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Above is a free link to a Washington Post op-ed from a year ago about why plastic recycling is bullshit. Here’s a human-generated summary:
- “Recycling” old plastic requires the addition of much more new, unused plastic. At least two-thirds of the most efficiently “recycled” plastic is the new, unused plastic holding the mixture together.
- Plastic is made from petroleum processed with really toxic shit that has never undergone human safety studies. (These are the PFAS that everybody’s squawking about, along with heavy metals.) Plastic threatens human health, and now that we’re starting to look for micro- and nanoplastics in tissue samples and out in the environment, it’s being found everywhere from brains and reproductive organs to the bottom of the Mariana Trench.
- Plastic recycling plants are environmental catastrophes due to the amounts of plastic particles they release into their surrounding areas, putting an even greater health burden on the people living nearby.
- Plastic is for landfills. It goes against everything many of us were taught growing up, but plastic truly is for landfills. The stated goal was “reduce, reuse, recycle,” but industry has really pushed the idea that recycling plastic is enough. It isn’t.
I say this as someone who loves plastic: sherpa fleece, that super soft cotton-poly blend t-shirt material, colorful toys and tchotchkes, and everything else you can make out of a material that light, strong, and durable. I hate that it’s dangerous and damaging because it’s just so fucking convenient!
Here’s a human-generated summary
Thank you for doing that for us :-)There is a balance to find I believe. I find people follow the principle of “refuse, reduce, reuse” truly and adopt plastic only when it is a significantly better choice than an other material, we would be in a much better situation.
But then there would still be the issue of the giagantus amont of plastic waste we would still have to deal with from the past and honestly, I’m not use there is a way to tackle them.
There are exceptions. I have several items made from industrially recycled plastic. (A few plastic bags, a pullover and a restaurant two blocks from me has transparent lids for their paper takeaway containers that say they are from recycled plastic. The bags have a really bad odour tho 🤢 but if it helps the planet a bit, I’m okay with that.)
Kudos for reusing. One note about clothing made from plastics is that they shed microplastics over their lifespan.
“…the polyester used in fleece isn’t biodegradable, it does break down. However, that process leaves behind tiny pieces of plastics known as microplastics. This is not just a problem when fabrics end up in landfills, but also when fleece garments are washed. Consumer use, specifically laundering garments, has the highest environmental impact within a garment’s life cycle.3 It is believed that approximately 1,174 milligrams of microfibers are released when washing a synthetic jacket.”
https://www.treehugger.com/what-is-fleece-is-it-sustainable-5192070
I never wash my fleeces. Checkmate, plastics!
(Seriously though I’d love to find a good alternative)
*odor, not od our.
Your heart is in the right place but you should do a quick web search before trying to correct someone
In my younger daze, I corrected someone about “bushes” on a car. I quickly found out the Brits will sometimes say “bushes” and not “bushings”.
*British spelling, not American.
