Today, we’re talking about why recycling is not all it’s cracked up to be, and what we can do to fix it.
Problems with plastic recycling
Most of it isn’t recycled
Only 10% have been
People think they are recycling when actually it is often incinerated
Air pollution, esp. Cl-containing polymers
Landfill
If not properly managed, devastating pollution
Disgusting for residents, emits methane
Oceans & natural habitats
Microplastics are difficult to remove
Projects to clean up oceans have made minimal impact
TeamSeas
Ocean Cleanup
Plastic isn’t recyclable
Unlike metals, it is made of long-chain covalent polymers, which are difficult to reshape
Produces lower quality plastics
Sure, you recycle all your plastics
But how many plastic things you use are actually recycled?
Plastic can’t be recycled many times
And so it ends up in landfill anyway
Popularity of recyclable plastics means other plastics become more acceptable
Because people know they can recycle plastics, they are far less concerned about buying plastics
I’m certainly susceptible to this myself
Similar with efficient lights / green tarriff
Plastic recycling is unprofitable.
It used to be chucked into containers and shipped to China, but now they don’t want it.
It’s difficult to sort and the products just aren’t competitive with virgin plastics
Plastic industry themselves, the ones that invented plastic recycling, concluded themselves it was not possible.
Plastic industry lobbying
In response to Earth Day anti-pollution campaigns, plastic industry made “Keep America Beautiful”, which ran an ad asking consumers to stop throwing away plastic.
This shifts responsibility onto consumers away from plastic industry.
Instead of actually shifting away from single-use etc, just make ppl feel bad.
Resin identification code
Meant to identify types of plastic
Looks suspiciously like a recycling symbol
Ultimately, plastic recycling was invented to sell more plastic, not less.
Solutions
Recycling is still important, and plastic still needs to be recycled