Is Your Plastic Actually Being Recycled? | NYT Opinion
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- Опубликовано: 7 фев 2025
- The greatest trick corporations ever played was making us think we could recycle their products.
In the Video Op-Ed above, we debunk a recycling myth that has lulled us into guilt-free consumption for decades.
This holiday season, the United States Postal Service expects to ship almost one billion packages - cardboard boxes full of electronics and fabric and plastic galore. And the Environmental Protection Agency estimates that Americans generate 25 percent more waste in the period between Thanksgiving and New Year’s than during the rest of the year, an additional one million tons per week.
But hey, most of it is recyclable, right?
Well, not really.
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Thanks NYT for this video! All, take it a step further - reduce your use of single-use plastics! Bring your cups, bring utensils, stop supporting Amazon and GO to the store!
But in all seriousness, it also stinks to have the burden fall on the consumer. Corporations need to be liable for more of their wasteful actions. I’m glad that more and more folks are realizing that recycling is mostly a myth. If anyone has ways to pressure corporations to clean - no pun intended - their act, I’d love to hear about them.
It is possible to recycle plastic and transform it into long-term construction products such as bricks, plastic wood, windows, and paving bricks. These are products that use plastic to build houses, schools, buildings, streets, etc., and not just simple recycled cups (disposable things). In this case, houses and entire schools are already being built using this simple and efficient technology in Asia (Thailand), Africa (Ivory Coast, Kenya, and Nigeria), and Latin America (Colombia, Bolivia, and Mexico). Colombia is the country with more expertise and advanced companies in this area. In Ivory Coast, for example, there is no garbage collection process, so people dispose of plastic waste in the open land. The Colombian company Conceptos Plasticos is producing together with UNICEF schools and homes in Africa. Plastic bricks made with recycled material are more resistant than conventional bricks. More resistant also than concrete brick. In addition, it does not absorb water and moisture and is simply treated to withstand excessive heat. Look on social networks for the page of the Colombian company Conceptos Plasticos. And if you can, there's a video from the Business Insider channel on YT called How To Make Bricks From Plastic Trash. It shows these projects in action. And also the BBC Earth Lab channel video called These Recycled Plastic Bricks Are Stronger Than Concrete and How A Ghanaian Man Is Building Affordable Homes With Waste Plastics.
What do we do with, computers, cell phones , all the pipes inside homes, cars, sport outfits etc…. It’s impossible to live without.
this is also explained in “broken” on netflix
Besides this vid, CBC made a documentary on exactly where your plastics go and how they are left abandoned. Although it is situated in Canada, I think big companies have similar approaches in handling them, so here you go: ruclips.net/video/c8aVYb-a7Uw/видео.html
It's even harder to convince people, who want to do good, the dangers of "wishcycling"
Besides this vid, CBC made a documentary on exactly where your plastics go and how they are left abandoned. Although it is situated in Canada, I think big companies have similar approaches in handling them, so here you go: ruclips.net/video/c8aVYb-a7Uw/видео.html
Proof that we need to utilise our Karens
Hahah
E X A C T L Y
...actually, its "our Kathleens"...but since Karen starts with a "K", Karens can work too. Maybe Kiras/Keiras, Kennedys, Kaylas, Katies, Katherines, Kloes, Kaitlins/Kairlyns, and Kimberlys can get in on it too....
If barely 8% is used to recycle. Why are we wasting our time paying for recycling taxes when we buy Sodas.
You have answered your own question: WE are PAYING. The other trouble is, most products, including food, cannot even be purchased except in plastic packages. I remember purchasing vegetables that were actually fresh and unpackaged, and frozen vegetables in cardboard boxes. Alas, no longer. And most people just don't care enough.
The original purpose was to eliminate litter. States that have bottle deposits have less litter.
Once government gets an income stream, it’s very very hard to get government off that addiction. Take tolls for example: when has a toll ever been taken off despite it supposed to be temporary.
You aren’t paying for the recycling you are paying for clean roads and highways, not to mention your front yard.
I live in a state where one of the first bottle fee, not tax was added, you almost never see bottles con the road. I know that those items are being recycled. But all the other stuff we recycle? Shampoo bottles? I bet those are landfill.
Here's a fun fact... At The New York Times I saw a custodian taking the recycling from the bin and putting it with the regular garbage... 😅😥
Theres is so much ignorance. Knowledge needs to begin in elementary schools!!
I like your comment as it is very true, and I’d like to add that it actually begins at home, and early. Children learn their environment from before day 1, and are not even in school for the first 3-4 yrs of their life…Teachers and schools cannot raise the world correctly and perfectly, just look at where we are🤷🏽♂️. We the individuals are the base of this and all need to be responsible and respondent to what is necessary, and not pass the buck to “somebody” else. The “somebody” refers to the phrase, “somebody needs to do something about that!” line that is far too frequent in our modern day verbatim, and accountability has dropped due to this. We all are “somebody” everyday and we together with a little coordination could knock this out of the park if we all did it without $$ getting in the way, Im absolutely sure. 💯
Corporations being horrible as usual
It's not about horrible corporations, it's about average person horrible consumerism.
Also incompetent government.
@Saorla Rodger are you saying people(exept for you ofcourse) are too dumb to think for themse
It's also a problem when the janitor comes in at the end of the day and just dumps everything from the trash and recycling bins into the same big trash can.
Kitt i was hella disappointed when i saw a janitor doing this afterschool
So schools need to incentivize sustainability.
@@Antifadiva If it's plastic recycling, it's not like that will change anything as most of the plastics in the recycling bin are unrecyclable as most plastics kids run into and interact with arent plastics 1 or 2. There is no point in sorting the plastic and it's just easier to throw it all out.
Yeah not just school janitors but lifeguards are instructed to do this, offices and many more. They are TOLD to do this because the facility doesn't have recycling measures in place, it's not the janitors fault. Especially since most things aren't recyclable anyways
The facility doesn't have a recycling system in place so it is not the janitor's fault. The organization has recycling bins to make people feel better and believe that they are recycling but they actually aren't. This is a common ploy set up to mislead people into thinking that companies are doing their part to recycle but in reality it all goes to the landfill.
this shouldnt be an opinion
Precisely. Do they not know the difference between fact and opinion? Or do the industry donors not want it in the main publication?
janewright315 an opinion piece is a term used by journalist, doesn’t mean it’s not factual and true
@@Littlegoblinfatface thanks. I'm sure she's aware of that. I believe she is highlighting the fact that we have a crisis and their positioning of the piece does not correspond to its gravity.
When are we going to make creators/producers/corporations responsible for the entire life cycle of all it’s products - especially when it becomes waste (I.e. the end of the life cycle)?
Michael Moore was on to this years ago. He quite separating his garbage. And to be honest most people have given up on it for the reasons mentioned here.
Of course this video is not recommending that. Some of it still gets recycled, so why stop if doing it properly?
Saying there’s nothing we can do is just as bad as denying it’s happening entirely
It's disturbing but also helpful to find out about what is happening to all the wastes we've been creating. Thank you for the video and creating more awareness on the issue and pollution overall.
Or put a price on throwing stuff away, it worked for japan.
except we shouldn't be blaming the consumer for the plastic crisis, but the companies that create it. It is almost impossible for most people to go zero waste, especially if you're low income
Pierre companies are the collective of consumers. Also i agree with you consumers aren't the problem, they just act rationally. The problem is the system, if it's free to throw stuff away then of course people will do that.
Or give people money for recycling bottles and cans.
Works in Sweden.
@@loveanianimeme and Australia in Sydney/NSW we have Return and Earn 10c refund on eligible containers.
Andrijana Stankovska yes, this is the same as what i said. But you just increase the price and then give them that money back when they recycel it. I like it more that people just have to pay when they throw stuff away because i think it is more efficient that way, but I think people can debate this point.
Time tags for personal studying 😃
00:10 It goes to a separate place, to a plastic recycling plant, to a factory something akin to the end of to a factory, something akin to the end of "Toy Story 3", where they're all heading to this big incinerator.
00:22 Then I imagine that there's some large machine that just squishes everything together.
00:47 This is actually propaganda. We've been spoon-fed since we were kids in commercial after commercial.
01:43 You probably guessed it, minus the plastic that ends up in the ocean.
영상에서 "You probably guessed it" 하고 land fill이 나왔으니까, "바다에 버려지는 플라스틱을 minus 하고는 (매립지로 갈 것이란 것을) 짐작할 수 있을 것이다"로 이해하면 될듯.
01:46 To make it worse, we used to export a third of our recycling, a whopping 20 million tons a year and pay countries like China to deal with it for us.
02:06 This recycling shutout has cause hundreds of American municipalities toy cancel cut down or totally cancel their recycling programs.
02:13 We can't even recycle our milk cartons or yogurt containers anymore.
02:28 Let's ask the F.T.C. That's the entity set up to protect American consumers like you and me, by setting rules on consumer labeling.
02:53 Like if a shower curtain package says recyclable, but either the curtain or the package isn't recyclable, then that's considered deceptive.
03:08 Unless the bottle has a non recyclable wrapping or is contaminated with food.
03:15 Is anyone else totally lost here?
03:53 She took Keurig to court to sue them for false advertising
04:32 And now a whole bunch of other Kathleen's are lining up in a potential class-action suit against Keurig.
04:17 This lawsuit might eventually cause one company to clean up its act, but short of millions of crusading Kathleens and court cases, how are we going to clean up the entire plastic pushing industry?
04:35 And we need companies to stop hiding behind their green marketing ploys and actually deal with the plastic crisis.
Consumers need to purchase goods made with recycled content (especially paper and plastic). Until there is a robust demand for recycled material, the recycling system will struggle.
Most plastics can't be recycled though, it's better to just use reusable containers. Even if a plastic is recycled it's often only able to be recycled once before it's then into the landfill
I used to drive a residential recycle truck for a large waste company. We would go down a cul de sac where no one was watching and back the recycle truck up to the trash rear load truck and empty all the recycling into the trash truck and it would all go to the landfill. This was daily.
It’s always been hard for me to accept that recycling is actually being done after my fist job. I worked for sea world and they have bins for patrons to separate their recyclable materials and trash. Yet at the end of the day when I asked where do we throw the recycling bins they all went into the same compactor. Just a big front for them to show the public how “environmentally conscious” they are. Even though they claim how important it is for everyone else to do their part and recycle to save the oceans and it’s wildlife.
Exactly but sadly most companies do this. Someone should expose SeaWorld and all the other organizations
It was not that long ago when there was no plastic containers they were all glass , cardboard with wax , cardboard, paper etc. There was no plastic bags. Plastic was pushed on us . We try to use plastic containers and bags over and over again before putting them in the bins.
Maybe ppl should get together and send back all wrappers n packagings back to the corporates who don't give us a choice than buy our necessaries in plastic wrappings
@3:55 the funny thing is that symbol there is not a recycling symbol, its a resin id code. Which was designed with the intent of being confused with the recycling symbol. If you see a narrow lined arrow triangle with a number in the middle is a resin code, it has nothing do with recycling.
Metal and wood based products is where we need to go. Canned water and paper cups and plates. People will complain we need to save the trees but its biodegradable and organic so we can throw those in a landfill all day, it's natural. Metal is actually recyclable and easy to recover, reuse, and repurpose.
In 2020, the United States spent around 766.58 billion U.S. dollars on its military but can't even recycle thier own plastic i mean kmon
I worked as a janitor back for a college back in the day. And when I first started I saw that the other custodians were just throwing the recycling trash into the regular trash bin. They didnt even have a separate trash bin for recycled trash.
It is messed up because we are trying to reduce our pollution . Hope all this gets fixed because it hard to avoid plastic. It even be if everything can be actual be recycled or be actual biodegradable . Also some old things like glass bottles they are still used in other counties the companies take them then wash and sanitize them ,but I remember when I was little when I noticed the change is that if it falls especially by a kid or person with lesser motor skills it will not break. Hope like this video said better regulations on labeling and essayer access to actual recycle or have it be reused.
So.. our recycling bins. WHAT IS THE POINT?! Our waste either goes to landfill or gets shipped abroad!
8% recycled is better than 0%. It's still millions of tons.
*Welcome to the Garb-Age*
First N Lastname, the Third underrated comment lol
Recycling is not the solution. Reusable packages are.
Refillable containers and single use metal cans (easier to recycle than plastic) should be the future. but disposable convenience is what most people want even if it destroys the world
Int the short term, the solution is to relay on landfills. Modern landfills are more environmentally friendly then recycling.
@@agisler87 interesting I didnt knew that.
Where I live, NOTHING is being recycled, even though they pretend it is. It is ALL going in landfill.
wow, i guess they saw that new netflix documentary too
Glad this was labeled an OPINION piece. I've heard similar information presented in a much less biased way.
Further, no real solution was offered to the problem identified "buy as if nothing will be recycled"? Maybe for plastic, but that wasn't made clear. We can certainly and easily recycle glass and paper. Also we can be more careful about what plastic containers we buy (look for the "1" or "2" in the recycle symbol on the container), we can clean food out of our containers before we put them into recycling, and we can speak up to our elected officials to make a change.
And we can do the other two thirds of the approach - reduce and reuse. That's a message that is rarely heard in this context.
With just 15 more seconds in the video, some clearer and actionable information could have been presented, thus improving the video. As it is right now, it comes off as preachy and a bit whiney.
I wish they included some link to each states guidelines on recycling or a way to petition the FTC for strict guidelines to make it fast and easy for thousands to get it done.
I recycle hundreds of TVs, stereos, PCs, speakers, all kinds of machines, including tools and air conditioners, all that I found on the streets I try to recycle, I make some money but my apartment is full with stuff, so much I cant even get in sometimes and my all friends make fun of my me because my cars are always full to the top. I love to do what I do, I hate people that just discard items that are just a little bit older and compete with each other to own the newest stuff, they dont know how foolish they are, they are destroying our precious planet and there is not other like it....
You sound like a hoarder...
‘Buy as if nothing gets recycled.”
Good job on this presentation. Very informative
You say we should keep recycling when you separating. Those are not the same and it's good to make people aware of that difference, otherwise it's a good awareness video about plastic waste 👍
"mean"
THIS is WHEN We should Be DOING IT... Wrong Way, Homeyz!!! Geez. 4 US!
Definitely, something to be thought over, and over and over...
I’m left wondering why this video never stated once that consumers should Reduce (what we buy) or Reuse as well as recycle. Both reducing and reusing have much less environmental impact, especially since so much of what goes in the blue bins is never recycled. Yes, corporations need to do a lot more but consumers do have a say as well. We should all look at the plastic we buy and find ways to buy less of it.
It's because corporations don't want us to reduce and reuse, since they don't make money off that.
eri yeah NY Times must be in bed with some of them. Otherwise they would have mentioned it as well as the fact that a lot of our “recycling” is ending up being illegally dumped in SE Asia, and never recycled, as I’ve seen in some much more in-depth reports out of England, Canada and Australia here on RUclips.
We did fine when shampoos were sold in glass bottles and vegetables and fruits were sold loose. Now corporates don't give us a choice than buy almost everything in plastic packaging
The way they use "Kathleen" in this video almost reminds of "Karen but who actually has a reasonable basis for her actions". 🤷♂️ 😆
Re cycling is very popular in India. Most of the wastes including plastic and iron scrap are recycled and transformed in to new items in small industries in various parts of our country. Waste paper are also processed in to different useful items by these small industries.
Also some big companies have their janitors removing all paper products for brand new ones, instead of using All of it down to its carboard core ♻️🤯😨
What a tangled web we weave when we plan to deceive!! 3:12 "is anyone else lost here?!?!
Excellent concise summary on the topic.
How can anyone argue that Kathleen isn't hurt by Keurig selling her as non-recycleable product? She's believing them, and herself contributing to a planet everyone (including herself) will eventually find gross and uninhabitable.
Those triangles with chasing arrows around a number on things made of plastic are not recycling symbols. They are resin codes. They indicate the resin used in making the plastic. The plastics industry designed them to resemble the recyclable symbol as a public relations ploy.
Cities need to take charge too!
About 1/3 of the time, I see our garbage pickup truck dump the recycle bin and the regular trash bin into the same truck.
I just saw this happen in my neighborhood last week. Honestly it sucks!
That's double wasteful then...why two trashbins?
Well, that sucks.
Reduse and reuse first before recycling
Buy less! I wish mild was supplies in the glass containers like in the old days so they could be returned and reusused!
Thank you for making this
Why can't we just go back to glass? Period!
4:53 - so ... how do we know what's recyclable, and what's just contaminating the local material stream?
Trash companies are a big business
I remember USSR and there weren't any plastic. Glass bottles and textile bags.
This is why landfills are more environmentally friendly then recycling. Landfills get a bad rap but they make way for parks, ski slopes etc. And the methane produced from them can be captured to be burned for energy.
Hey Eugene OR!
Dankman9 Your 2, 4, and 5 plastics are recyclable in Eugene, OR, just not curbside. As a response to the county stopping nearly all plastic curbside recycling, a group of 200+ volunteer community collectors have organized to bring in your clean and sorted plastics to LCWM for recycling. There are plastic roundup events held around town throughout the year.
Creo que es una buena forma de hacer conciencia en las personas debido que la sociedad actual se basa en tecnología y buscar estretegia por este medio es la mejor opción. Realizar reciclaje de objetos es una de las mejores opciones ya que los procesos de descomposición se ven suprimidos y esto ayuda al medio ambiente!
Once again, let's blame, you and me, corporations and the governments. Ain't nothing new living as a human being in this day in age. 😄
IDK why anybody thinks they need a Kerug machine anyway. I get that if you have one you don't want it to go to "waste" so you buy K-cups, but no point in getting one in the first place. It's a solution they created for a problem that didn't exist.
There is a recycling center on my block. Lines of people wait to cash in their bags of recyclables. They empty of the contents and leave the bottle caps all over the sidewalk, which just ends up in the rivers after it rains.. It's heinous. They only do it for a buck which is usually just spent of booze or lotto tickets. Seems pretty pointless to allow this to continue, sad as it is to say.
Then do something about it!
I wish more places would do that. Giving plastic an actual monetary value would help motivate more people to follow suit. If they would do something similar in my area i'd create separate bails of plastic in my garage and then i would haul them into the facility. But here i sit, skeptical that even if that did happen, would the materials actually end up as other products?
So what you're saying is... We're doomed
Wasn't that already established?
Bryant Mitchell oh, my friend, we are So far down The Swanee River, Far far away.
ruclips.net/video/MK-olXmzRUw/видео.html
Eugene Oregon! Ha, I never hear my city in something from the east coast! Anyway, yeah, everyone needs to use a lot less plastic. I've been avoiding clamshells as much as I can, for example.
Same in Australia :(
I make products made from recycled yarn, at least trying . Still better than nothing .
Because it's cheaper to just produce new ones. Profit dollars for the shareholders is more important.
" Recyclable " does not mean " recycled ". The latter one, " recycled ", is the money one. That is the one to look for on any item. All that " recyclable " means is that it could be reprocessed and ' go around again ' if it perchance arrived at the right facility or was so directed. But even then it is not that simple. In the case of PET there is more recycling occurring than you would realise. There are fruit trays and food containers and in some cases PET bottles made from post-consumer PET and it does not even say that. They have not even bothered with the denotation on the given product. They'll only relate such on their PR profiles. They've just upped and since started doing that. Then in other instances it denotes PET products which are given as " recycled " but it is not post-consumer recycled but only, for example, resin from sugar cane off-cut.
also still people need to learn what can be recycled. I help my recying guy sometimes we have found a can full of sticks, a peice of wood furniture, fireworks
We need to figure out a way to make the manufacturers of plastic products have to use recycled materials to make more containers/products. Instead of using new raw materials reuse what they have already dumped into the waste pool.
a point in the video they state that the plastic itself can't be actually recycled...you're trying to run before learning to walk.
honestly i think plastic should go to space because no living thing are on there and i mean its SPACE theres no impact to anyone.
Aha I knew it. Haven’t seen too many plants near me. See a lot of landfills.
This accounts for Europe too.
Now you are finally learning.
Yeah. Currently in my area the only things that get recycled are types 1 PET & 2. And like 90% of plastic I see is type 5 and goes straight to trash. 8/
The best way to recycle to is reduce wastage.
Plastic in a blue bin 😯
it all comes back to the good old oil industry and it's monetary incentives. All roads lead back to the oil industry.
Look at it this way. Saving the planet for future generations. If big companies dont cate, why should we...their kids will suffer just as mine when the planet finally dies.
Wow 😯
Stop buying water and use your faucet water. And get a traveling mug to put your faucet water in. And most importantly, don't have more than one child. Too many humans makes too much usage and garbage.
Recycling is not a waste of time if you dont waste time on Recycling.
in sweden they just burn the plastic with imported foodwaste from like italy
That's worse
Does anybody actually checks for the recycling symbol before putting stuff in the recycling bin? Let's just admit it's the other garbage bin.
Just build more recycling plants in the us. Why isn't this being done?
Recycling is probably not a very profitable business - a lot of transportation cost to get the recyclables to your facility, huge amounts of water and electricity for the processing, expensive specialized machines, strict regulations regarding waste disposal and chemical usage to adhere to. And that's before you account for the cost of labor. Not many people are just itching to get into a business with such low margins.
Depressing.
Why does she say recyclable so weird
plastic comes from oil
Were milk cartons ever recyclable? 02:11
My municipality says they go in recycling. IDK if they actually recycle it. Also, www.recyclecartons.com/
Recycling is a waste of time
I have a kuerig, dang I should get on this lawsuit lol
Does anyone know what editing software was used for this video?
...easy, make everything out of aluminum. right?
Thank you for this! So many great and useful information! I can't wait for "The Story of Plastic" to come out, I was lucky enough to see a preview and it's mindblowing! Trailer here: ruclips.net/video/krhZmrDVv_k/видео.html
We should go back to glass, and plastic applications must be biodegradable
Ok, so we put our plastic bottles in the blue recycle bin, then the sanitation driver picks up the recycling and drivers it to a landfill? I am so confused why don't the driver take it where they promise to take it? I heard the part about Asian countries out not taking our trash but can't we just build a recycling factory in the USA? I k everything is about money but would it really be that expensive for us to do? Something is just not adding up!
Varies by location, but the sanitation driver drives it to the recycling processing center. The RPC looks at the pile of non-recyclables in the pile of recyclables and say "we can't recycle that, send it to the landfill." Best case scenario, the RPC sorts through the pile to separate the actually recyclables from the non-recyclables and only sends the non's to the landfill.
You posed a problem, but offered no solutions. Where are we going to recycle our trash? Who is going to build recycling plants to take it, where will they be? Shouldn’t each community have some type of recycling/sorting facility? Maybe a composting station could be combined for easier community access. Maybe the composting station is really a chicken farm also, where the animals do the bulk of the work. There may be many solutions to discuss
"Start buying as if nothing gets recycled!"
Pressure your local recycling center to actually recycle if they are not already doing so!
Besides this vid, CBC made a documentary on exactly where your plastics go and how they are left abandoned. Although it is situated in Canada, I think big companies have similar approaches in handling them, so here you go: ruclips.net/video/c8aVYb-a7Uw/видео.html
So, what then is recyclable?
thx
what a joke! it's the same here in switzerland and all of EU!