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

submitted 2 years ago* (last edited 2 years ago) by ajsadauskas@aus.social to c/green@lemmy.ml

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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

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[–] cooopsspace@infosec.exchange 3 points 2 years ago (1 children)

@energisch_ @ajsadauskas @skyfire101 @green Australia we just had a bunch of mass fraud occur where supermarkets could greenwash their way out of reducing plastic by calling soft plastics recyclable. And when the scheme from a third party company failed and it was found that there were numerous warehouses of store material the supermarkets said “oh well, we will take over the company to make sure it’s recycled” and then got an exemption to dump it all.

[–] energisch_@troet.cafe 1 points 2 years ago (1 children)

@cooopsspace Trash is big business, especially when you can cheat. There is a lot of criminal things going on: legalized crimes. For example, EU allowed electronic trash to be delivered as "used goods" to African nations where (with the help of one or more corruptable politicians) these "used goods" end up in soil & water poisoning trash heaps in poverty stricken regions. som@ajsadauskas@aus.social @skyfire101 @green

[–] cooopsspace@infosec.exchange 3 points 2 years ago

@energisch_ @skyfire101 @green environmental crime should be amongst the highest punishment of all crime, environmental crime is a giant “fuck you” to all 7 billion of us and should involve jail time.