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Recycling plastic just isn't worth it

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  • Recycling plastic just isn't worth it

    Even Greenpeace now agrees.

    Even Greenpeace has finally acknowledged the truth: recycling plastic makes no sense.

    This has been obvious for decades to anyone who crunched the numbers, but the fantasy of recycling plastic proved irresistible to generations of environmentalists and politicians. They preached it to children, mandated it for adults, and bludgeoned municipalities and virtue-signaling corporations into wasting vast sums—probably hundreds of billions of dollars worldwide—on an enterprise that has been harmful to the environment as well as to humanity.

    Now Greenpeace has seen the light, or at least a glimmer of rationality. The group has issued a report accompanied by a press release headlined, “Plastic Recycling Is A Dead-End Street—Year After Year, Plastic Recycling Declines Even as Plastic Waste Increases.” The group’s overall policy remains delusional—the report proposes a far more harmful alternative to recycling—but it’s nonetheless encouraging to see environmentalists put aside their obsessions long enough to contemplate reality.

    The Greenpeace report offers a wealth of statistics and an admirably succinct diagnosis: “Mechanical and chemical recycling of plastic waste has largely failed and will always fail because plastic waste is: (1) extremely difficult to collect, (2) virtually impossible to sort for recycling, (3) environmentally harmful to reprocess, (4) often made of and contaminated by toxic materials, and (5) not economical to recycle.” Greenpeace could have added a sixth reason: forcing people to sort and rinse their plastic garbage is a waste of everyone’s time.


    Story continues at the link above.


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  • #2

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    • #3
      After sitting on a friend's porch watching his cat hunt chipmunks and the Recycling truck come along and dump each bin into the back of their truck where it all gets mixed together I realized that a lot of recycling is a joke.

      I'm always still in trouble again

      "You're by far the worst poster on TWeb" and "TWeb's biggest liar" --starlight (the guy who says Stalin was a right-winger)
      "Overall I would rate the withdrawal from Afghanistan as by far the best thing Biden's done" --Starlight
      "Of course, human life begins at fertilization that’s not the argument." --Tassman

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      • #4
        I( think rogue tech should invent a new business that ships all of the plastic waste into the sun.

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        • #5
          Originally posted by rogue06 View Post
          After sitting on a friend's porch watching his cat hunt chipmunks and the Recycling truck come along and dump each bin into the back of their truck where it all gets mixed together I realized that a lot of recycling is a joke.
          It's simply one of those "feel good" things that liberals preach that has zero good impact.
          The first to state his case seems right until another comes and cross-examines him.

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          • #6
            Originally posted by Cow Poke View Post

            It's simply one of those "feel good" things that liberals preach that has zero good impact.
            It creates more pollution and CO2 because they have to use so much power to try to melt the plastic and reform it into something else.

            We need plastic landfills. How else will future archeologists gonna know what we were like? Just think if our ancestors didn't bury their unrecycled pottery and stuff!

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            • #7
              You must follow Trudeau and declare that plastic will be banned altogether.



              Securely anchored to the Rock amid every storm of trial, testing or tribulation.

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              • #8
                Originally posted by mossrose View Post
                You must follow Trudeau and declare that plastic will be banned altogether.

                Regretfully, that's probably what will happen. Certainly, I would expect government curtailments on what plastic can be used in.
                "For I desire mercy, not sacrifice, and acknowledgment of God rather than burnt offerings." Hosea 6:6

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                • #9
                  That has been known by the plastic companies for a long time, they've just been able to get away with fooling the public by funding "environmentalists" for a while now. Not only did they know most plastics aren't recyclable, and that most that were capable of that were extremely expensive to recycle, but they also designed the "resin code" to look like the official recycling symbol to get people to think all of their plastics were recyclable.

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                  • #10
                    Originally posted by Cow Poke View Post

                    It's simply one of those "feel good" things that liberals preach that has zero good impact.
                    When enforced in more rural areas you can end up polluting more sending extra trucks to collect it that more than offsetting any potential benefits of recycling it.

                    I'm always still in trouble again

                    "You're by far the worst poster on TWeb" and "TWeb's biggest liar" --starlight (the guy who says Stalin was a right-winger)
                    "Overall I would rate the withdrawal from Afghanistan as by far the best thing Biden's done" --Starlight
                    "Of course, human life begins at fertilization that’s not the argument." --Tassman

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                    • #11
                      It may have zero impact, but I personally believe that the concept is a good one. There is definitely a problem with plastic pollution. I believe there is a way to efficiently recycle, we just haven't figured it out yet.

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                      • #12
                        Originally posted by Machinist View Post
                        It may have zero impact, but I personally believe that the concept is a good one. There is definitely a problem with plastic pollution. I believe there is a way to efficiently recycle, we just haven't figured it out yet.
                        I agree. I've stopped using single-use plastic utensils and I'll reuse plastic bottles in my home. I am by no means an environmentalist, but I also don't want to pollute the planet due to sheer laziness.

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                        • #13
                          Originally posted by Ronson View Post

                          I agree. I've stopped using single-use plastic utensils and I'll reuse plastic bottles in my home. I am by no means an environmentalist, but I also don't want to pollute the planet due to sheer laziness.
                          Trying to minimize waste is a good thing, but you need to be careful about reusing plastic bottles as they can leak various chemicals into the water depending on what type they are.

                          Machinist there are many problems with recycling plastic at this point. 1. Most plastic types can not be recycled at all. 2. The few that can be recycled can only be recycled a small number of times. 3. It takes significantly more energy to recycle plastic than to make new plastic, which means an increase in other environment harming chemicals being released. Paper comes with similar drawbacks. Metal is much easier to recycle, and is actually feasible since it can just be melted down and remolded as necessary.

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                          • #14
                            Originally posted by Cerebrum123 View Post

                            Trying to minimize waste is a good thing, but you need to be careful about reusing plastic bottles as they can leak various chemicals into the water depending on what type they are.

                            Machinist there are many problems with recycling plastic at this point. 1. Most plastic types can not be recycled at all. 2. The few that can be recycled can only be recycled a small number of times. 3. It takes significantly more energy to recycle plastic than to make new plastic, which means an increase in other environment harming chemicals being released. Paper comes with similar drawbacks. Metal is much easier to recycle, and is actually feasible since it can just be melted down and remolded as necessary.
                            If it is not possible for plastics to ever be efficiently recycled, then it needs to completely banned altogether. We have a serious problem with plastic pollution. I know that would be a drastic measure, but something needs to be done. If it can't be recycled, then stop making it. The human race will find a way to thrive in a post plastic age.

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                            • #15
                              Originally posted by Machinist View Post

                              If it is not possible for plastics to ever be efficiently recycled, then it needs to completely banned altogether. We have a serious problem with plastic pollution. I know that would be a drastic measure, but something needs to be done. If it can't be recycled, then stop making it. The human race will find a way to thrive in a post plastic age.
                              What if the US stops producing plastic but China starts chugging out even more to make up the difference? Embargo anything from them made of plastic? And some things (like toys) really need to be made of plastic because anything else is too expensive.

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