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A comment on Recycling was a lie to sell more plastic, recycling industry veteran says. Parent comment

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.
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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?

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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).
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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.
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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
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