Writer's Block: Environmental Confession

[siannan]

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I don't recycle plastic because the plastic recycling industry is a crock. I do put out metals, glass, and paper; but there just isn't enough post-consumer usage or demand for plastics and its a very polluting process to begin with (so is paper recycling but the demand is high).

I also like to buy imported food. Most American chocolates just don't appease my palate (I'll buy Ghirardelli once in awhile, but I much druther Lindt or Ritter).

Oh, and I still eat dairy products.

Comments

[shutter.livejournal.com]

i only recycle aluminum. it's the material that uses the least amount of energy to recycle.

[auntiesiannan.livejournal.com]

and along with glass it has the highest reclamation ratio!

[switchduck.livejournal.com]

I have a bag made out of recycled pop bottles and it feels like cloth and it is awesome.

[auntiesiannan.livejournal.com]

that's nice, and the tyvek-like cloth products are interesting, but when you consider how many bags there would need to be a demand for against how much plastic waste is generated, it's a disheartening big picture.

[candent.livejournal.com]

Can you tell me more about plastic recycling?

[auntiesiannan.livejournal.com]

Only a small amount of plastics used by most people are capable of being recycled, and the demand for the products produced by them are quite low.

If you have access to Penn&Teller's Bullshit!, they did a good episode concerning recycling and how with regards to plastics its really just a buzzword. Most jurisdictions won't even accept 90%+ of post-consumer PET containers, most people don't know how to sort them or what is considered acceptable, and there simply is not a market for the generated waste.

Again, metals and glass are much cleaner, easier, and profitable to recycle.

[shahrizai.livejournal.com]

Do you have a bottle return in your state? I'm not even sure how the process works in the US. Here in Canada we're charged an enviro tax on beverage containers, and then you can take the empties to a recycling center where you get the tax back (usually up to a limit of $50 per week). I hope they recycle all the plastic containers, but if they go to the trouble of getting them, I'm sure they do.

Plus it gives us warm fuzzies because the recycling centers are partnered with a lot of work programs for special needs people, so you when bring back cases of empty beer bottles you feel like you're helping employ someone who might not otherwise find work. ;)

[auntiesiannan.livejournal.com]

Yep, we have bottle/can deposit. I try to buy all my drinks in glass, though.