Recycling was a lie to sell more plastic, recycling industry veteran says

Re:Recycling was a lie to sell more plastic, recycling indus... by triceratops on Thursday October 08, 2020 @12:28AM (#24715797)

The funny thing is, if everyone "virtue signaled" like the "liberal women" do by cleaning plastic and putting it in the right bin, recycling might be somewhat less money-losing by virtue of being better-sorted. But yeah, fuck 'em for "virtue signaling" while they sip their lattes and go to yoga, right? It's better to see the lie and do what they don't want you to do. /s

I get it, plastic can't be recycled profitably and we should be using way less. But one of the reasons its so terrible to recycle is because of how poorly it's sorted.

[ Parent | on HN ]

Re:Recycling was a lie to sell more plastic, recycling indus... by konjin on Thursday October 08, 2020 @12:34AM (#24715832)

Did you even read the article? It isn't profitable and it will never be. The only reason why it could go on for as long as it did is because China was subsidizing us with slave labor.

[ Parent | on HN ]

Re:Recycling was a lie to sell more plastic, recycling indus... by triceratops on Thursday October 08, 2020 @12:42AM (#24715896)

I'm not sure you read my comment. I never said "profitable". I said "somewhat less money-losing". I also said "plastic can't be recycled profitably".

[ Parent | on HN ]

Re:Recycling was a lie to sell more plastic, recycling indus... by lmm on Thursday October 08, 2020 @12:53AM (#24715958)

Putting effort into sorting better is throwing good money after bad. Even if you sort perfectly it's still virtue signalling; far better to spend that time on something productive and donate the earnings to something effective.

[ Parent | on HN ]

Re:Recycling was a lie to sell more plastic, recycling indus... by triceratops on Thursday October 08, 2020 @01:03AM (#24716020)

> Putting effort into sorting better is throwing good money after bad

How much time or money does it cost to not put plastic bottles in the paper bin? How much are you going to earn in that time to donate?

[ Parent | on HN ]

Re:Recycling was a lie to sell more plastic, recycling indus... by lmm on Thursday October 08, 2020 @01:13AM (#24716071)

Probably a couple of seconds. Maybe 5 cents for a typical HN reader. Which is significantly more than recycling that bottle is worth (I'm pretty sure GGP was talking about putting the bottle in the landfill bin rather than the paper bin).

[ Parent | on HN ]

Re:Recycling was a lie to sell more plastic, recycling indus... by hunter-gatherer on Thursday October 08, 2020 @01:22AM (#24716100)

I believe OP is affirming the actual costs of recycling, as discussed in the article. In a world where every consumer perfectly sorts there recyclables, it still doesn't make sense for the producers.

[ Parent | on HN ]

Re:Recycling was a lie to sell more plastic, recycling indus... by sthnblllII on Thursday October 08, 2020 @12:54PM (#24721047)

I disagree. I think money losing operations can make it up in volume. /s

[ Parent | on HN ]