• ryathal@sh.itjust.works
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    10 months ago

    Plastic is better off just going in the trash. The ability to recycle it is largely a lie. Especially plastic that touched food as it needs to be clean to recycle.

    • nyankas@lemmy.ml
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      10 months ago

      This is absolute nonsense.

      In Germany, between 38-48% of plastic is recycled (source). Sure, that‘s far from all of it, but still far, far better than nothing.

      The recycling rate might be lower in other countries, but just giving up and putting everything in the regular trash is probably the worst thing you could do.

      • naeap@sopuli.xyz
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        10 months ago

        Still there is the issue, that recycling plants seem to pollute their surroundings with microplastics by just washing the plastic

        Obviously recycling is good, but with plastic it seems we’re not in a place to handle it reasonable in any way…

      • bionicjoey@lemmy.ca
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        10 months ago

        Recycling only works when the price of the material is high enough to justify the reclamation process. It doesn’t work for plastic because of the insane subsidies given to the petroleum industry. If we had a significant enough carbon tax, you’d start seeing more actual plastic recycling.

      • Fecundpossum@lemmy.world
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        10 months ago

        Recycling has always been a lie to make you feel good about consumption. If it’s not a valuable commodity, it just goes to the dump anyways.

      • ryathal@sh.itjust.works
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        10 months ago

        It can be IF its

        • clean
        • dry
        • its the same type of plastic
        • its not a bag/foil/film
        • all the other materials are clean and dry in the same lot.

        Even after all that, it’s really only useful in downcycling.

    • TwoCubed@feddit.de
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      10 months ago

      Stop spouting this nonsense please. It might be true for the USA, but other countries have their shot together and in fact do recycle plastic.

    • Vanon@lemmy.world
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      10 months ago

      What kills me is that just a couple morons can contaminate a large batch of recyclables, that could’ve otherwise been perfect. But I guess humanity will always have this sort of problem, until it kills us.