spinereader81 t1_j51hcy7 wrote
It's so irritating how us Millenniel and late Gen X folks were lied to throughout the 90s that by recycling we were saving the world. Maybe back then there was a decent amount of actual recycling, but not anymore.
keatonatron t1_j51ozsj wrote
The phrase "reduce, reuse, recycle" is supposed to be employed in that order. If you jump straight to "consume like usual, and if you toss it in the recycling bin it's carbon neutral", you are doing it wrong.
(Of course this ignores the fact that corporations are by far the biggest polluters, but when talking about the failures of recycling, it's important to point out recycling is supposed to be the last resort!)
SnipingNinja t1_j51wm9l wrote
Yep, corporations should be regulated first wherever possible, then reduce usage of pollutants where you personally can, reuse what you can, and then finally recycle what's left.
NamelessTacoShop t1_j51uny2 wrote
I don't think plastic recycling was ever as good as it was made out to be, but was hyped up by the oil/plastic industries.
jawknee530i t1_j53549m wrote
A plastics industry think tank literally created the recycle ratings symbol. It was a crock of shit from the start.
Nerdenator t1_j52uxfq wrote
Paper and metal are pretty recyclable.
Plastic isn't, but it's the darling of consumer products.
dungone t1_j547wln wrote
It's the darling of the oil industry.
Nerdenator t1_j5561pn wrote
Ah, but they supply a demand.
Not that they don’t lie to keep that demand up, but consumers fundamentally like plastics.
dungone t1_j55aqfj wrote
Consumers don't give a shit about plastics. What the oil companies do is go around to other companies and twist their arm about switching whatever else they used to use over to plastic. Consumers don't have a say in the matter.
benchpressyourfeels t1_j56610s wrote
What? Plastic is cheap. Nobody is twisting arms. It’s cheap, light, and allows manufacturers to make more margin on the same selling price. That’s pretty much all there is to it. The oil industry isn’t meeting with Kraft Heinz to make sure they keep packing their ketchup in plastic bottles.
dungone t1_j569tj4 wrote
It's always capital investment in brand new manufacturing equipment. You're basically saying, "hey, why not build a brand new factory? Why not build a brand new bottling plant? Totally cheaps!" The ROI is never instant and plastics have to compete against everything else the company could invest in such as new IT systems and other things that could be worth more. You're also talking having to build new facilities to produce the plastic itself. And you're talking about a material that can affect the taste of food, lower the quality of the product, and lower the value by hurting the longevity and repairability. Seriously - plastics are often replacing reusable products that are actually cheaper than all the plastic that is needed to replace them. Shopping bags are a perfect example of this. The actual economics of it aren't as compelling as you've been led to believe. And you've also got the fact that plastics are a waste byproduct of oil refining and oil companies have a strong incentive to push plastics dependency as a hedge against energy market fluctuations.
So it's far seedier than you believe. There are tax breaks, lobbying, kickbacks, predatory pricing, and all kinds of other perverse incentives to push adoption over the finish line. And they 100% rely on the recycling scam to avoid regulations that would have them pay the costs of the environmental damage they cause.
So you have the classic plastics argument that plastic bottles are cheaper to transport because of the high price of oil. But that doesn't factor in that glass is much cheaper to reuse and recycle, bottling plants don't have to be massive centralized affairs, electric vehicles have a lower lifetime operating cost, etc. Instead, oil companies want to sell you plastics as a sort of rebate system for the jacked up gas prices they're charging. Win-win for them.
Darnocpdx t1_j53b3l6 wrote
Those of us paying attention have known plastic recycling has been a joke for decades.
Guaranteed you'll find articles on it in the archives of your local papers and zines from 20-30 years ago.
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