Recycling Plastic Is a Dangerous Waste of Time.
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- Опубликовано: 5 сен 2024
- The recycling industry-and the world at large-has yet to fully reckon with a bombshell study that dropped last year.
This is a narrated version of Frank Celia's essay, published in Quillette on 17 June 2024: quillette.com/...
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When I found out that my city was shipping all of our recycling to China, and China was BURNING it, all in order for my city to be able to claim “Zero Waste,” I stopped recycling. Eventually China was so overwhelmed with US “recycling” that they started turning it away. Now my city changed the phrase on the side of the trucks to “Waste Zero” instead of “Zero Waste.” Most people don’t notice this change, and they still think that we are all going to achieve some kind of perfect sustainability that is never going to happen. I noticed that many of these people who think we can recycle everything tend to buy more Dollar Tree plastic junk. Whereas those of us who are more aware of the actual reality tend to buy less cheap plastic junk at these kind of stores. I skip the $1 plastic section at Target now. Not a perfect solution, but my house and our environment are saving a tiny bit of waste. Anyway thank you for making this information public as more people need to know the reality of it all!
I was at Starbucks couple months ago. I was throwing trash away and questioned if an item was to go into trash or recycle. The worker told me everything goes in the same dumpster out back.
A friend of mine worked for two decades in China in the electronics industry. At that time the USA and Europe were sending their plastic recyclables to China in large shipping containers. Since they had the means to process the plastics much cheaper than the west. The dirty secret is that my friend and his coworkers would watch barges head way out to sea full of shipping containers full of plastic waste. Later the barges would return from out to sea miraculously empty of all plastic waste. They were getting paid to throw USA and European plastics out in the open ocean. Eventually the USA began sending inspectors to check the Chinese methods of plastic recycling. Once the Chinese operations were under western scrutiny, the Chinese decided to stop taking USA plastic waste for recycling.
Streamrolling? Just kidding. That was really, really worth the half hour to watch it. Thank you, Ms Booth. I hope you can add more of these documentaries to the interviews with other people you usually get into.
One similar matter that came to mind as I was watching, particularly at the part where you mentioned recycling criminals, was the case of aluminium, particularly cans. It used to be a case of putting them back into the cardboard boxes that the soft-drink and beer came in, and then into the yellow-lid recycling bins, (so it made it easier for the workers at the recycling depots to separate aluminium out of the rubbish). Then in October 2020, some new mob from Queensland turned up in Western Australia, and the tax on canned beer increased by 30c a can, and is now closer to 50c a can. So the Western Australian citizen now has to collect their own coke and beer cans and ferry them to some depot which could be hundreds of kilometres away, to get back 10c refund on an aluminium can that they've already paid 40c or more in tax on.
So add the cost of fuel, and the time, and the dirty hands and the efforts to store a great enough number of aluminium cans to justify the trip to the 'recycling' facility, and then half the time the nongheads at the depot won't accept cans which have been carefully replaced into the cardboard boxes they were purchased in to maintain cleanliness, so then there's more time to have to take them out of the boxes again, (sometimes), and wait while the unfriendly 'customer service officer' slowly counts all the hundreds of cans again, just to get back 10c a can on the 40c or more per can in tax already paid !!!
Now all my aluminium cans go into landfill because of the way I have been treated by the Western Australian aluminium can collection cretins. You ought to buy yourself a gun for protection, and then do a story on the aluminium can corruption in Western Australia. It ios the same mob as in Queensland, but in Queensland they are most professional, from Mount Isa to Atherton to Townsville to Charters Towers to Brisbane to Toowomba, besides one place just north of the NSW border I won't mention but it starts with a G and is just north of Moree.
4 brief points: (1) Wow. I found this reasonable and sober the entire way. No hype, hyperbole, sanctimony (aka virtue-signalling), overwrought emotion, or detectable pseudo-science. Speculation was flagged as such, and seemed restrained.👍
Bravo, Frank Celia. Thanks for respecting my wish to choose my own level of alarm.
(2) Solitary point of dispute: Natural gas, not diesel, is the cleanest-burning fossil fuel.
(3) It flirted with negating point (1) to show us John Oliver, even with no audio.😄
(4) Until micro- and even nanoparticles can be safely filtered out from recycling plant discharges, all plastic waste ought to be disposed of in stable underground rock formations which are isolated well away from groundwater.
It is absurd to restrict the ethic of the Oath of Hippocrates to the profession of medicine. _"First, you shall do no harm":_ Let's spread its wisdom all over the place - including to _self-satisfied and moralizing activists of all kinds,_ who seem in very urgent need of it.
Thanks for tackling this important topic without fearmongering to ban plastics. Getting rid of plastic would actually increase our environmental impact, not lessen it. Everything we make with plastic (a byproduct of petroleum we're using anyway) is something we don't have to take from nature. Many rare and endangered species that used to be harvested en masse for their unique material properties have been saved thanks to plastics. Now, we should absolutely keep improving on plastic materials, plastic disposal, and pollution in general, but plastics are a massive net good for human flourishing and the natural environment. Let's keep working on minimizing the negatives while maximizing the positives.
4:21 "After this study which briefly made her micro-famous last year ..."
Clever.
Excellent presentation!
waste to energy is just 'chemical recycling' and it suffers the same difficulty- 'waste' is a very inconsistent (and therefore difficult to work with) feedstock
all you're doing is chemically recycling the plastic into some mix of CO+CH4+H2 and other gases (that would typically become plastic feedstocks), and then burning them, rather than turning them back into plastics
but if the consistency of the wastes you're trying to gasify is off, then it causes challenges, and all sorts of contaminants can make their way into the plants, making them much harder to operate than coal or wood pellet power plants
There is only one true green and it's never the environment. If a corporation is involved be skeptical. I'm glad people are covering this. It also launders taxpayer money to these companies. The most responsible action is to not buy it in the first place or throw it in the trash.
It's amazing how narrators are so super-human these days: able to speak long, continuously, faultlessly and relentlessly fast without ever taking a breath. Even when they show the narrator, I'm no longer convinced that I'm looking at a mortal, fallible, fellow human. This sort of engagement is really starting to feel very artificial.
never underestimate the power of editing
To hear 'recycling' and 'industry' in the same sentence indicates that the whole concept of 'recycling' has been little more than a great big ergo-te-absolvo all along: since it is a given that consumers would never continue providing profits while doing things that would actually benefit the earth's ecosystems, such as to REDUCE the usage of all goods and all energy sources substantially and permanently, and to RE-USE existing goods to the maximum possible extent as opposed to buying the latest of everything and throwing the previous version in the trash, adding in the superstitious incantation of RECYCLE to the mantra has meant that everyone can keep right on with their hyper-wasteful consumer lifestyles and never reduce or re-use at all, while still being congratulated for how eco-conscious they are.
'Recycling', in other words, has been a quasi-religious mythology all along, and like all religious myths, serves to assure the barely-faithful that questions of right and wrong are always someone else's problem, and that 'they' are actually doing something meaningful about doing the right things. Which, of course, 'they' never are nor ever had been.
Other than little plastic toys, define hyper-wasteful consumption. Most people buy what they need, don't they? Do women consume more wasteful frills?
My automobile was made in 2006.
My computer has a Xeon processor from 2011.
I don't keep up with fashion like a celebrity, but those who crave constantly changing fashions can donate their old clothing to charity.
I re-purpose old shoes to glue chunks of hard rubber from the old to the sole of new shoes. This is because my heel wears uneven, so shoes would be wasted in 3 months if I didn't take those measures that keeps them lasting a year or more.
Some packaging can be reduced.
I'm wondering if "consumerist lifestyle" is just a slur against humans and human society. Could be.
It not a waste of time if your recycling single use plastics into non-single use products like PET plastic water bottles into polyester fabric or HDPE laundry detergent bottles into Recycling containers and plastic buckets. Stop looking at all plastic as a problem and rather as a valuable resource.
Are you employed by the recyclying industrie, shill? The video clearly adressed it that turning Pet-bottles into textiles is one way downcycling, just delayed trash.
hmm...I've received assurances from one of the top solid waste managers at our county public works dept, that our waste mgmt contractor is recycling about 95% (not sure if it's mass or volume) of its incoming recyclables. Recycling is mandated here. You are required to separate. I don't think "scam" is useful or accurate in describing this business. It's a pejorative and sort of a fear and cynicism-mongering term. But I do think the technology is presently failing most of the jurisdictions using it. Oddly your presentation does not go into the technology of WTE. Finland, which has been successful in implementing WTE for all of it's garbage, uses high temperature incineration (with some fairly complicated effluent treatments). This is an absolutely critical distinction. Just burning garbage would be an unmitigated environmental disaster. High temp incineration is really kind of a separate thing. Whatever your point was, you can't just burn plastic the same way you burn other fuels, like coal. Mostly, though, I think this is a good start for a long complex debate. One which really needs to start soon.
95% of metal and paper products being recycled? I can definitely imagine that might be true, and they might even be able to show this is true.
95% of PLASTIC getting recycled? I would seriously question this, and assume they will not be able to show this to be true.
At the same time, I'm open to being wrong.
If I were you, I'd definitely ask a few more questions. It might NOT be a scam. Please let us know what your deeper questions reveal.
I'm curious where you are? You mention Finland, but you didn't say "Here in Finland."
But if so, terve ja kiitos. I once had a tyttöystävä in Joensuu.
*Reply to:* _"hmm...I've received assurances from one of the top solid waste managers at our county public works dept, that our waste mgmt contractor is recycling about 95% (not sure if it's mass or volume) of its incoming recyclables. Recycling is mandated here. You are required to separate. I don't think "scam" is useful or accurate in describing this business. It's a pejorative and sort of a fear and cynicism-mongering term. But I do think the technology is presently failing most of the jurisdictions using it. Oddly your presentation does not go into the technology of WTE. Finland, which has been successful in implementing WTE for all of it's garbage, uses high temperature incineration (with some fairly complicated effluent treatments). This is an absolutely critical distinction. Just burning garbage would be an unmitigated environmental disaster. High temp incineration is really kind of a separate thing. Whatever your point was, you can't just burn plastic the same way you burn other fuels, like coal. Mostly, though, I think this is a good start for a long complex debate. One which really needs to start soon."_
Annoyingly, it appears censorious RUclips deleted my reply to you.
Usually I can tell which comments/replies YT will censor.
But this one baffles me.
I'll try to break up my reply into multiple shorter replies. Sometimes that works.
95% of metal and paper products being recycled? I can definitely imagine that might be true, and they might even be able to show this is true.
95% of PLASTIC getting recycled? I would seriously question this, and assume they will not be able to show this to be true.
At the same time, I'm open to being wrong.
If I were you, I'd definitely ask a few more questions. It might NOT be a scam. Please let us know what your deeper questions reveal.
I'm curious where you are? You mention Finland, but you didn't say "Here in Finland."
But if so, terve ja kiitos. I once had a tyttöystävä in Joensuu.
It _appears_ my reply has made it through without YT deleting it.
Sorry YT forced me to break it up into two replies rather than one.
I look forward to hearing back from you.
*Reply to:* _"hmm...I've received assurances from one of the top solid waste managers at our county public works dept, that our waste mgmt contractor is recycling about 95% (not sure if it's mass or volume) of its incoming recyclables. Recycling is mandated here. You are required to separate. I don't think "scam" is useful or accurate in describing this business. It's a pejorative and sort of a fear and cynicism-mongering term. But I do think the technology is presently failing most of the jurisdictions using it. Oddly your presentation does not go into the technology of WTE. Finland, which has been successful in implementing WTE for all of it's garbage, uses high temperature incineration (with some fairly complicated effluent treatments). This is an absolutely critical distinction. Just burning garbage would be an unmitigated environmental disaster. High temp incineration is really kind of a separate thing. Whatever your point was, you can't just burn plastic the same way you burn other fuels, like coal. Mostly, though, I think this is a good start for a long complex debate. One which really needs to start soon."_
I feel like it makes sense with medical industry to keep things sterile, but it needs to go away with food and food needs to be more local and everyone needs to be more involved in their own food. The convenience on our end is not worth it. Keeping needles sterile until used seems like a good reason to use single-use plastic.
No fruit in the winter? Heck with you.
I quite agree. Single use plastics in health, tech and a few other industries are vital and the industries would crash and burn without them, if they were suddenly cut off. But we've had 60 years to learn about the hazards of plastics and plastic manufacturing. In that time, we could have developed alternatives and come up with durable solutions for a lot of these applications and slowly phased them in. But we didn't. Also, I suspect that, of the total mass or volume of single use plastics, medicine, etc, industries are probably producing a relatively small share. We don't have to consider the present increase in the amount of single use plastic as a fixed, insurmountable problem, as Celia does here.
I did the math once, and figured out that local food produces MORE pollution than factory-farm food shipped on tractor-trailer trucks. The problem is that if every customer drives an extra 3 miles to go to a farmer's market instead of the local grocery story, all that car driving uses more gas than shipping one truckload halfway across the country.
@@philipgoetz8681 that's actually an argument for MORE farmer's markets, closer to more neighborhoods. If your numbers are accurate. Big "if". No idea where you got 3 miles. Our farmer's market is a 10 minute walk from our grocery store. Re shipping by truck, remember that you have to count the return trip, which is often empty. And that you have to count sleeping. For no real reason except habit, diesel truck drivers leave the engine on idle whenever they are pulled over. So you can't just add up the mileage.
lose the recycling regs, see if recycling businesses survive...
"Loosen"?
Or "lose"?
The two words have opposite meanings, and I don't know which you mean by "loose the recycling regs."
*Reply to:* _"loose the recycling regs, see if recycling businesses survive..."_
Takeaway plastic coffee cups and straws started piling up at my studio because I’m lazy about taking out the recycling waste. There were so many I now just take my reusable tumbler. For the first time I felt guilty.
You guys need more views and subs! Great essay! ❤
They just haven't figured out a good use like someone using it for pavement for driveways or whatever ground up shredded through all sorts of potential use they just got to figure it out how to be profitable enough.
Very interesting video!
Make snow globe's out of microplastic's?
We all know it's a scam. We also know there's nothing we can do about it and we like it.
Idea's ink is carbon.
All according the plan.
Which is?
Follow The Plastic Piles .See Where They Really Go .Your Not Going To Be Happy . IT COULD BE SO MUCH BETTER . I'm Going To TRY .Team YOU !
We banned plastic straws and shopping bags lol. Lemmings 😂
I lack the cash for reusable bag's.
Maybe mix microplastic's
into fuel create steam?
Once plastics become microplastics, depending on the smallness, it becomes increasingly difficult to extract microplastics from the water or air or Earth or whatever other substance including bodily tissues where it has become lodged.
A micron is a millionth of a meter.
The argument here is for avoiding intentionally breaking down solid large plastics into microplastic particles, in the process of well-intentioned recycling.
Before I invest time in listening to this: Did she offer any solutions/alternatives?
Yes. She argues that the lesser evil is burning it in biomass energy plants rather than attempting to recycle.
She cites one or more scientists with "green" credentials who suggests that burning plastics as alt petrol is less wasteful than attempting to recycle into new plastics.
The part that got me was that recycling may be responsible for TWO THIRDS of the output of water-bourne and airborne micro and nano particles, because of how they wash and grind up plastics to create (I think) pellets for new feedstock.
If so, this would mean greater harm is being caused BY well-intentioned recycling.
The numbers aren't clear and only one site was tested so others are likely worse, but it's a (very) ballpark guess.
OMG, just put it in a rocket and send it into the Sun. Elon, are you listening?