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Re:Trash piles up in US as China closes door to recycling by nakkijono on Friday August 03, 2018 @07:59AM (#17679107)
Burning the plastic in dedicated facilities is the only good solution. Use it for energy, and burn less gas & oil as a result. Everything else tends to have a bigger carbon footprint.

Burning the stuff is profitable even today.

Compostable will produce methane etc., especially in your back yard.

Re:Trash piles up in US as China closes door to recycling by viraptor on Friday August 03, 2018 @08:27AM (#17679260)
> Compostable will produce methane etc., especially in your back yard.

Is that a bad thing for a small garden compost pile? I understand it's dangerous on a large industrial scale.

Re:Trash piles up in US as China closes door to recycling by JoeAltmaier on Friday August 03, 2018 @08:28AM (#17679270)
Methane is around 100X worse as a greenhouse gas than CO2. So even a little, is a lot.
Re:Trash piles up in US as China closes door to recycling by usrusr on Friday August 03, 2018 @11:57AM (#17680904)
As long as we are burning fossil fuel for low-intensity heat use anyways, (e.g. combined cycle heat/power plants), giving the fuel a temporary role as packaging before burning doesn't seem such a bad idea. Emissions treatment has come a long way. Alternative packaging solutions don't have zero footprint either (e.g. ferrying around reusable containers)
Re:Trash piles up in US as China closes door to recycling by jakobegger on Friday August 03, 2018 @02:33PM (#17682347)
Burning the stuff is only profitable if you get it sorted without contaminants. But only a fraction of packaging is collected properly.

As long as that crap is produced, people will throw it wherever they want, and nobody will collect and sort the plastic for free just so you can burn it "profitable".