91% of plastic isn't recycled (2018)

Re:91% of plastic isn't recycled (2018) by narwally on Tuesday September 15, 2020 @02:59PM (#24485304)

This is for glass recycling not plastic, but I recently found out that my county ships all of their glass recyclables to be dumped in a landfill of a neighboring state. In my state, waste disposal companies are legally obligated to recycle everything they can that ends up in a recycling bin. But with glass it's actually vastly cheaper to produce new glass bottles than it is to make them out of recycled material. So there isn't a market for the waste management companies to even sell the product they legally have to produce. To get around this regulation they just ship their recycled glass to a state without this regulation, and dump it all in a landfill there.

It seems like the only way to make recycling truly effective at a large scale is to make it economically viable, either through the creating of new recycling techniques that make using recycled materials the cheapest option, or through subsidies to artificially produce the same effect.

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Re:91% of plastic isn't recycled (2018) by lotsofpulp on Tuesday September 15, 2020 @03:02PM (#24485352)

>It seems like the only way to make recycling truly effective at a large scale is to make it economically viable

I think it's easier and less corruptible to have the goal be to reduce the consumption causing the waste and attack the problem at the root. I.e. a tax increasing the cost of everything to reflect the cost of properly disposing it.

Recycling doesn't undo the environmental damage, and in many cases it takes huge amounts of energy to recycle causing even more damage.

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Re:91% of plastic isn't recycled (2018) by wolco on Tuesday September 15, 2020 @03:24PM (#24485617)

Doesn't this hurt the poor while enabling the rich to continue being wasteful.

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Re:91% of plastic isn't recycled (2018) by lotsofpulp on Tuesday September 15, 2020 @04:08PM (#24486157)

It solves the problem of excess consumption by humans as a whole. If this creates a new problem, such as allowing some humans consume disproportionately more than others, then that can be solved separately. The easiest and least corruptible solution that comes to mind there is wealth redistribution.

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Re:91% of plastic isn't recycled (2018) by Goronmon on Tuesday September 15, 2020 @03:39PM (#24485796)

Doesn't this hurt the poor while enabling the rich to continue being wasteful.

Absolutely

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Re:91% of plastic isn't recycled (2018) by acomjean on Tuesday September 15, 2020 @04:48PM (#24486530)

In Massachusetts the last glass recycling plant closed a couple years ago. The main problem glass bottle demand was down and the plant making the bottles closed ( beer being more popular in cans is cited as a cause)

https://www.wgbh.org/news/local-news/2018/07/19/massachusett...

They've been using the ground glass as aggregate in roads..

You are 100% correct in that there needs to be economic incentive.

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Re:91% of plastic isn't recycled (2018) by leafmeal on Tuesday September 15, 2020 @03:01PM (#24485332)

If the cost of recycling was added in as a tax on the material, that could be effective as well. Then the market could decide which materials are truly cost effective.

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Re:91% of plastic isn't recycled (2018) by snowbrook on Tuesday September 15, 2020 @03:42PM (#24485854)

Possible new use for recycled glass: https://www.greenbuildingadvisor.com/article/two-startups-se...

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Re:91% of plastic isn't recycled (2018) by hinkley on Tuesday September 15, 2020 @03:51PM (#24485954)

I believe you can also use glass in concrete and asphalt (although we just talked about how nasty asphalt is). I think I heard brown glass can use mixed color feedstock, but other uses for commingled glass should also help with the logistics of recycling it. Especially since multiple consumers should decrease shipping distances.

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Re:91% of plastic isn't recycled (2018) by armandhammer on Friday September 18, 2020 @05:01AM (#24514559)

I remember finding out 15 years ago that the moderately progressive well-known "university town" where I lived at the time (Southeastern U.S.) didn't actually recycle anything, they just buried the plastic stuff and the clear vs colored glass in different sections of the landfill, so that it'd be easier to dig it up one day when recycling was actually economically viable. The recycling lie isn't new.

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Re:91% of plastic isn't recycled (2018) by lopmotr on Wednesday September 16, 2020 @12:57AM (#24489663)

Glass is about the most harmless thing you could put in a landfill. Right down there with naturally occurring rocks. What environmental problem are they causing by burying it?

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Re:91% of plastic isn't recycled (2018) by fullstop on Tuesday September 15, 2020 @03:30PM (#24485705)

At least the glass is inert.

At some point in the future landfills will be on par with gold mines, and only then will we see how truly wasteful we have been.

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Re:91% of plastic isn't recycled (2018) by ZeroGravitas on Tuesday September 15, 2020 @04:09PM (#24486165)

Here, specifically about glass, are some of the reasons the US fails at this, while Europe just does it.

https://cen.acs.org/materials/inorganic-chemistry/glass-recy...

Basically the lack of sensible policy.

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