The Delusion of “Advanced” Plastic #Recycling
The #plastics industry has heralded a type of chemical recycling it claims could replace new shopping bags and candy wrappers with old ones — but not much is being recycled at all, and this method won’t curb the crisis.
#News #Pyrolysis #Chemicals #Evironment #Plastic #Pollution #Science
https://www.propublica.org/article/delusion-advanced-chemical-plastic-recycling-pyrolysis
@RnDanger @ProPublica we REALLY need a way to price in ecological costs.
1 oz new plastic = ¢1 tax
Give the money directly to the EPA.
@RnDanger @ProPublica interesting. I don’t know much about this, so… questions!
Do you mean the standard reusable bags have high plastic content?
How does the plastic use compare over the bag lifetime? (Even at 10x plastic use you come out ahead if you use it 11+ times)
How do alternative materials compare? I got some heavy duty paper bags from Trader Joe’s but the handles ripped out pretty fast.
Cloth seems under-utilized, any idea why?
@PeterBronez @ProPublica
I'm doing curbside pickup and single use plastic bags are banned here so they give me "reusable" bags that they claim can be used hundreds of times
Except that my only use case is picking up my groceries and they won't take them to use again for that so they all go to the recycle to become fence posts
"the industry’s revolutionary pyrolysis method: It relies heavily on extracting #fossilfuels. At least 90% of the naphtha used in #pyrolysis is fossil fuel naphtha...
So at the end of the day, nothing that comes out of pyrolysis physically contains more than 10% recycled material (though experts and studies have shown that, in practice, it’s more like 5% or 2%)."
- @ProPublica
https://www.propublica.org/article/delusion-advanced-chemical-plastic-recycling-pyrolysis
Lisa Marie
ProPublica
2xfo
Peter Bronez
Gatekeeper..
Zhi Zhu 🕸️
Katykayay
david
ansible42
Martin Ruskov