this post was submitted on 02 May 2025
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The Myth of Plastic Recycling. (slrpnk.net)
submitted 1 month ago by BruceLee@sopuli.xyz to c/zerowaste@slrpnk.net
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[–] spinne@sh.itjust.works 15 points 1 month ago* (last edited 1 month ago) (1 children)

https://wapo.st/4k65INs

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:

  1. "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.
  2. 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.
  3. 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.
  4. 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!

[–] BruceLee@sopuli.xyz 2 points 1 month ago

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.