Mastodawn

Now at @[email protected]

Recycling in the US (and many Western countries, for that matter) is a sham. It always was.

In reality, most of the plastic placed in recycling bins were never turned into new products.

Now China has stopped taking that waste, the myth of near infinite consumption without the guilt of waste has been exposed for the lie that it always was.

That's not to say that we shouldn't aim for a sustainable circular economy. Of course we should.

But we'll need much bigger changes to make it happen.

"For decades, we were sending the bulk of our recycling to China—tons and tons of it, sent over on ships... But last year, the country restricted imports of certain recyclables... Waste-management companies are telling [municipalities] there is no longer a market for their recycling.

"These municipalities have two choices: pay much higher rates to get rid of recycling, or throw it all away.

"Most are choosing the latter.

"When [its kerbside recycling] program launched, Franklin [in New Hampshire] could break even on recycling by selling it for $6 a ton. Now the transfer station is charging the town $125 a ton to recycle, or $68 a ton to incinerate.

"This end of recycling comes at a time when the US is creating more waste than ever. In 2015, the most recent year for which national data are available, America generated 262.4 million tons of waste, up 4.5% from 2010 and 60% from 1985."

https://www.theatlantic.com/technology/archive/2019/03/china-has-stopped-accepting-our-trash/584131/

#Recycling #CircularEconomy #Politics @green #ClimateChange #Environment

What Happens Now That China Won't Take U.S. Recycling

Americans are consuming more and more stuff. Now that other countries won’t take our papers and plastics, they’re ending up in the trash.

The Atlantic

Urban Hermit May 18, 2023

@ajsadauskas @green

The fact that my food comes in an endless stream of plastic instead of just waxed paper is not my choice. The companies that make these products should be held legally responsible. Non recyclable plastics should be illegal for disposable purposes, and the plastics should be taxed enough to run regional recycling centers - with it being illegal to NOT use a certain percentage of the plastics recovered from these centers.

Urban Hermit May 18, 2023

@ajsadauskas @green

This is a problem with a clear legal solution, and guilting consumers into feeling responsible is not effectively solving it and never will. Nor was it really designed to, it was just a scheme to divert responsibility.

Now at @[email protected]May 18, 2023

@Urban_Hermit @green You're absolutely right.

There's an absolutely massive cross-subsidy for companies that manufacture and sell products.

They've almost never been financially responsible for the end-of-life costs of the products they make. Or, for that matter, the full social and environmental costs of their manufacture and use.

Virgin plastic is cheaper to manufacture than plastic that has been recovered and recycled. That recovery and recycling cost is generally not paid by the original manufacturer.

Instead, some of those costs are borne by taxpayers and municipal ratepayers. But most have been carried by developing countries, which have been paid to dispose of the waste out-of-sight and out-of-mind.

I strongly suspect that if the full costs of recovery and recycling were included in the upfront cost of plastic products, many would simply not be viable. Certainly not for disposable products or packaging.

Instead, we'd have less packaging, and more products would be either reusable or biodegradable.

Martin May 20, 2023

@ajsadauskas The best plastic packaging is the plastic that never existed in the first place

Martin May 20, 2023

@ajsadauskas Plastic recycling seems to be a straw man in the portrayal of plastic as a necessity

Doreen32128 ready to rumble!May 18, 2023

@Urban_Hermit @ajsadauskas @green followed! ITA!

rubbel May 18, 2023

@ajsadauskas
Recycling isn't a sham, just plastic recycling. Paper, glass and metals are mostly profitable.
Hopefully projects working with reusing plastic will also soon be successful but it's difficult.

Now at @[email protected]May 19, 2023

@rubbel So to clarify, plastic recycling in many cases has been a sham.

And especially the model where unprocessed waste from OECD countries gets shipped en masse to Africa/India/China to deal with has absolutely been a sham.

Iron Curtain (Chiptunes)May 18, 2023

@ajsadauskas @green

I have a question for you. Do you mean "Recycling is a sham" or "*Plastic* Recycling is a sham?" I definitely agree with the latter but not the former. Paper and Alumin[i]um definitely get recycled. Plastic does not, though.

Ben Aveling May 19, 2023

@green @IronCurtain @ajsadauskas neither is completely true nor completely false. And there’s a lot more to total impact than recycling.

Iron Curtain (Chiptunes)May 19, 2023

@BenAveling @green @ajsadauskas Fair enough.

Sunanda May 19, 2023

@ajsadauskas @green so much of it is being illegally imported and dumped in India. People think it's being recycled, but it's actually being burnt in some desperately poor area where people cannot protest.

Jonathan Wright May 19, 2023

@Theorem_Poem @ajsadauskas @green

Sadly this sounds about right. 😢

Anything for the easy option.

Sunanda May 19, 2023

@Jon6705 @ajsadauskas @green Google "illegal plastic imports to India" and you'll get dozens of incidents reported.

Jonathan Wright May 19, 2023

@Theorem_Poem @ajsadauskas @green

😢

Every country needs to be as self-sufficient as possible.

If a country can't handle the #Waste / #Rubbish / #Trash / #Litter it produces, in-house, then it's time to cut down on the waste produced, not dump it off on another country, be it India, China, or wherever.

We need to work towards the #CircularEcomony if we are to survive.

Sergio May 19, 2023

@ajsadauskas @green this article is from 2019 and chinas decision to stop purchasing other countries waste is on a global scale. They did not just stop buying from the USA. The solution needs to be to stop producing plastic.

Voron May 19, 2023

@ajsadauskas @green @kpmitton it was started by petroleum companies iirc, it’s been a great way to get people to yell at each other rather than focus on companies making billions who could be regulated & taxed into improving society

Stephen Dioxide

@voron @ajsadauskas @green @kpmitton I'm curious what people think of Precious Plastic: https://preciousplastic.com/

Say hi to the Precious Plastic Universe

The alternative plastic recycling system run by people.

Gina B Fla May 19, 2023

@ajsadauskas @green
Why can we not have a deposit on glass and aluminum?

OccupyJourney May 19, 2023

@ajsadauskas @green I'm a Desert Storm vet and I saw people being murdered for CRUD oil. After DS the amount of throwing away of plastic and the like is just sickening 😡

KenBallweg May 20, 2023

@ajsadauskas @green @liztai one major irony of the eco-theater of plastic recycling is that you need to thoroughly wash it before putting it in the bin. People are wasting millions of gallons of water a year cleaning items headed to landfills.

Writing Slowly May 21, 2023

@kballweg @ajsadauskas @green @liztai Cleaner landfill though? Future generations will thank us for that at least 🫠

Stan Stewart aka muz4now May 22, 2023

@green @ajsadauskas Sadly, this article is 4 years old which makes me curious what has happened - better or worse - since then.