this post was submitted on 01 Mar 2025
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Plastic Recycling is Largely A Myth.
Basically, the vast majority of plastic either literally cannot be recycled, at all, or would be astoundingly expensive to properly seperate according to it's different types and run through the recycling process.
... So, in most cases, it isn't, and just ends up in a landfill or being directly dumped into nature.
Oil companies have known this for decades, and, as with other issues surrounding pollution ... they've promoted anything that makes an individual feel guilty when they know that even if all individuals followed the suggested course of action, it would have a negligible impact.
fun fact: BP created the carbon footprint to turn the guilt onto the end consumers, and away from them.
But please put your plastic in the bin marked plastic.
https://recyclingcenternear.me/7-types-of-plastic-explained/
Which of the 7 different kinds of plastic go in which bins?
Are the labels on the plastic even correct? Do they even exist at all?
Does your local recycling / garbage take away service specify?
Does the processing center they are taken to actually bother to seperate them?
The answers to all those questions vary widely by different zipcodes.
Has any of your plastic waste touched food, or touched other plastic that has touched food?
If so, its probably considered contaminated and unrecycleable, and is just put into a landfill, as it would take a lot of time and effort to sanitize it.
I like how under the entry for PVC pipes, they used an image of what looks like terracotta pipes.
I have black and white PVC pipes in my shed, but no clay colored ones, lol.
Orange PVC pipes are used plenty in my neck of the woods. I see them regularly used for fire suppression system piping.
I worked at a public disposal area for a little while and can attest that at least my flyover state/zipcode does separate and sanitize plastic. Cardboard was the only thing that couldn't have touched oil (including pizza). We only accepted plastics #1 and #2, though, and part of my job included climbing into the dumpster and sorting through. I'd miss it if workers rights weren't simultaneously such shit* here
*autocorrect trying to sanitize my language too
From my understanding, this is basically the case for all recycling aside from aluminum and glass
A proper landfill is a set aside, contained area, that has systems in place for things like managing pollutants from leaking into the water table, keeping people and animals away from it so as to not infect or injure themselves, monitoring and mitigating the temperature and emmissions of the landfill, etc.
They aren't all so advanced or well staffed, but a whole lot of landfills are, and they are better for the environment and human and animal populations than just letting trash pile up everywhere, willy nilly.
They obviously are not perfect, but they are certainly better than nothing.
EDIT:
... Where do you think all the mangled fishing nets and what not that environmentalists fish out of the sea... end up?
Do... they just throw them back into the ocean?
Or maybe a contained and secure hazardous waste site?
You clearly have no clue about how waste disposal and managent works then, maybe learn some of the basics before publically embarassing yourself next time.
As the saying goes:
Better to remain silent and be thought a fool than to speak and remove all doubt.
Sometimes I wonder if people are too scared of misinformation and quick to "correct" any perceived misunderstandings without stopping to think perhaps those comments were not made in ignorance deliberate, or otherwise.
Its hard to have a discussion.
I don't agree with your comments bashing people for arguing that landfills don't necessarily work better than any other piece of land. There is a genuine case to be made that what you describe is idealistic and reality might be more bleak. these perfect landfills might as well be as sophisticated as the perfect "clean coal" plant or even a "carbon credit" plant that billionaires use to launder their wealth.
With the kind of corruption I have seen in government across the world I think you're naive thinking advanced tech works really well in a system known for corruption and inneficiency.