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Re:China Bans Foreign Waste – What Will Happen to the World'... by timthelion on Monday October 23, 2017 @06:16AM (#15532027)
It doesn't work because the packaging isn't recycled. You're not allowed to use post-consumer plastic to make food grade PP [1]. So %0 of food packaging is recycled as food packaging. Sometimes it is turned into insulation or polyester for clothing, but it rarely if ever is turned into hard plastic again. PP can only be recycled about 3 times as hard plastic before the mechanical properties become unusable and the plastic comes out visibly brittle and rough. ABS is similarly hard to recycle, and colored plastics cannot be turned into white plastic which can be used to make colored parts.

The only recycled plastic in your life is:

1. polyester clothing 2. building materials 3. agricultural materials

3 is pretty ironic. You're allowed to grow a plant in a recycled container, but once you harvest that plant, it must be stored in a food grade container which cannot be recycled.

[1] http://nextek.org/portfolio/food-grade-recycled-pp/

Re:China Bans Foreign Waste – What Will Happen to the World'... by Jare on Monday October 23, 2017 @06:43AM (#15532130)
Why is 3 ironic? Living plants and processed food are different things even if both are based on organic material.
Re:China Bans Foreign Waste – What Will Happen to the World'... by timthelion on Monday October 23, 2017 @06:47AM (#15532151)
But it is not just processed food that needs food grade containers. Even the boxed zucchinis with food grade PP foil wrapping. And is it really so much different? The soil also gets wet, there is also acid in the soil, so why wouldn't a plant pot release toxins in the same way that plastic food packaging might?

Edit:

I recently watched this video https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zTGpot7L7hA and it seems so ironic how dirty and industrial everything is, and then, all of a sudden the peas get washed and put in food grade plastic bags and we make this huge theater about sanitation.