The recycling myth: What actually happens to our plastic

[@stephanledford9792]

Sometimes I think that the entire recycling thing is just designed to make us feel better (or less guilty) about the amount of trash we make. I worked at an office years ago where there were recycling bins set up in the break room, one for aluminum, one for paper / cardboard and one for plastics. I worked a lot of overtime those days and was there when the cleaning people came by with a large rolling bin where they dumped all the trash from trash cans AND all the recycling bins - it all went together into the trash. We of course never said anything to the employee committee who was very proud of their efforts to "save the planet" and I mention it here because while I faithfully recycle my waste every week, I have to wonder whether a variation of the same thing that happened at my office is not happening with my recycled stuff.

[@Je_QzcY3mN0]

You're spot on. Most of these eco activities are nothing but shugarcoating on bitter fact that the existence of human civilisation itself is harmful to the environment and can only be solved by total elimination of it. They praise electric car, wind generators and shit - but they aren't coming from thin air - they all manufactured, and manufacture process of anything is harmful to the environment in one way or another. Starting from disruption of ecosystems when a factory is being build up to manufacture waste. Even a small wooden hut build with zero plastic causes disruption of local ecosystem. No matter how "green" human activities are - they all are harmful

[@DearProfessorRF]

That is exactly what it is, but it must be blamed on the plastic-producing corporations and not the activists who have less money and lobbying power. At the end, environmental groups had to agree with the less harmful alternatives which still protected corps’ bottom line at the expense of the environment and ourselves.

[@pheonyxior_5082]

You can wonder all you want, the answer to your question lies in reality

[@ruukinen]

@@Je_QzcY3mN0 If you are gonna go all the way to building a hut is harmful to the local ecosystem, then literally every creature on the planet has the same affect on the local ecosystem. Not just animals either, since plants by growing naturally shade the undergrowth and block winds. If everything is "harmful" nothing is.

[@HotSkorpion]

it is, most plastic ends on the same place as everything else. Also, even if you do separate, if the plastic is the least bit contaminated by anything foreign, like for example, food, it becomes unrecyclable any way and is tossed aside at the plant. The responsibility need to be put at the corporations level that overuse plastic in the packaging, rather than the consumer.

[@219garry]

I own a dumpster rental business and one of the transfer stations we use is also a recycling transfer facility. I talk to the workers from time to time. Trust me, most of the plastic people think is getting recycled is actually going to our landfills. I think the world would be better off sticking to aluminum, glass and paper for most of our packaging. I mean seriously, we are buying plastic toys that come in plastic packages and it all winds up in a landfill.

[@semperfi6801]

But so many Americans are still drinking the kool-aid thinking they're making a difference. It's laughable to point that it's sad when someone is brainwashed so easily. It's scary.

[@gryphonennis1002]

i now buy as few things in plastic as possible. laundry and dish soap come in waxed card board for example. but still i do buy some things in plastic as i have no choice. :(

[@spacecadet35]

As it is easy to turn plastic into oil, if they store the plastic in a single location at the land fill, then that will one day be a valuable oil resource.

[@SniperPIKACHU]

@@spacecadet35 Yep, a few million years later.....assume humanity does not murder each other to extinction by that time.

[@spacecadet35]

@@SniperPIKACHU - We are probably only talking a a decade or two.

[@FrancisFurtak]

Wow! I'm 70 now and when I was a child we didn't have this problem. Everything came in a glass bottle which had a 10 cent refund. So if we were lucky enough to find one it meant I could buy an ice-cream which was 10 cents. Meats were wrapped in paper and we used paper bags to transport our food. Paper is very easy to recycle. Seems like we need to do is take 2 steps back and problem solved? Why is this so hard to see?

[@just4funallday508]

Recycling paper generates a lot of toxic waste; still better than plastic for the environment. I'd like to think the deposit program works for reusable items like bottles, probably not so much for plastics unless it facilitates sorting. I strongly agree that the problem begins with the delivery...Reduce!

[@FrancisFurtak]

@@just4funallday508 Right thanks!

[@rmason5477]

Yes indeed. l use paper bags, cardboard box, avoid putting items in plastic bag/s ie. potatoes, carrots, fruit etc

[@marlazeneski3961]

Exactly. Everyone is in such a big hurry for everything now... I especially detest the products for Moms - little plastic things with one serving of hummus, 2 crackers, and a grape or whatever. Can't Mom just put this together for her child and stop using all the disposable plastic?

[@dadoVRC]

Yes, but there is another issue out there. The world population is a lot bigger now, and we are used to consume products from bigger distances than then, and this create a bigger problem also about packaging weight. We have to rethink about our consumer culture.

[@jacobreimer5002]

“Reduce” and “reuse” are so overlooked and are far more important and effective than recycling

[@GM-vt3tu]

I have thought that myself many times. There is a reason it is in that order, Reduce > Reuse > Recycle, because that is the order of operations for efficiency.

[@gabbermaikel]

im not an eco guy at all, but i really think that most eco people around here are plain retards. They talk trash to me for eating meat, but they do buy apples packaged in plastic boxes "because its easier". Such a shit excuse, yes its easier to grab in the store, but it adds a lot of hard to recycle trash. Just buy the apples from the crate and put them in a paper bag or in a reused bag, its easy. And there is lots of stuff you could just buy without another layer of packaging around it, so why do people ALLWAYS go for the ones with an unneeded layer of plastic?

[@clovermark39]

Yes best not to use plastic in the first place. Go back to how we used to do it, smaller local shops and using paper and glass.

[@mjolnirswrath23]

It's killing us and making us infertile, even transgenderism is CAUSED by exposure to gender bending Petrochemical plastic containers... In our food and water

[@englishkenny958]

reduce/reuse is the #1 lie coming from the industry. watch this and rethink everything kzbin.info/www/bejne/Y5XOZIGFesyLbdE

[@hingginchu]

Glad that they made this video. As someone who has worked in the recycling business. I would say the actual situation is more dire than what is being depicted. We need to not use plastic wherever alternatives are available even if it meant inconvenience.

[@BestMods168]

I love how you eat with wooden plates and utensils and how you carry your groceries with a reusable tote.

[@winonalieux6728]

The inconvenience is negligible compared to the cost of trying to restore the messed up places on earth.

[@benstone8632]

I think there is a misconception about alternative tho. In terms of carbon footprint, a glass coke bottle is so much worse than a plastic one

[@zoravar.k7904]

@@benstone8632 we can be more sustainable with glass by utilizing washing stations and electric smelters fuelled by renewable energy. Plastic doesn't get more eco friendly. 'Sustainable' plastics tend to either be too weak or require more additive packages to create. There was a time when glass bottles such as milk bottles were used hundreds of times.

[@benstone8632]

@@zoravar.k7904 I completely agree that the reuse of products instead of recycling is far more effective. However, plastic is such a diverse tool with loads of different ways to utilise it. (As well as being extremely cheap). How could you convince big business as well as the general public to change their perception on it?

[@thespalek1]

I would hereby like to express my gratitude and respect to Martin and all the guys, who get up at 4 am to deal with our trash...I have lately started to perceive them as underappreciated heroes of this age.

[@219garry]

Every high school in the world should take the students on a field trip or two to recycling facilities and landfills just to show them the reality of it all.

[@lucadavi7628]

Agreed

[@LuigiCotocea]

@@lucadavi7628 indeed!

[@LuigiCotocea]

@Joseph Wallace lmao

[@rupertpoopert3345]

Nah

[@MatthewHumphrey]

Absolutely, and maybe live in one of the villages affected for a month, to see the real harm behind our love of plastics

[@PistonAvatarGuy]

It's ridiculous how many people think that recycling is this magical process which completely renews materials and eliminates all problems with the consumption of resources.

[@jirkazalabak1514]

It´s no coincidence. It´w what we are led to believe by the "captains of the industry". Unless you do your own research, you will almost never encounter this stuff. If people actually knew how bad the problem is, it could interfere with corporate profits, which is something they will never allow.

[@MaDrung]

@@jirkazalabak1514 This is a very simplistic view. People are mentioning it all the time and complaining about it. The real issue is with people that consume these products. We are too lazy and selfish to do anything about it so we keep on buiying such items. It's "always someone elses fault" and "captains of the industry" fault mentality is what is the true culprit. Don't get me wrong as I am equaly guilty of this, but at least I have the decency and honesty not to blame the next guy I don't like about it, washing my hands of blame.

[@JohnSoh]

@@MaDrung nah, it's not rly laziness or whatever but economics. Individuals produce far less waste than companies. Exxon mobile is the biggest plastics polluter. And make up 90% of plastic waste.. big surprise?. Shifting blame to individuals and personal responsibility is something they're trying to do.

[@davidjames666]

the technical term is “Wish cycling”. recycling is a myth created by plastic manufacturers so as not to make the consumers feel guilty about consuming and disposing of single use plastics

[@medicinemouse7647]

@@JohnSoh it’s both. Much of the corporate waste is in packaging that comes down to us. We have little individual responsibility but huge collective responsibility. People showing interest in glass metal and paper/ actually compostable/recyclable packaging and raise hell when places try to switch to plastic is one way to help change perception. Also calling companies out on green washing while also reducing individual consumption can help change corporate behavior

[@piratasdecordoba]

1. Quote: "Infrared scanners sort the plastic by weight". No, they do not sort by weight, but by material - that´s the reason why NIR (Near InfraRed) sorters are used. They can "see" which kind of plastic is on the conveyor belt. 2. Black plastics cannot be sorted by NIR sorters, that´s right and the reason is that black plastic does not reflect enough light for the NIR sorters to "see" it, as mentioned in the video. However, the can be sorted by laser sorters and electrostatic sorters, which both are not really cheap. So, short and clear: Black plastic bottles or other packages are not recycling-friendly. 3. You can recycle PET at nearly 100%, even food-save. Technically this is not a problem anymore. This clip is not up to date in this topic. 4. Multilayer packages are really bad stuff, however there are processes now to separate the materials. Not easy, not cheap, but technically possible. Of course better package design is the key for better recycling. 5. Germany imports more waste than it exports. See Bundesumweltamt statistics before you blame Germany for exporting "waste". 6. How I know this? I´m in the waste treatment business for +20 years. A lot of things are *technically* possible, but someone has to pay for it...

[@kuanysh.tynybek]

Danke für Ihren Kommentar, gute Infos. Viele denken ziemlich pessimistisch über Recycling, ist aber nicht so. Ich studiere Recycling und Entsorgungsmanagement an der Hochschule. Und wo sind Sie tätig, wenn ich fragen darf?

[@ryanvannice7878]

Recycling plastic seems to be a good way to make yourself feel better without accomplishing much.

[@notme2day]

It was all just a marketing ploy put out by big oil to keep you consuming instead of thinking.. I mean .. they have to make up for us using less fuel somehow right!?!

[@STho205]

This is a convienience and germophobe situation we have all had a hand in creating. Blaming Big X is really like blaming the drug dealer while you are buying cocaine. Plastic packaging just became the cheapest and most hygenic way to package by the late 80s. Innocent trees becoming paper waste was the boogeyman in 1988. Milk was originally aquired in markets by using your own metal pails that maybe you washed each time you went to Mrs O'lerys milk barn. Then dairies started putting it in glass bottles with paper caps, delivered daily. Then people got scared of the repeatedly washed bottles, and paper milk cartons packed so well on the truck or at the grocers. Lighter weight flats too. Then wax paper got expensive, but the air blown polyethylene bottle was cheaper. Now most milk is in single use plastic. It wasn't an oil company conspiracy, but a packaging company coming up with a cheaper and cleaner package. Soda the same way Single serve yogurt same way Then there are the big box, unsupervised stores with imported merchandise. Every little doo dad is blisterpacked and hanging on a rack. 50 years ago they were loose in bins. I even remember loose penny balloons in the 5 and Dime. We'd try each one before buying. Recycling is just a societal and government way to keep the commerce flowing, and absolve ourselves of any thought of cause and effect. It is also an artificial thing to make citizens obsess over something that had to be regulated. Government loves to regulate.

[@ryanvannice7878]

@@STho205 that was one great reply. You are to be commended.

[@cchavezjr7]

@@STho205 Exactly. Saying everything is a big corporate conspiracy is yet another way to absolve blame from their own use. The whole green movement is a large marketing ploy to get people to spend even more money without doing anything that actually "saves" the planet.

[@towaritch]

@@ryanvannice7878 oh yes ? The guy works for the industry apparently

[@r-type4945]

Wall-E seems more of a documentary after seeing this.

[@MariaTorres-hc5uq]

You are totally right...

[@ahotdj07]

Oh I love that movie!

[@imperiumoccidentis7351]

Wall-e was always a documentary, sadly.

[@JM-sm8ir]

@@ahotdj07 One of my favorites. Whenever it's on I always miss and watch same parts. Weird.

[@Zeewman]

Just like 1984.

[@coltonbuhler7011]

My mom taught me Reduce, Reuse, and Recycle. Those first 2 are very important. It's disgusting seeing my friends just throw stuff into the trash. Ziploc bags were a big thing for us growing up. You don't throw it out unless it's ripped in half, you take it home in your lunch kit and we wash it and use it the next day. A box of 50 bags can last years.

[@derp812]

And then what?

[@coltonbuhler7011]

@@derp812 will you stop throwing out plastic, and you save money. Just this month I bought some of those new thicker plastic bags, meant to be used for years. Just a 3 pack, 10 bucks, I'll see how long it lasts. I also got 2 packs of ziplock freezer containers, for my apartment when I moved out this year. I already had glass, but ziplock is cheaper than buying more glass. And better than just using cling wrap forever when your plastic lids break for your glass containers. I'm sure these ziplock freezer containers will also break before the glass does, but 4 of them for half the price of glass is a great price

[@HobbyOrganist]

Thats not the problem tho, the real root of the problem is too many PEOPLE each using and discarding, you can reduce and reuse until the cows come home and it doesnt make any difference if the population continues expanding exponentially as it has! The USA had little more in the year 1800 living in the entire country than live in JUST NY City alone to-day! It went from about 10 million in 1800 to 75 million by 1900, just 50 years later it DOUBLED to 150 million, about 55 years after that it DOUBLED again to 300 million around 2005, now it's over 333 million and everyone seems to blissfully overlook the math of 333 million people living on the same land area that had just 10 million in the year 1800; 33 times as many people, with the numbers DOUBLING twice since 1900 alone! You can reduce and reduce all you like but in 20 years when we hit 400 million, any savings is long gone and the problem even worse.

[@railrunner01]

The water you use to wash the item is more expensive than the item itself. Not a good use of a resource that is dwindling quicker than plastic.

[@ianjames1674]

@@railrunner01 water is dwindling due to stuff like industrialized agriculture, not really because someone is washing a ziplock bag

[@DWPlanetA]

CLARIFICATION: The official number for Germany’s recycling rate is 38% for plastic that was thrown away by consumers. But of these 38% about 16% are exported to other countries and recycled there. 7% are burned. The 16% that we referred to as being “actually recycled” in the last section, is the plastic that is turned into recyclate and used for the production of new plastic products in Germany.

[@brudo5056]

This 7% burning… is it done with energy conversion to the recycling process or the (energy) grid in general ?

[@brudo5056]

What about the possibility of pyrolysis instead of full burning ? Probably it can reduce the amount of toxines by captation in sub processes more easy then in the case of burning where they ‘try’ to reduce at the end-of-pipe location…

[@aghost5281]

The dude literally said only 16% of his plastic got recycled. The rest got burned. My guess is that 60% of Germans plastic is burned, which is still a lot less than other states.

[@aghost5281]

And countries, sorry I didn’t sleep

[@floobertuber]

@@brudo5056 Yeah, no kidding. Whatever happened to the promise of Thermal Depolymerization (TDP)? I guess it's just not 'economically viable' enough at this point.

[@chillyburger1077]

I am 60 years old and often think back to visiting my grandparents farm. There was literally no garbage . Food was picked, jarred in sealers, and containers where reused . Paper bags where reused waste food was rare and feed to the chickens and pigs . It seemed like most things where reused . They worked quite hard physically so they lived into there 90s . No need for a gym pass . As I write this I am lying in bed while I stuff my face. We have advanced so much 😅

[@MetalMario137]

Wow, recycling is almost a lie. I found that when I changed up my own diet for my own health to focus on whole foods, I had wayyy less trash and waste. I only had a bag-full every one or two weeks, which amazed me. I composted food scraps for the garden. I didn't change my diet because of trash, it was just a side-effect. So I was healthier while also being more efficient! This problem can only be stopped when the culture of people's lives changes to not generate so much waste in the first place. We cannot have a wasteful lifestyle and have no answer to the waste. Nature can break down paper and wood. Glass can be re-grinded back into sand. But we have no clue how to deal with mass excess plastic. And there's no money incentive for business to do so. We have to do it ourselves.

[@pappy9473]

Profiteering corporations are responsible for climate damage not individuals.

[@ethang6735]

Glass in infinitely recyclable. Its incredible. And it will never be seen as a solution.

[@BiMiHi]

Glass is grinded into glass-sand and then melted back into glass bottles, but yeah u r correct.

[@treverwhoever]

@@pappy9473 we're all responsible don't blame it on corporations

[@pappy9473]

@@treverwhoever We all certainly have a responsibility to behave well. However, ordinary people are being made feel guilty while corporations are doing little or nothing to reduce emissiones and other environmental damage. And corporations are by far the most significant offenders, not the general public.

[@6Twisted]

The companies wrapping everything in multiple types of plastics and half empty bags are the problem.

[@randomserbianguy5677]

For real

[@michaelmcgee2026]

We are ALL the problem

[@imperiumoccidentis7351]

@@michaelmcgee2026 Agreed but companies are especially the problem. Consumers in the earlier 20th century had no problem using glass/paper/metal for 99% of products, either as packaging or as part of the product. Recycling was easier, and even the stuff that wasn't recycled could easily break back down into the earth. Now, you have to go through 15 layers of plastic or rubber packaging, just to get to your...plastic product...made in china...which then breaks after a month...and is irreparable...all going into landfill. Hilariously its also probably where a good chunk of the worlds oil is going to, completely shitty, one-time-use products nobody really wants. We might run out of oil quicker entirely because we used it all for wrapping and bags.

[@davidjames666]

that would by far be the most preferred method in Reduce, Reuse, and finally, the last resort - Recycle

[@stephandiehl3893]

No the problem is consumers continuing to support companies that use plastics its simple quit buying products that are in plastics let companies know why ultimately the consumer drives the market

[@Pr3ct]

I knew plastic recycling in USA was BS when the “recyclers” charge extra to pick up the product. When I recycle metal the recycler pays me.

[@simmerke1111]

Exactly. The Netherlands actually has (or had) a system like this for plastic bottles. Something that is easy to recycle, if separated. Depending on how you look at it, they'd give you x cents when you return them to the store. It's an actual monetary incentive for people to recycle things that are incredibly easy to properly recycle. Even if it's added to the initial price of purchase, it still works wonders.

[@manoahvanderwolf3259]

@@simmerke1111 no, it fools you to fall into it's trick, as you don't actually realize that you PAY EXTRA for waste companies to recycle the EASIEST PLASTIC to recycle: PET. You don't pay extra for the plastics of your pasta's, cheese, and yogurt cans. you pay extra for the plastic BOTTLES, and you feel happy getting a receipt that you feel gives you 'discount' at the cash register. You forgot you paid EXTRA beforehand, and you don't even realize that they are so smart that same machine where you put in the bottles REJECT bottles that are a bit dent or without the sticker. Why is that? Because they don't want anything but PERFECT PET-bottles that, again, are the EASIEST plastics to recycle. they even FORCE YOU to return them and not re-use them yourself @ home because the bottles are EXPIRABLE due to the oils they have delibaretely put in them, so that they start breaking down after a certain amount of time and this would contaminate that which the bottle would contain: this is why there is an expiry date on vacuum-packed WATER. You too got tricked by the big companies. It's not that you can do anything about it, but tricked nonetheless.

[@simmerke1111]

@@manoahvanderwolf3259 Yeah, it's horrible that they reuse the plastic instead of me using 1/1000 bottles for something or other. I'm fine with them being returned instead of being dumped next to the street. I also crush all my bottles before returning them, they're fine with it.

[@gustavnilsson14]

This is such a wholesome way to study a topic, to actually go on as an intern at the absolute ground level. Big ups!

[@antoniopalmero4063]

We don’t need recycling , we need to stop the production of completely unnecessary packaging.

[@Vicoparadiso]

And goods.

[@rogerpattube]

Define unnecessary

[@antoniopalmero4063]

@@rogerpattube redundant, superfluous, unneeded, not required,

[@philomath67]

Exactly. Way too much pkging. I work at Amazon. The waste makes me cringe.

[@samanthat7553]

I work at a hospital so there are definitely things that need to be sterile but we waste so so so much plastic

[@beekeeper7535]

I'd like to see glass bottles come back. If glass ends up in waterways it doesn't harm anything

[@jirkazalabak1514]

Not only that, but glass can be recycled for the most part. The shift to plastic happened only for profit and convenience, that´s it.

[@BecauseBinge]

Or paper cans, there are some beverages here in UK sold in paper cans and they function perfectly!

[@ahotdj07]

Me too but unfortunately, it is so much cheaper and cost effective to make plastic than glass.

[@bobshanery5152]

@@ahotdj07 Yes and plastic was actually sold as "environmentally friendly" because you "saved trees". Many people seem to have forgotten this. Plastic bags came around the 60s if I recall right and it became really popular around the whole "hippie" time.

[@DavidCruickshank]

Unfortunately it's not that simple, Glass creates a lot of pollution when made, and since it's so much heavier than plastic it cause pollution from transportation to skyrocket, especially since you can't deliver as much due to increased packaging etc and the need to replace breakages.

[@VitaliHerasimenia]

I currently live in Belarus - the culture of sorting plastic and other types of waste is either absent or minimal. On the weekends, we "have fun" with the fact that together with the family we go to the forest and collect plastic, glass and tin cans there. I am proud that I taught my four-year-old son to love nature and take care of it, but the government should do much more - today even containers for the separate collection of resources are far from being everywhere, and we are not talking about recycling in principle ...

[@bloodynorahvan2203]

Thank you for creating this video. The sooner we get into reverse logistics from the retailer back to the manufacturer the better. I want to be able to take my bottle back and have it sent directly to the original supplier. I don’t want to own the vessel, I’m just ‘renting’ it until I have the drink etc

[@alvindueck8227]

Seems like most of us have forgotten that there are THREE (3) REs, the other two (2) are REduce and REuse. Something most of us have forgotten about.

[@udaui]

Reducing is also so important. I will start that with myself and try and not buy, use plastic unless really needed.

[@JohnSoh]

Those things come before recycle too

[@j.frankparnell6195]

Recycle shouldn't even be part of the equation. It should be Refuse Reduce and Reuse.

[@freeenergynow]

Number four is REfuse!

[@leesonneville1817]

How am I going to reuse any of my plastic waste, realistically?

[@pavlandr]

That's why I always say 'Reduce, reuse, recycle' should be exactly in this order. Recycling should be last resort.

[@sizanogreen9900]

companies have successfully shifted the respnsibility onto consumers, same with co2 emmissions. If the market doesn't demand change, which I doubt it will, only regulation on a global scale can tackle these problems...

[@rifna5482]

Agree, how can the consumers changed if the companies still used it to everyday products. They obly care about profits and our money

[@proctain]

Regulation made this problem. See between plastic bags and paper, they are equal in pollution. They just pollute differently. So when uninformed people just like you demanded everything shift from paper you MADE the plastic industry. People found anything not packaged in plastic "dirty" or "flimsy". So regulation was forced through to require manufacturers to use plastic. From there cheaper ways to make and utilize plastic came from this. Funny enough as long as it does not involve food or a long wear time most plastic is made from a acid extracted from corn. It is non polluting and completely biodegradable over the course of 5 years and sunlight exposure. Its call PLA and its used even in 3d printers as the cheapest plastic for it. But NIMBYed out of western countries the actual techs for recycling then also asked your politicians to bow to China. So China and north Africa made a business of buying recycling to get the hard to make plastics and then throw the rest away. Regulation made it possible if not mandatory. Parts of the world are dying from the unrecyclable and toxic waste that comes from windmills and solar panels. Both are TERRIBLE technologies in no way suitable for use. The over all life of a SINGLE wind power turbine is 10 years. In that time it goes through 2 sets of blade that cannot be recycled or processed and are filled with toxic materials. It is woven fiberglass and a epoxy so toxic that it has to be in a filtered fum extraction building during curing or it will kill people. Those blades then erode away filling every place down wind of them with these. The generators themselves are retired with only the copper windings ever recovers and the housing thrown in a dump. Even the cobalt (a carcinogen) of the magnets is just left to rot. Solar panels are even worse. Every year of use they loose 20% of their current output. They die outright in 15 years. And anything including high winds and hard rains can cause micro fractures which causes them to leak cadmium into the ground water. That is normally a radioactive by-product of nuclear reactors and handled as a hazardous material. But in solar panels do to the regulations voted in it is allowed world wide without proper labeling and then when the solar panel fails it is just chucked in a land fill. WHY? Because the process of making them precludes them being recycled. Not only did people who know nothing about anything make this mess, they are actively making is worse because they listen to 15 min videos that don't tell the whole truth or follow the lies of celebrities whose only agenda is to gain fame by pretending to care about issue made popular by scam artists. To actually care about the world people NEED to walk away from any of the "green" orgs and look at real solutions. You want clean power or near zero carbon emission power? Natural gas burns and becomes steam with almost zero co2. Nuclear is cleaner than ever and if allowed to innovate there would be no reactors used for enrichment for weapons. Or fuel wood. The wood being grown neutralizes the co2 released by burning it. Let paper packaging back into the world just require actual recycling of it and stop having the paper plasticized. People made it a hundred years rather easily and healthily with waxed paper. But if you truly want change, don't try to vote for it because the people writing the laws only thing of how it will profit them. Stop buying single use products. Stop buying all the things that are not actually recycled. Instead of trying to force people to conform to what you idealize, being a good example of how it is better and be the change you want to see. Demanding regulation is the lazy way out and only makes things worse.

[@margyb7469]

Exactly, everything is blamed on the consumers but not on the companies that produce it and push their chemical products through media, same as pollution that caused by companies which cares more for profits.

[@adsfadsfasdasdfasf2439]

@@proctain Nice ASSumptions nerd but no one here was saying that paper packaging was bad, or that nuclear was bad, or that natural gas was bad, or that solar and wind are good. Maybe you should stop sodomizing your strawman and learn to read and realize none of those were mentioned.

[@criptin4075]

@@proctain Plastic is for sure a worse polluter in the long run.

[@oldcountryman2795]

"Recycling" is a straight up racket. Almost nothing actually gets recycled.

[@BlackJar72]

Metal does, because it's easier to do and actually economically viable (which is why metal recyclers actually pay you for scrap). Plastic? Probably never, it's just an unsustainable material.

[@chrismil651]

Metal and glass can be recycled easy, similarly with paper. It's plastic that's the problem

[@grimwaltzman]

Asphalt

[@collection6062]

@@chrismil651 glass isn't that easy to recycle... it's easy if people put it into glass bins. But once it's mixed with other stuff (plastic haha), it fragments into nasty pieces. It's just the ability to get people to sort the glass properly thats the problem.

[@ahotdj07]

It is sad too. Makes you wonder if it is truly worth it - at least when it comes to plastics.

[@susancordeiro5005]

This video was very enlightening. IMO, companies give us what they think we want therefore one way to stop them from plastic overuse is to stop buying their products (eg. individually wrapped processed cheese slices that are again wrapped in plastic) . We also need to change our "convenience" mindset into mindfulness (nonchalance has gotten us into lots of trouble- what's one more bag into the garbage?). I also agree that repurpose is key and yes, it needs to be coupled with a reduction.

[@McBuggs.]

Agreed - It all starts from companies that use mixed plastics for packaging, they must change their system. Slowly they're doing so, but will take great worldly efforts. Before 1980, there wasn't a whole lot of plastic packaging used. Many people kept glass and whatnot to reuse because it was sensible. I noticed a lot of paper and cardboard in the landfills, but that began to change when it was realized it was a problem. We need to go back to old-school paper wrapped products, cardboard or glass containers which is easily recyclable matter. There's too much plastic of different applications/forms (with colourants) that are difficult to recycle. Only usable one time and ended up in landfills or incinerated as mentioned in the video. Shipping discarded plastic around in containers by boat is a waste of fuel/energy causing unnecessary air pollution. A plastics issue currently being studied to resolve.

[@MrPSaun]

My capstone project in college was analyzing the feasibility of adding a secondary fuel source to a trash burning boiler. My research led me down a cynical rabbit hole about how much "recycled" plastic, among other things, is simply burned in boilers.

[@pappy9473]

Profiteering corporations are responsible for climate damage not individuals.

[@MrPSaun]

@@pappy9473 Who said they weren't?

[@pappy9473]

@@MrPSaun It's the general view that ordinary people can make the difference necessary to reverse the advance towards climate disaster. They can contribute to the effort but above all else massive international conglomerates must take responsibility and appropriate action.

[@danspencer9499]

@@pappy9473 Well, that's not going to happen...

[@pappy9473]

@@danspencer9499 probably not. Enjoy life as best you can and be good.

[@TorBoy9]

Here in Canada we are just as bad or worse. Plastic sorting is very common, but this is a lie in reality. We are poisoning ourselves with plastics.

[@ahotdj07]

I would have to say United States of America is just as bad.

[@fallenshallrise]

He touched on it a little in the video. Most of Canadian plastic is sorted, bailed and shipped somewhere to be stored in a field. If oil prices ever get so high that recycled plastic becomes cheaper for manufacturers than "virgin" plastic then we will sell it off. Until then it's either stored or burned.

[@cnmpscy34]

so that's why canada is shipping waste in the Philippines illegally because canada can't control their own waste.

[@theEumenides]

People definitely don't recycle properly, but it may have been helpful to be clear (especially for people who don't live in Germany) that the "gelbe Tonne" isn't just for plastic; it's for packaging. So we also put aluminum foil, tin cans, milk/juice cartons in there as well.

[@Orcawhale1]

Even if they did, it wouldn't change anything. Because you simply can't recycle everything, infact in most cases, you'd still end up with a lesser product.

[@marcushull12]

Remember the "scoop and weigh" shops ? where they just had big bins of dry food , rice , flour , cereal , sugar , wash powder etc etc .. And you just fill a bag with how much you wanted or could even fill your own container .

[@DoctorCVC]

That sounds like something we could do with returning to

[@sicilianotoronto]

There are shops in Canada called The Bulk Barn where you can still do that.

[@icanseeyou9820]

there are still refill shops, i have two locally where i bring my own containers and get stuff like spices, dried beans, grains and pulses. it's a great system and ends up being cheaper too. just needs to be more conveniently and widely available

[@glenncordova4027]

There are stores like that all over the US. The less processing a food product goes through, the less packaging it seems to need.

[@zakosist]

Cant remember to have seen such a shop in real life, but not sure. There should be more of that

[@hmmhuh3263]

a company that produce a product should be in charged on recycling them. They should charge the consumers the recycling cost up front. very simple regulation

[@notme2day]

I'm not sure where you're from but here in the US plastic was created by the BIG OIL company's. They also pay a LOT of money to our politicians to keep plastic in this vicious cycle. Big oil created the biggest marketing lies by making people think that recycling works so people continue to feel better about buying these disposable products that help fuel oil company's... since people want more fuel efficient cars which cuts into oil company profits.

[@washinours]

well as of 2019 KZbin was consuming about 243.6 TWh (over 1% of global electricity production) , this is *insane* So I agree with you it's time to pay up, got your wallet ready?

[@Ranstone]

@@washinours Everyone loves to talk about regulation and tax until it comes time for them to pull out their wallet.

[@droe2570]

@@notme2day I love it when people blame a company but not the politicians. The politicians do not care about anything but lining their pockets with your tax dollars. Maybe stop electing immoral pieces of trash to office. Sounds like the problem is not "BIG OIL" but politicians, and the imbeciles who keep electing them. And if you actually bothered to study it, you would know that it was government regulations that created the massive use of plastic. Government regulations forced us to replace waxed paper with plastic, not "BIG OIL".

[@tony16991]

Govt. Regulation where the lobbying cronies are protected and the consumers and mom and pop stores are left to bear the losses of it. Genius! Especially when we see govt.s solving world problems so effectively

[@MerryMoss]

I'm happy to see the example of the aluminium foil being removed from the plastic tub making it sooo much easier to recycle. Therefore I always try to separate the plastic packaging as best I can :) As a kid I always carried a reusable plastic tub for my foods and a reusable plastic mug/bottle thing for drinks - at some point I had stopped doing this, but fortunately a few years ago my English teacher added environmental topics in our projects. This made me realise that I was wasting plastic every single day by carrying one or two of those thin plastic bags to carry my bread. I felt disgusted with my new ways and changed them immediately. Now I only use the reusable options again and also got a Dopper water bottle & one that holds tea as well 😊 Spreading awareness is incredibly important 💚

[@VarunRanadeps]

Reducing and reusing seems to be the most effective habit.

[@ravilbukhareev]

In USSR, all luquids sold in glas bottles. There was several types: For alcogol, wine, milk products, beer and soda water. All bottles people were able to return and receive cash back after. All other products has been packed in carton or paper package. Except was canned goods with metal package. So all packages were able to recycle or fired up (if you not in town) , and for daily garbage box we had only food leftovers. I am really not understand, were is the problem now? It's only political will needed to fix problem.

[@Eisencyanblau]

Дөрес әйтәсең!

[@rhysjonsmusic]

The problem is that glass, paper and metal cost more money for companies to produce on mass

[@ravilbukhareev]

@@rhysjonsmusic Not exactly. Now you not able to return bottles, because bottles not have a universal standart. For example every single beer label has own type of bottle, plus label on bottle hard to remove (before labels putted on bottle with soap water and was easy for remove). So now business should create new bottle for every single half a litre beer. I think it's much expencive than just wash the bottle.

[@podstrahuy]

There was no ultra-cheap plastic back in the USSR days.

[@BuhlouBear]

I visited Minisk back in the early 90's and remembered lots of paper cartons, glass and aluminium. I don't remember "recycling bins" per se but I did come across a one or two scuffed glass bottles which insinuated they'd been recycled. In the US I was contracted with a subsidiary that canned and bottled beer based out of St Louis Missouri. I asked how many of the bottles that beer were recycled and what percentage of beer cans were from recycled cans. I was told that was not only a priority, it was not considered and at that time there were no plans to begin doing so. Beer cans and bottles alone fill a significant segment of landfills, even after alleged recycling efforts here in the US as beer is the third most popular beverage after colas (also rarely recycled containers) and bottled water. Bottled water containers is a plastic composite that compresses easily to take up a little less volume in landfills instead of ease of recycling or increased material break down.

[@Mythical4227]

13:11 I remember buying those exact pots online during a clearance sale and I’m still reusing them. It’s a great idea to make planters out of recycled plastic! Especially the type that you can keep on using after your seedling is ready for transplanting.

[@ioenglishworld224]

A+ from an American English teacher living and running a small business in Tokyo. Your English is perfect and your delivery has style and charm. It’s obvious but should be stated anyway: we’re one species limited to one home that we’ve been treating like a trash heap since the start of the Industrial Revolution. Keep up the great work and you will affect some positive change👍

[@DWPlanetA]

Many thanks!

[@AdmiralBison]

I’ve managed to cut down my plastic use by a lot since going ‘Minimalism’ and been buying long life alternative milk which is made mostly out of cardboard. I buy water filters (yes it’s still plastic, but I go through way less with those than water bottles) and am looking at attachable water filters on taps for longer use.

[@DragonQuest27]

You buy milk made of cardboard?

[@evanrad]

I’m assuming it’s a typo 😂 the milk alternative container is made from cardboard material.

[@rafaelbilski9756]

Yet milk container is not recyclable, because is lined with plastic inside, which is practically impossible to separate from cardboard. Another lie in a massive pile of lies around recycling...

[@gavanwhatever8196]

The most effective approach is to reduce consumption. I actively avoid products with unnecessary or excessive packaging. There's a health advantage to that too as I end up purchasing a lot less processed food.

[@davidwilkie9551]

Admirable dedication to getting the best story.

[@takishaedwards273]

He is such a charismatic and engaging interviewer. I love everything about this channel!

[@jamesraymond1158]

Excellent. When I was little, we didn't have single-use containers. Glass bottles went back to the milk or soda company, washed and used again. We need to do that again. Modern technology can make that economical again.

[@rahimsk3105]

Hey brother, I'm a from India.. Yes it is our is get polluted more day by bay. But what we really need to do is to be more conscious about the affect of these pollution to our mother EARTH 🌎 ... Our world need more people like you..Keep it up man...You are doing great job👍...

[@udaui]

I think we should include school/college visits to these dump areas so awareness spreads

[@sebastiangeschonke9756]

Amazing report! I love how you show the processes and the people that actually do the work.

[@jayseabie215]

It's the plastics industry itself which is to blame here, not the consumer. As a shopper you don't really have that much control over what your items are wrapped in.

[@diggleboy]

This needs way more views!!! Excellent reporting DW Planet A and thanks for showing us all "how the sausage is made" so to speak by getting your hands dirty in the entire plastic recycling process. 👏👏👏 I'm always conscious of how much plastic I consume when shopping for groceries at the store. I always use reusable shopping bags and when they tear or get a massive hole after a lot of repeated use I recycle them and purchase a new one to replace it. It's always far cheaper and more environmentally friendly than using plastic grocery bags. My flimsy plastic grocery bag consumption has gone to zero for the past 4+ years and counting.

[@winonalieux6728]

It’s possible to keep the few ripped totes and stitch together one good one from the pieces.

[@just4funallday508]

As much as I hate using the self-checkout, going through the regular checkout with your own bags can be even more difficult. I remember when I was a kid, there were national competitions to pack groceries. Points were given for equal weight distribution, fewest number of bags (read full bags) and stability of the bags. Not like the one or two items per plastic bag common today.

[@vmorr1]

After my last visit to a local electronic recycling facility I realized that for one, they're very picky/particular about what they take and two, a lot of this depends on how conscientious those who are responsible for taking and sorting the stuff are.

[@trevorbesse8159]

I'm from Louisiana, US and work for Osprey Initiative. We are working with municipalities and government agencies here along the gulf coast to assist in their recycling efforts. Much needed problem to be solved here in the States. Great video.

[@clonie9963]

Blame the government and greed. In Scotland we used to use glass returnable bottles up to 30p to return the bottle for resuse. Supermarkets replaced butcher, grocer, baker, fishmonger who served fresh produce that could be wrapped in waxed paper.

[@almamater489]

Honestly if this is Germany, imagine the other countries. We're all screwed

[@almamater489]

@@KezanzatheGreat yep, full on horror Information

[@ahtoshkaa]

In other countries we don't shit out tons of plastic like Germany does. So even with 0% recycling rate, it is still atleast 2 times better for the enviroment then what the Germany is doing))

[@mistermoo7602]

@@almamater489 The problem is that it's literally "more expensive" to care from an economics standpoint and until that worldview changes nothing else will.

[@almamater489]

@@mistermoo7602 the problem is that these companies should be required by law to take care of their own product trash, then suddenly it won't be that expensive to produce less toxic shit

[@almamater489]

@@ahtoshkaa I live in Serbia and can't say that. Everything's in plastic. We recycle none of it. People throw it everywhere at random. You can't avoid buying it and we're basically fucked

[@traildude7538]

It is NOT "necessary to burn them"! There are at least three different processes to turn ANY plastic into something useful; one turns it back into oil, another turns it into a plastic goo that can be used in manufacturing, and a third micro-shreds it and mixes it with wood fiber to make construction materials. The first of these sorts out metals and many minerals along the way so they can be reused as well (and can take four-fifths of all household trash).

[@thecrippledpancake9455]

I like how they tell people they’re doing it wrong instead of accepting everything and throwing it away later making people believe they are doing it right.

[@shadowsilverlight1651]

what they need to do is fine people for putting in wrong bin. you can refuse to take all you want, but i bet no one removes the stuff and just leaves it there.

[@cjinanutshell244]

This KZbin channel is both making me want and don’t want to find out what happens to our wastes

[@who_cares848]

Thank you for making this video. I've been telling people that recycling is a scam for years and they always look at me like I'm insane.

[@jollyjokress3852]

it is not completely a scam. 38% recycled material is better than nothing. I wonder why those companies just cannot use one type of plastic. But the best thing is prevention by the consumer anyway.

[@ghrohrs2020]

You're 16% wrong, by the evidence of this particular recycling system. You're 84% right, but what good is it if you're only 84% right that there's a bullet in the chamber when you pull the trigger against your skull?

[@sohamkumar4710]

these are the youtube channels which deserve 100 million subs and yet we have rather useless channels sitting at the top

[@littlepoodle7443]

Their other channels have millions of subscribers

[@ranni9536]

Like T-Series? I don't really care about subscriber counts anyway...

[@capybara6810]

So true!

[@JohnDoe-pt7ru]

@Rip Tide it matters because YT chooses who's successful and who isn't. They screw over good creators and reward shills and corporate puppets who spew lowest common denominator garbage.

[@JohnDoe-pt7ru]

KZbin screw over legit creators all the time. Only corporate puppets get a sit at the high table.

[@fuyuan822]

This video should be learned in every school everywhere

[@Dennis19901]

@Geba Are you good or?

[@fuyuan822]

​@Geba If you are saying this out of good will to the well-being of people in Tibet, Taiwan or Hong Kong, I admire you. Though I don't agree with your approach here I can appreciate the good will. But I suspect it's not the case. I suspect you just find joy to see other people in struggle or suffer. People you never met and know nothing about, people you don't care or actually hate. If so, I suggest you spend your life on more meaningful things.

[@LifeScapeCustomDesigns2023]

What an eye opener. But it goes to show you that there are people out there solving problems. Very educational. 👍

[@Dreadnought16]

There is a company here in Canada that can convert all 7 types of plastic to high grade diesel, marine and aviation fuel. It's produced at low temperatures and low pressure. I think the technology was actually started in Germany however! Cielo is the name of the company.

[@chruw4132]

Why is your company not sharing their tech or know how?

[@Dreadnought16]

@@chruw4132 Sorry its not "my" company, I meant '"we" as Canadians. You can buy shares in the company. I think the ticker symbol is CMC. I don't think they share the tech because they spent 16 years developing it.....its their intellectual property and they should be rewarded for their hard work and risk taking....

[@ausfyausfy2455]

@@chruw4132 what makes you say that? Companies don't have obligations to share technology...

[@IkarosVonVoid]

@@ausfyausfy2455 Force em, embarg em, they have no rights.

[@Tweaker7316]

tbh I dont know whats worse.. to fill the worlds oceans and land with plastic waste that stays for decades or to blow out co2 created from plastic, which also consumes so much energy .. I really wish we would sort out the plastic and waste in general more, meaning us the consumers.. doesnt take so much effort to throw the trash in the right bin or seperate the aluminum top from yoghurt cups etc. and think of other ways than to convert oil from plastic to fuel to blow it out as co2 for our cars, generators, etc. I would think that storing all the waste until we think of something more useful (except the part thats recycleable) and not turn it into fuel, but I guess its hard to think about other things to do with our waste.. at least I havent come up with anything, but there are far more intelligent people who I am sure thought of something but were just ignored or laughted at for having an innovative idea, which is sad and another problem

[@manitoublack]

In Australia, we shred a fair amount of liquid container plastics to use as fibres in spray-on-concrete. way cheaper than using steel fibres. Doesn't have a massive impact, but it's a pretty good use for a product that has no outer use.

[@meerkathero6032]

Same here in Europe. Shredded plastics are used as fillers for various products like concrete. There is a catch though: The plastics are now in the concrete and as soon as the concrete will be demolished the plastic particles will be set free in the form of microplastic. A good solution for the industry, not so much for the environment.

[@jamiebranson7818]

Here in Massachusetts and nine other states, we have beverage container deposit laws, which means that when you buy a beverage, you pay the deposit on the container, then get the deposit back when you bring the container back to the store. Nowadays, there are bottle and can redemption machines in supermarkets and large liquor stores, so people, especially those collecting empties, mainly bring them back to those stores or to redemption centers. As a result, whatever containers are redeemed do get recycled because all the material is pre-sorted. States and countries can dramatically increase plastic recycling (and glass and metal too) by just enacting these beverage container deposit laws. In the state of Maine, for example, 93% of the returnable beverage containers are redeemed. By the way, if you care about your returnable containers actually being recycled, don't bring them back to Walgreens or CVS. Those stores just throw them away, and if you want to protest this, maybe don't shop there either.

[@DWPlanetA]

Hi Jamie, in Germany the bottle return system for recycling of glass and plastic is called 'Pfand' kzbin.info/www/bejne/j4KVeIKqpb6cp80 - let us know your thoughts in the comments section of the video 🙂

[@JonFrumTheFirst]

Due to local activists, my town changed from small open blue rectangular bins to large plastic barrels. So now you usually can't see what is inside the barrel. Sometimes they are over-filled, though, and you can see in. I have seen yard waste, floor lamps, shoes, household trash bags, and much more non-recycling. The problem isn't that the people cheat - the problem is that the town encouraged people to cheat. And of course, all that trash has to be sorted and sent to a landfill. Along with much of the 'recycling,' which the company can no longer sell, due to a world-wide surplus. Some people think that supply and demand doesn't apply to their bright ideas.

[@AffordBindEquipment]

recently in our town, they installed cameras at the top of the trucks so the driver can see what you put in the can as it's being dumped. If the wrong stuff is in the can, you get charged a hefty penalty fee.

[@just4funallday508]

Most programs unwittingly encourage poor sorting. I lived in two different towns in Germany, both charged a basic fee. One charged a fee each time you emptied your trash and the other charged according to the size of the trash container. The effect of these systems was to encourage filling the recycling bin which was part of the basic charge. Certainly most people do their best, but the system encourages putting things in the recycling, not the trash.

[@DjNikGnashers]

Here in the UK, when I worked for a charity as a van driver, I used to take van loads of rubbish donations (90% of donations to charities get thrown away), to landfill. I saw all types of refuse disposal lorries from the local council, tipping their contents into landfill, including the recycling bins contents. A few years later, I saw them dig the landfill back up, and heard they were filling containers with it, and selling it to India.

[@jean-jacqueslavigne3109]

When we started cleaning up Singapore’s marinas and some ports with Jellyfishbot, a flotsam collection robot, I was very puzzled with the sheer number of plastic bottles with caps on we saw floating around. Why empty plastic bottles with caps on? As Singapore is surrounded by Malaysia, Indonesia, we know the bottles were floating from nearby countries but we couldn’t visualise people who could consciously litter while putting the cap back in after consumption. So we investigated further...it turned out that good-willing citizens in the European cities and streets who make the effort of disposing their plastic bottles with caps on (to make it easier) in proper recycling collection points were simply misled. Those bottles are simply collected, exported for “recycling” with zero processing (hence zero costs) -not even compressed- to countries far far away where the local “recycling companies” simply toss the whole thing to the sea. Voilà! Problem solved.

[@progpuss]

Well done for doing this , the world is choking on this obscene mess.

[@fgomez209]

The main goal of recycling is that consumerist people can feel good about themselves.

[@MTaye7]

The industry should get sanctioned heavily for producing unrecyclable packaging. And I mean heavily, not just direct money sactions, but banning the sale of the product altogether and blacklisting the company until recyclable packaging is used.

[@zonked1200]

Ultimately either we need to be able to break plastic back down to the chemical level, or we need to stop using it.

[@Justin73791]

The paradox of plastic is we built it specifically to NOT break down on a chemical level.... With modern tech I feel it's strange we haven't re-engineered plastic to break down with some agent we could eaisly produce at scale and reuse to 100%. But this video presents the problem... there are too many types of plastic to work with as a recycler.

[@randomserbianguy5677]

@@Justin73791 I actually remember reading that some scientists managed to figure out how to do just that. Haven't followed up on the progress of their further research. But if proven successful it could legitimately solve to the problem we are currently facing

[@JM-sm8ir]

@@randomserbianguy5677 I also saw a headline about plastic being broken down chemically into an edible protein?? Sounds crazy.

[@randomserbianguy5677]

@@JM-sm8ir lol I saw something similar too! Looks like there is hope after all Edit: the two scientists who discovered this won the 2021 Future Insight Prize and were awarded with $1.18 million dollars

[@leesonneville1817]

You know you can raise mealworms on polystyrene and then feed them to chickens

[@immersokinawa4666]

It seems like when plastic is recycled the energy used is so great it creates a negative impact. The answer is simple, ban one use plastics in supermarkets.

[@beebee4334]

One easy thing I do: Buy items in the largest size possible, for items I use often. This Reduces waste and ends up being cheaper in the long run. Laundry and dish detergent, I get the biggest size then refill a small container. Coffee I also buy the largest size offered. In my city, our recycling system is a racket. Reducing is the first step.

[@checksumvids]

Every household person should participate in garbage collection once in a year in his or her area. That should made as rule. That will make things more better.

[@JKTProductionzIncNCo]

Agreed. Also governments along with the public, academia, corporations, manufacturers, producers, etc. should start seriously trying to find ways to phase out plastic as much as possible.

[@robmoney4life]

I swear people will throw anything in the recycle and then get mad when we don't take it

[@YourNickIsTaken]

Look: the instructions are not clear. My bin was rejected because I made strings from PET bottles. My neighbors trash was accepted but he never cleans the oil cans and the joghurt cups neighter the soap cans. So. Let's have an argument how can this recycling information spread that not everything can be recycled and therefore it is not belong to the recycle bin? Also teach people not to recycle but reduce trash!

[@gajananramchandrameshram854]

Reduce, Reuse and Recycle are activities are important and essential to save our planet and make it livable

[@grimheathen]

Those orange suits make them look like a bad 80's pop band.

[@BlackJar72]

Or a prison chain-gang.

[@LifeforArt]

No. It's the other way around: in the 80s, pop bands were dressed like garbage collectors.

[@markuslappalainen6847]

Taxation for companies who produce plastic. It makes the package of ham in plastic more expensive when compared to paper wrapped product. Toy in a card board box would be cheaper than the product in plastic package.

[@durgan5668]

Taxes are passed onto the consumer. And if the two same toys were side by side, 'maybe' you'd buy the cheaper one in cardboard, or maybe you'd buy the one you could actually see through the plastic one. Or, as parents, you could realize buying cheap plastic toys that don't last is a waste of your money. The money that theoretically, you should save for your kid's future. Impulse buying isn't a good thing, but we all know that. Parents used to send us outside with a ball or bike and we were out of their hair for hours, and healthier for it. But that takes effort. I realize I sound like the grumpy old guy, but I AM the grumpy old guy. We've been fighting this since the '70's, at least, when the US passed air and water legislation. We have the solutions, but again, it takes effort. Reuse. Repair. Don't buy crap from China you don't actually need. Spending 15 minutes in a drive thru lane? You can make a meal at home for a lot less money and a lot less trash, less fuel wasted and less time. But it takes effort.

[@josephcernansky1794]

I worked on an environmental cleanup project at a metal scrap yard and wondered about all the plastic that was around. The plastic was just mixed up with steel shavings that was sent over to the electric furnaces. This was the first layer of material put into the furnaces as the electrodes were lowered into the ladle to create a puddle of molten metal then larger chunks of metal were added. I asked about the plastic, if it would contaminate the metal. The temperatures are so hot to melt the steel that the plastics are completely disintegrated but the carbon is added to alloy the metal. The exhaust air from the furnaces was clean enough and cool enough to breath. A far cry from what the old blast furnaces were like. But I still cannot fathom that, burning plastics in a co-generation facility cannot be done efficiently and clean.

[@DWPlanetA]

Hi Joseph, have you seen our videos asking why we don't burn our trash? kzbin.info/www/bejne/hYG5hqWFYsRqia8 - and how can we recycle the unrecyclable: kzbin.info/www/bejne/mYGodZeofKl6qNU Let us know what you think of the videos in the comments sections 🙂

[@alani2071]

I remember before I retired I worked for a very large corporation that embraced recycling. The company issued a second blue recycle trach can. I often would work after hours and noticed when the janitors would come in, all trash AND recyclables were always thrown into the came janitor bins. Year after year this never changed. I'm retired now but I suppose it's the same.

[@jamescarter3196]

Yeah, people who are lazy about recycling love to say things to make it sound like it's pointless

[@Rearmostbean]

I have been resisting watching this for 10 months. What a shame. This is a great video that everyone should see.

[@craigleppan7164]

Great video dude. Learnt a lot. Its amazing there are no real regulations clamping down on the producers. We should ban plastics in food chain. WELL DONE: spreading good!

[@saschaheiser2687]

Interessant als Deutscher zu sehen, dass unser angesehenes Recyclingsystem noch verbesserungswürdig ist. Meine Lektion aus diesem Video: Verbundverpackungen GETRENNT in den Gelben Sack zu werfen, um zumindest das automatische Sortieren den Maschinen zu erleichtern.

[@Mike-qc8xd]

Maybe we should switch to different packaging all together or less Packaging. When I was a child everything was paper than they switch the plastic they wanted to save the trees paper comes from farmed trees they get replanted quick growth hindsight 20/20

[@bluwasabi7635]

Have you walked down a toy aisle recently? The packaging is often overbuilt and some are designed to take up as much shelf space as possible.

[@sbai4319]

In Australia, plastics have a recycling symbol with a number that relates to the kind of plastic it is. Out of five different codes, only two are actually recyclable. And yes we offshore our waste.

[@snowmcsnow4732]

Paper and cardboard products. Use wood, pottery, glass, metals. Pretty much all other alternatives are better than plastic when it comes to recycling.

[@chaython]

I wish more stuff was made of metals, less single use consumables at stores. Like the big water jugs, you return for refill, there should be soda fountains for your two liters.

[@Langevloei-NL]

We manage to recycle 80% of our 60 million tons of waste in The Netherlands yearly. So don't give up. Improve were possible. The Netherlands is also one of the few countries in Europe to be a net importer of plastic waste.

[@benerval7]

I lived in Germany for a total of 5 years. The last three, we (US military) did have a very robust recycle program. I was surprised when I saw the German way of handling much of it (incinerate or dump in landfill). Much of it was impossible to sort effectively (plastic), so it just had to be disposed of. Glass and cardboard was handled well though.

[@sandyj342]

A real eye opener ...well done Kai for creating awareness

[@67Endgame]

For all the reasons that you presented, I have stopped recycling anything with the exception of aluminium. Mostly cans from beverages, pet food, and various other products. But, I don't give it to a recycling company, I take it to a metals processor which is just a short distance away. I will compact the aluminium as much as I can and store it until there is as much as I can fit into my car then take it all to the scrap metals processor which purchases it at the current market rate for scrap value. Better to get the going rate for metal scrap for myself than to give it away. Even though it takes a bit of time to accumulate enough to take, I see it as a return on my expense even though it is just a little; it is still my property until I sell it.

[@martina5923]

I really enjoyed watching this recycling journey. Being that I am half German, I also enjoyed hearing the German language. Thank you for producing this very informative video of plastic recycling and where it all goes.

[@Sam-gu6im]

Nothing new. In WW2 we "recycled" all our beautiful old cast ironwork here in Britain. Many years later it became public knowledge that it was too difficult to recycle so it was just piled up and forgotten. Society really sucks sometimes.

[@mattreed4229]

Recycling is a business. Once you figure that out you understand why some stuff doesn’t get recycled.

[@mickfriel3463]

Great film, keep up the good work.

[@stevemaherart]

very well produced piece. really impresses the scale of the situtation!

[@morecowbell235]

Reducing waste is the key. Not only does it require a lot of thought and planning to be successful, but it also depends on people changing their behaviors, too. Which is no small task.

[@shinjokagama7521]

Thank you for showing light on the plastic waste issue. We should ban plastic use altogether.

[@DarkVoidIII]

I have learned from a proof of concept video aired on KZbin recently, that it is possible to steam plastics in a large boiler, under pressure, and turn them back into an oil product, which they came from originally. Have you heard anything about whether this process has had any companies trying to make it succeed in Germany? The video I watched showed that it was theoretically possible as a means of recycling a large quantity of otherwise non-recyclable plastic types. I'm just not certain how many companies would be willing to set up a process which would generate oil and waste byproduct - of which I'm certain there will be some quantity of in any such process - to recycle a larger percentage of the plastics that currently just get sent to landfill or incinerated. Steaming plastics certainly would require energy and water from some source, in order to heat the water to make steam. The process also was shown in the video as working best on plastics cut to a size optimal for steaming, which would mean additional energy expenditure to run machines to chop the plastics up into properly sized pieces. It is certainly an interesting proof of concept, the real question is whether it can be made to work on a large scale, and economically enough.

[@DarkVoidIII]

@Michael Murray Since the alternative is a plastic landscape which we're rapidly headed towards, I'm okay with it. I'm also okay with shoving it back in the faces of the oil barons. They are going to get what is coming to them, one way or another!

[@ThePlayerOfGames]

@@DarkVoidIII the alternative is a moratorium on plastic production, not containing plastic production into oblivion

[@DarkVoidIII]

@@ThePlayerOfGames You think the governments of the world are capable of making it happen? I think not! Plastic is getting seriously out of hand, and unless something is done about it it will be too late.

[@ThePlayerOfGames]

@@DarkVoidIII a moratorium on plastic production is a lever only a government can pull Consumers can not buy the plastic, but plastic makers will just find other outlets instead

[@andrewkuebler4335]

Just spit-balling here, but the problem with solutions like this is usually that they end up needing more money going in, then money coming out. So even if they are a viable solution, they aren't economically viable, and so they never reach widespread acceptance.

[@johnswartz7872]

We need to get communication between producers manufactures and Recycler’s and eliminate the problem areas

[@robertyoung1777]

Great video. Thanks for actually doing what you are talking about. Makes the trash situation real and shows the value of manual labor.

[@chrishodde]

Great video. I think worldwide we need to pressure manufactures and legislators to A) use less packaging and B) use materials that will more likely be recycled. I am 63 and we did not have near this problem when I was young.

[@captainkurt8802]

I agree but simultaneously we also need to take personal responsibility for the products we choose to use and support on a daily basis. Purchasing = voting. We can make little changes every day and if each and every one of us make these changes, and continue to do so, they will accumulate into big differences. Big companies won't produce products that don't sell.

[@Lasertrac]

I'd consider myself diligent at recycling. However in the back of my mind I've always wondered,"is this an exercise in futility"? I don't have the answer I'm comfortable with. I too wish we'd go back to the time when things were in glass but even then how do they recycle glass with the labels attached? Perhaps in a future video you can address this. Great video. USA here (but of strong German heritage).

[@evenskial1063]

Great video and exposes how much is truly recyclable and how much is being dumped in countries that have no way of dealing with it. Governments need to step in and halt the indiscriminate use of plastics by manufacturers and supermarkets and definitely to halt the export of western waste to poorer countries, they don't deserve that burden no matter how much we pay them.

[@notme2day]

Less than 10% is actually recycled and reused .. and of that 10% .. it can only be reused one time.

[@droe2570]

Except government regulations created the high use of plastics. We used to use paper and waxed paper, until government regulators got involved.

[@evenskial1063]

@@droe2570 Perhaps you could explain more? I have always held the belief that businesses have been pushing plastic soley as a means of increasing profit margins.

[@droe2570]

@@evenskial1063 Paper production for packaging is much more pollutive than making plastics, and requires more energy. Also, paper involves cutting down trees, and making paper is a very dirty process compared to plastic, which uses less energy, produces far less pollution, and is much cleaner to make. A few decades ago, the Green lobby was obsessed with ridding the world of the evils of paper, so they lobbied Congress. Politicians do anything that makes them money and they think will get them re-elected, so here we are, in a world of plastic. Regulations regarding air pollution and cutting trees led us to plastic. Now people want to toss plastic and go back to paper. You can see how the same Green lobby is still whining about regulations, but this time anti-plastic instead of anti-paper. I suspect in 50 years or so after we get rid of plastic, they'll whine about the evils of paper, demand regulations, and governments everywhere will make new regulations to reduce paper use in favor of...plastics. Also, yes, plastic is cheaper than paper. Partly this is because of government subsidies for oil and plastic manufacturing. Partly because, as mentioned, plastic is cleaner to manufacture (less clean up costs) and uses less energy (lower energy bills and less energy taxes). Also, governments tax pollution, especially air pollution, and making paper packaging and bags is far more pollutive, which means more taxes and that adds to costs.

[@evenskial1063]

@@droe2570 Thank you, good to read your views. The reality is over consumption of both plastic and paper. If we can't deal with the after effect of too much plastic polution or hazadous chemicals used in paper manufacture entering the environment then we should be drastically curbing our use of both. I won't be holding my breath!!