5mo ago

When is “Recyclable” Not Really Recyclable? When the Plastics Industry Gets to Define What the Word Means.

www.propublica.org When Is “Recyclable” Not Really Recyclable? When the Plastics Industry Gets to Define What the Word Means.

Companies whose futures depend on plastic production are trying to persuade the federal government to allow them to put the label “recyclable” on plastic shopping bags and other items virtually guaranteed to end up in landfills and incinerators.

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My rule of thumb is that "recyclable" is 99% greenwashing and 1% a clueless business actually meaning well.
Everything is recyclable to some degree - if they wanted to do something for the environment it should be made from recycled material instead of advertising that it's possible to recycle the material they used
- Zero co actually just announced this bullshit - their former model was recycled plastic 'forever bottles' you refilled from recycled plastic pouches that you sent back to be cleaned and reused.
  Now they're doing much smaller single use packaging that's ldpe lined cardboard, doesn't work with their forever bottles (meaning you have to buy new proprietary kit) and are touting it as greener.
- 6even when recycled the whole process increases the amount of plastics in the air.
  And plastic in general is always going to eventually end up in the enviroment. There is only so many times you can heat and melt plastic before its bonds start to collasps.
  Right from day one recycling was a plastics industries attempt to green wash and delay shut down/ replacement.
  Many better options exist. The only issue is production cost. And that will not improve while corperations continue to use plastic as the cheap solution.
  The industry knew what they were doing when they claimed plastic could be recycled. And need to suffer for the lie that it was a solution to the harm their product dose.

I see this at my local supermarket chains after they received pressure to reduce plastic usage. The exact same plastic bags are in use, except now they have printed on them "REUSABLE PLASTIC BAG". Such a predictable outcome.
- plastic stickers on supermarket fruit drive me nuts. I think about the cost to the environment from manufacture to disposal. must be a better way?

In the Netherlands we have trash separation for plastic and empty carton packages from milk ,yoghurt etc. Recently it came out that often 75% is rejected and treated as normal trash. :-/ Why fucking bother if you're not recycling properly. Bastards.
- A friend of mine works in a garbage burning facility that is used to heat a part of the city. He told me that the more the garbage is separated, the less it burns and they still have to fulfill a quota. So they throw in a lot of glass and other things.

Reduce. Reduce plastic companies to dust.

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