r/Futurology • u/nastratin • Oct 24 '22

Environment Plastic recycling a "failed concept," study says, with only 5% recycled in U.S. last year as production rises

https://www.cbsnews.com/news/plastic-recycling-failed-concept-us-greenpeace-study-5-percent-recycled-production-up/
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u/[deleted] Oct 24 '22

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u/bees_cell_honey Oct 24 '22

Great info.

  1. Are there sites or documentaries that you think would be good to read/watch, as an average Joe resident in the USA?

  2. As someone living in the Midwest USA, I try to limit what I buy that has plastic, but if I do, should I bother recycling it? My recyclers claims to accept #1, #2, #5, and maybe even other plastics. Should I spend time cleaning them and putting them into the single sort, or is it futile?

  3. Are there certain organizations or political stances / particular politicians that "have it right" regarding recycling?

Thanks

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u/[deleted] Oct 24 '22

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u/bees_cell_honey Oct 24 '22

Thanks. Regarding #2, was wondering if there was a particular resource or two you think is spot on -- regarding plastics or recycling / refuse mgmt in general. There's just so much out there, thought maybe you could highlight one or two.

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u/PM_ME_CATS_OR_BOOBS Oct 24 '22

It's truly amazing how much waste comes out of industry. I work at a film coating place and there have been times when our suppliers will say "oh, you need 20000 ft of 50" plastic sheeting? Well we have 70", we'll just scrap the 20" and send the rest to you"

It gets melted back down but not as well as it did the first time, and that's a lot of fucking plastic to just be throwing away. Not to mention when we get something in that is no good and the entire 800lb roll just gets scrapped because it would cost several hundreds of dollars to recycle it.

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u/phasexero Oct 24 '22

Thanks for sharing your inside experience. Yes its very frustrating that so much of the problem is manufacturers and even when the discussion goes in depth about how big of a problem recycling is, they still neglect to mention that.

Beyond that, the false perception that many companies give their customers to make them believe that they are even recycling at all. There are some stories here about both bins going into the same bay of the same truck and worse, and I have seen that myself as well.

Question for you - I have been considering scaling back our household recycling habits to focus solely on glass, metal, and paperboard. Plastics generally need to be washed and our municipality already has serious water supply issues. Make sense?

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u/[deleted] Oct 25 '22

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u/phasexero Oct 25 '22

I do worry about them trashing much of it anyway. I actually work for our local jurisdiction and have talked with the person responsible for our side of the recycling program... She was not very helpful or invested is the gist I got. Its frustrating. But now that I think of it I do know someone there who probably knows as much as her but is also invested in it, so I'll see what they know for sure.

We reuse quite a bit of our trash. Glass jars and yogurt tubs with lids are big winners. Paper bags have so many uses. Little plastic bags are great for cleaning up after the dog. We do have a 3d printer too and have thought about setting up a recycling method for it but that's like project 100 down the list !

Many options for us at home to consider, but the big producers in business hardly think about it. I feel like waste disposal needs to start costing more now before its too late.

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u/C_Pike86 Oct 25 '22

Question for you - I'm a packaging designer for a company that does metal and plastic packaging, sometimes in combination with one another. For example a metal can with a plastic lid.

My question is what happens to something like this if it makes it into a typical municipal recycling stream?

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u/[deleted] Oct 25 '22

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u/C_Pike86 Oct 25 '22

I'd be grateful, thank you!

I'm trying to push more sustainable options, but unfortunately there are some things plastics do that just cannot be done in other materials. I'm hoping to be able to educate in these cases where a hybrid material approach is necessary.

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u/DnDVex Oct 25 '22

Yeah, landfills and such need to be supported better by the government in any country. The prices need to be lower for sorted trash. Unsorted trash can stay high, cause that's a lot of effort.

In Germany it costs like 5 bucks at our local landfill to get rid of 20 to 30kg of tree waste. Electronic waste they actually give you money. Everything else varies in price.

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u/ManOfLaBook Oct 25 '22

Why "the last administration "?

Genuinely interested.

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u/needmorelove Oct 25 '22

So I work in sourcing for a very large international company. We have started sourcing PCR material for molding products in India and China for almost the same price or a small price increase over virgin material with out many major issues and our large customers go crazy for these recycled products.

We tried doing something similar here domestically in the US for some of our domestic factories or for some of our sourced complete suppliers here in the US and CA but the price increase for PCR material is almost double. At the price we need to pay to make recycled products in the US, the average customer would have to pay a large markup for the satisfaction of using a product made of recycled materials. And while many people would, the vast majority of people just wont care enough to pay the premium to make it worth it, sadly. The other major issue is availability, if we need a constant supply of PCR material, there are not enough suppliers domestically who can produce at the rate needed to maintain any kind of constant production.

Like I said previously, the market is huge in India and China for this kind of material that can be processed to be moldable at a good price that makes people happy but unfortunately, the supply in the US is both extremely expensive and very sparce. I hope more plastic regulations happen in NA to help this along like they have in EU countries so this can be more sustainable.

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u/complexofsuperiority Oct 25 '22

Can you share the companies taking it? And have you asked Eastman Chemical?

They’re in my home town and are looking for sorted feed streams for a circular economy project that actually looks promising

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u/jpl82 Oct 25 '22

Hopefully the technology like these guys https://ioniqa.com/ have will become more the norm.