plastic. I bet this has been going on for years.
“I recycle with a smug look on my face,”
Careful, they will think you’re a Democrat.
I'm a Republican, and I reuse my plastic straws to do my part. I'll rinse them and reuse them for drinks spanning many days. Then I toss them in the household trash where it'll safely go to a landfill. Why put them in a recycle bin when they'll end up in the ocean? Doing my part to save the oceans.
Yea, I know. It was a liberal who inspired my post. I’ll never forget the look on her face after she dumped her crap in the recycle bin. She did her part...yet had NO CLUE that her precious recycling program was sending her crap to either Taiwan to burn, or China/elsewhere to dump, often in the ocean.
I’ve always thought active volcanoes would be an ideal landfill site.
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