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Honored Contributor
Posts: 13,775
Registered: ‎07-09-2011

Re: Helping to End the Plastic Waste Crisis

[ Edited ]

@Laura14

 

To your point ‘some of us’ , many of us are not recycling, as a good look at the shoals of plastic waste rolling around in our oceans will show.

 

That is unfortunately how it happens.  Rules become more restrictive because of those who are causing issues, not for those who are already doing the responsible things, as I’m sure you are.

 

For instance, it we all drove the speed limit we wouldn’t need radar.

YIKES! ~ did I just say we need radar?  groan -🤭

 

 

"Animals are not my whole world, but they have made my world whole" ~ Roger Caras
Esteemed Contributor
Posts: 7,341
Registered: ‎03-11-2010

Re: Helping to End the Plastic Waste Crisis

Companies are horrible about packaging. I bought a mascara that had 3 boxes to open until you get to the tube. Cute names and pretty pictures sell it but it is horrible when you just end up recycling it any way. I watch a documentary on recycling and of what actually does get recycled. Not nearly enough not by a long shot.

Wrong is still wrong just because you benefited from it.
Honored Contributor
Posts: 9,713
Registered: ‎03-09-2010

Re: Helping to End the Plastic Waste Crisis


@CelticCrafter wrote:

@riley1 wrote:

It would also help if more people would actually recycle. Even though in my state you are suppose to recycle, there are many that probably don't. 

 

There is no recycle pick-up unless you pay the extra yearly charge. 

 

 


 

We are good about recycling in this house.

 

We have two collection bins, one for glass, plastic and cans, the other for paper.

 

Have a neighbor - there are 5 of them in the house, they have been here going on 19 years and they have never, ever recycled one piece of paper...

 

We don't pay an extra charge for recycling pick-up.


We actually like to recycle, and we don't pay extra either.  Terrible about your neighbor.  Makes me wish people were fined for not recycling.  It's so easy to do.

Esteemed Contributor
Posts: 5,892
Registered: ‎03-20-2010

Re: Helping to End the Plastic Waste Crisis


@Nancy Drew wrote:

Companies are horrible about packaging. I bought a mascara that had 3 boxes to open until you get to the tube. Cute names and pretty pictures sell it but it is horrible when you just end up recycling it any way. I watch a documentary on recycling and of what actually does get recycled. Not nearly enough not by a long shot.


Lots of packaging cannot be recycled.

 

Taking into account the cost of materials and energy required to produce and then recycle alternatives will likely be comparable in cost.  Any increase will be to recover R & D and retooling costs

Someday, when scientists discover the center of the Universe....some people will be disappointed it is not them.
Honored Contributor
Posts: 33,631
Registered: ‎03-20-2010

Re: Helping to End the Plastic Waste Crisis

[ Edited ]

 

 

But what happens at the other end of the recycling chain.....and as Paul Harvey used to say.....Here's the rest of the story.....what happens now?????And this may be why I think know why companies are on board regarding the plastic waste crisis. WARNING the article is LONG.

 

https://www.ft.com/content/360e2524-d71a-11e8-a854-33d6f82e62f8

 

Here's some interesting excerpts

........
We are standing inside the largest recycling facility in San Francisco.....

 

“See all this paper?” approaching the mound of waste and gesturing to an Amazon box. “We’ve started to get a lot more of this because of all the online shopping.”

 

For decades, China has sorted through all this and used the recycled goods to propel its manufacturing boom. Now it no longer wants to, so the materials sits here with no place to go.

"It just keeps coming and coming and coming," says Rogue employee Laura Leebrick. In the warehouse, she is dwarfed by stacks of orphaned recycling bales. Outside, employee parking spaces have been taken over by compressed cubes of sour cream containers, broken wine bottles and junk mail.

And what are recyclables with nowhere to go?

"Right now, by definition, that material out there is garbage," she says. "It has no value. There is no demand for it in the marketplace. It's garbage." For now, Rogue Waste says it has no choice but to take all of this recycling to the local landfill.

 

Even as you diligently fill your blue box each week, the recycling industry has been turned on its head — and you may have to change the way you recycle, and pay more for it, as a result. 

For more than a quarter-century, local residents have set aside paper, plastic, glass and metal on the belief that the material would be sold to recyclers and ultimately reused.

But no longer. What you’re putting in your blue box has become a liability, not an asset.

  • Paper and newsprint, which make up a good portion of the material being collected in New York’s major recycling centers, is worth next to nothing. Prices have tumbled so much that bales of paper fiber are being shipped to recycling mills at a considerable loss by the companies that run centers in Monroe County, Ontario County and elsewhere.
  • Unbeknownst to most consumers, many of the glass containersthat are carefully cleaned and placed into blue bins have — for years — been sent to landfills. Statewide, more than 122 million pounds of recycled mixed glass was used for landfill access roads and trash cover last year because there were no willing buyers.
  • The market for plastics, which make up a small fraction of blue-box input, is better than for paper. But the price of some recycled plastics isn’t what it would be because the export market is in chaos.
  • Residents, businesses and municipalities, which subsidize recycling programs already, have begun paying more because of this lack of viable markets. Additional rate increases are likely.

A broad market collapse like this has never happened before, experts say. The root explanation lies in China, whose industries purchased and processed a good deal of the paper and plastic recycled in this country. But after tightening rules on imported recyclables for several years, Chinese authorities halted their import entirely in January 2018.  In some cases, material is being buried in landfills.

There are expectations that the downturn in the recycling industry will continue for many months, if not years. But there is also optimism that the recycling industry as a whole will eventually emerge better and brighter than ever. 

“On the short term, it’s painful for the industry, but long term it’s probably a good thing for society at large,” said Brunet, who predicts more market diversity and better, cleaner recycling processes as a result of China’s policy change.

Already, new recycling markets have emerged to fill the void that China once occupied. In recent months, recyclables have flooded into other nations, mostly in Asia, including India, Thailand, Vietnam and Taiwan.

 

These countries have only a fraction of China’s processing capacity, however, and signs of strain are already starting to show.  

 

“Vietnamese ports are clogging up due to the upsurge of plastic waste imports into the country,” Von Hernandez, global coordinator for the Break Free From Plastic global movement, said in an email. “In Thailand, the spike in imports is, unfortunately, fuelling demands to establish more incinerators in the country, which would be tantamount to exporting and externalizing one country’s toxic air emissions to another, if those plastic materials end up being burned in those facilities.” 

It remains to be seen whether these other nations will be able to adequately ― and sustainably ― handle the new influx of waste. 

 

Stateside, many opportunities have emerged for the American recycling industry ― from investments in contamination reduction to the building of more recycling infrastructure. 

“I hope that the federal government recognizes the value of strong municipal recycling programs in the United States,” Biderman said. “Recycling is a job creator ― recycling creates up to seven times more jobs per ton than landfilling, preserves landfill space for what truly needs to be disposed of, and is good for the environment.” 

 

Consumers, too, have a critical role to play in turning the recycling tide. 

 

“People seem to think that once recyclables hit the curb, they just go away. They don’t think about the process,” Rosengren said. 

 
Animals are reliable, full of love, true in their affections, grateful. Difficult standards for people to live up to.”
Honored Contributor
Posts: 35,612
Registered: ‎05-22-2016

Re: Helping to End the Plastic Waste Crisis

[ Edited ]

Here in my city all but one trash collection company has stopped collection of plastics for recycling. It's totally insane. 

 

Tires are another mess. 

Respected Contributor
Posts: 3,710
Registered: ‎03-10-2010

Re: Helping to End the Plastic Waste Crisis

Our city has forbidden giving plastic straws unless needed for medical reasons or specifically requested.

We must bring our own bags to the grocery store and Styrofoam cannot be used now for fast foods and take out etc.

I know we made national news as being nit picky, but we are a coastal community and see first hand the damage it causes. We depend on tourism and fishing industry, both are affected.  I am thrilled that this stand has been taken. If we don't take care of the planet our children will be left with someting that they can not correct.

Respected Contributor
Posts: 3,710
Registered: ‎03-10-2010

Re: Helping to End the Plastic Waste Crisis

Our city has forbidden giving plastic straws unless needed for medical reasons or specifically requested.

We must bring our own bags to the grocery store and Styrofoam cannot be used now for fast foods and take out etc.

I know we made national news as being nit picky, but we are a coastal community and see first hand the damage it causes. We depend on tourism and fishing industry, both are affected.  I am thrilled that this stand has been taken. If we don't take care of the planet our children will be left with a mess that they can not correct.

Respected Contributor
Posts: 3,710
Registered: ‎03-10-2010

Re: Helping to End the Plastic Waste Crisis

Something is goofy. tried to edit first post and wouldn't let me. then put two posts and still wouldn't fix, now it's a mess. I am sorry.

The garbage companies will no longer take the plastic waste as most of it was shipped to China. China has said they will no longer take it.

Honored Contributor
Posts: 33,631
Registered: ‎03-20-2010

Re: Helping to End the Plastic Waste Crisis


@Nancy Drew wrote:

Companies are horrible about packaging. I bought a mascara that had 3 boxes to open until you get to the tube. Cute names and pretty pictures sell it but it is horrible when you just end up recycling it any way. I watch a documentary on recycling and of what actually does get recycled. Not nearly enough not by a long shot.


@Nancy Drew

 

Your right I think some companies go overboard, and it makes it so difficult to get a package open..SMH.  And there's other companies paranoid about safety issues 

Animals are reliable, full of love, true in their affections, grateful. Difficult standards for people to live up to.”