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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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[–] siobhansarelle@tech.lgbt 1 points 2 years ago

@ajsadauskas @CinciMike @Urban_Hermit @green

I used to do the returning bottles thing and getting a little money back, as a child.

It would likely require enough people to give a shit. The people who do, are probably the people who have a shit anyway. Or it’s not enough reward to make it work.

The point about other people picking up someone else’s litter is a good one, but why not just pay more people to pick up litter?

That doesn’t change the culture, it probably makes it worse since there’s the attitude that stuff is disposable and there will always be someone else to clean up.

I think in practice, it might reduce the problem in some places, but mostly it is unlikely it will, particularly in the most populated areas.

Also much of the problem here is with the stuff that was in the containers and then of course there is still the issue of much of the containers not being recyclable.