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

Re:Recycling was a lie to sell more plastic, recycling indus... by speleding on Thursday October 08, 2020 @05:23AM (#24717384)

The energy and effort required to collect, clean and re-use glass is much higher than for plastic. Glass doesn't decompose in a landfill and has limits on how often it can be re-used as well.

The detergents, water and heat needed for cleaning alone have a higher environmental impact than the few drops of oil needed to make a plastic bottle.

Plastic waste is a big problem for sure, but switching to glass is not the solution.

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Re:Recycling was a lie to sell more plastic, recycling indus... by chimprich on Thursday October 08, 2020 @12:05PM (#24720429)

> Glass doesn't decompose in a landfill

Why would you want it to? Being inert is a good thing if you put it underground: no water contamination, no gas being released. But why put it in a landfill when you could reuse or recycle it?

> and has limits on how often it can be re-used as well.

What are these limits?

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Re:Recycling was a lie to sell more plastic, recycling indus... by DanBC on Thursday October 08, 2020 @05:25AM (#24717398)

Yes. If we used plastic once and then burnt it it's probably better for CO2 than reusing glass.

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