And they knew all along - https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2024/feb/15/recycling-plastics-producers-report
I would be really interested in seeing this broken down by nation. Are any countries doing this better than others. Can others learn from them?
Or… are we simply a complete failure as a species… destined to become [choose your post apocalyptic story]
I’d like to see this broken down by sector. This is consumer-shaming enough, when a good portion of it is probably industrial non-consumer use.
I reduce, I reuse. But completely avoiding plastics is near impossible and I just wish I could know if there’s something I personally could actually do to actually make a difference. My government might be failing at ensuring recycling amounts to something, but perhaps there are other governments doing a better job? I can’t tell you how much anxiety experience because of plastic use…
You’re right, though, because this almost entirely resides on the various sectors producing the plastics in the first place.
This is also very frustrating. We are literally killing ourselves.
Recycling is a distraction. Always has been. It’s a marketing and regulatory capture ploy by the plastics industry to avoid any responsibility for their colossal waste.
Sure, recycling before a tiny bit, in the margin, maybe, but imagine where we’d be if all the money and effort that went into recycling instead went into materials engineering to create biodegradable alternatives to one-tube-user plastics?
In fact, getting rid of recycling globally might actually help since it would highlight to people how much they’re putting into the landfill. That might actually spark some political will to regulate plastics better, instead of just high-optics items like plastic bags and straws.
I still feel like plastics highlight the absolute peak of human hubris and greed. They’re among the most versatile, durable and malleable materials ever created and the most we use them for are cheap, garbage one time use things. It’s just mad.
Coke wants you to remember that it’s your responsibility to make sure their bottles get recycled. So remember to put them in the recycle bin not the trash!
It’s partially because of cost, new plastic is cheaper than trying to recover old. But very few plastics can be truly recycled chemically, much being reformed for other purposes. Glass and metals were always a better environmental choice (with their own limitations too), but plastic is so cheap and versatile it’s hard to compete. Not just plastics - just a look around the household imagining the lack of petroleum products, it’s amazing how it’s everywhere. Yet another dead end we’ve gotten ourselves into.
I remember a decade ago, Penn & Teller’s Bullshit TV show clearly illustrated this reality. People were just too swept away with mainstream misinformation.
I don’t understand this chart. It states that all plastic ever produced is either single use or still in use. What about non-single use plastic that is no longer in use?
Where does a broken tv fall on this chart, for example?
Guessing that 1% is mostly those milk jug benches and trash cans
They say 3.4% of greenhouse gas emissions from plastics which is nothing. We do need to reduce greenhouse gas emissions by like 80% but not to 0.
Also not sure why more waste to energy is not used. Sure green house gases, but if it displaces other emissions maybe not so bad.
Also is the plot all time or current. I only care about currentbor last 10 or 20 years and future tends.
Greenhouse gases are not the only environmental concern. I do agree about a more specific time scale.
Yes. There are other concerns. Micro plastics for example maybe. My only point really… Maybe some off these things are less important then others.
They say 3.4% of greenhouse gas emissions from plastics which is nothing. We do need to reduce greenhouse gas emissions by like 80% but not to 0.
Personally I’d rather save that last 20% for important things like being able to escape earth’s gravity well, rather than dumb shit like single-use plastics. Maybe that’s just me ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
I turned at least 10 of those old style soda bottles with the removable bottoms into
terrariumsterraria, so I’m doing my partLess than 1%?
Don’ think of it as <1%, think of it as 80 Billion Kilograms - or 160 billion pounds in freedom units - of recycled material. ;-)
