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

[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.