The Truth About Plastic Recycling ... It’s Complicated

The Truth About Plastic Recycling. The first 100 people to use code UNDECIDED at the link below will get 20% off of Incogni: incogni.com/un... Is it a scam? It's complicated. The 3R’s: reduce, reuse, recycle has been drilled into our heads as the way forward towards a sustainable future. The plastic industry focused heavily on selling us that plastic recycling was the perfect solution to the plastic waste problem. Yet, plastic recycling has turned out to be ... trash. Literally. In fact, most of the plastic we’ve produced so far has ended up in landfills, or worse, in the food we eat every day. Does that mean recycling is a scam? Or is there a way forward that won't waste our time when recycling waste? There’s some interesting innovations that may help solve some of the problem. Let's see if we can come to a decision on this.
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[@UndecidedMF]

What do you think the way forward for plastic and recycling is? The first 100 people to use code UNDECIDED at the link below will get 20% off of Incogni: incogni.com/undecided If you liked this, check out The Truth About 3D Printed Homes kzbin.info/www/bejne/o2WZgpihedJjpbs

[@wyattnoise]

MATT FOR THE LOVE OF GOD PLEASE TALK ABOUT PLASMA ARC GASIFICATION

[@highlander723]

I have a question why do you call it undecided your opinions pretty clear.

[@WindoWarrior]

I think using plastic bottles filled with plastic trash (bottle bricks)would a good choice for bringing costs down along with recycled styrofoam concrete non load bearing walls. I'm building an enclosed deck I almost gave it up but I think it is my best choice.

[@vasukinagabhushan]

It is best to enforce the plastic industry to pay to convert the waste plastic into oil.

[@pumpkinhead456]

I'd love to see a video on clothes. 2/3rds of PET is produced for clothing and can't be recycled, however many cotton products are also very bad for the environment. Tricky one...

[@DM-dn7rf]

I am old enough to remember when liquids of any kind were sold only in glass or metal containers and when you bought them in quantity, they were packaged in cardboard. No food products you bought at the grocery store came packaged in plastic. People used wax paper instead of plastic wrap. All shopping bags were only made of paper. Paper straws were the norm. There were no plastic bags for storage. Again, you used some sort of container, either of glass, metal, or cardboard for storage. You get the idea. We managed fine

[@aitorbleda8267]

Glass is in many ways worse. Using plastic and burning it would use way less energy and leave no residue. Ideally that plastic would come from renewable sources

[@mjc0961]

@@aitorbleda8267 "Glass is in many ways worse." Citation needed. Other than it breaks if you're careless with it (which is easily avoid if you're not careless), what ways is it worse? You should back that up with some claims at least. You seem to be implying something about glass using more energy to make than plastic, BUT have you factored in that glass is reusable? You might have to use your glass bottle, I dunno since you gave no numbers or stats or anything, but let's say 5 times for it to become greener than a single plastic bottle. Okay, no problem - _reuse the glass bottle 5 times!_ Even more! I've seen the same thing for bags, it takes more energy to make paper bags or reusable nylon bags than single use plastic bags. But okay, after I reuse my bags several times, I've offset their higher up-front cost with the cost of all the plastic bags I didn't use, and now I'm net green. Same thing with electric cars - haters love to harp on how much more emissions are needed to manufacture and electric car instead of a gas powered car, but always want to leave out how if you use said electric car for years, it will catch up and become greener from the far fewer emissions needed to create its fuel and 0 emissions created when actually driving it. Point is - reusable things are reusable, so reuse them and they're much greener than single use crap. And don't forget, the 3 R's are "reduce, reuse, recycle" and they're in that order because that's the order of impactfulness. Recycling is supposed to be the last resort, not the only thing we do.

[@MichaelZenkay]

@@mjc0961 citation is the price of gas and the weight difference between a case of glass bottles vs pet bottles multiplied by cost per moving a unit of weight from the factory to the store shelf weighted by breakage loss

[@Winnetou17]

@@MichaelZenkay That is a good argument, but the numbers still matter a lot. Using more energy for something does, in the end, mean more pollution, since the energy itself, even if solar or wind, pollutes (from manufacturing, repairing and then replacing). But how much more pollution is to be seen. Like mjc0961 said, the difference might be easily offset by simply reusing the bottle. If it's something like reusing 2, 3, 5 or 10 times, then I'd say it's the better option. 10 to 20 I'd say it's questionable, and it would depend on context if it's feasible or not. Higher need of reusing means that yes, just using plastic is actually better (and also more convenient)

[@JanjayTrollface]

But glass can cut a child's feet! If we just keep soaking ourselves in plastics for a couple more generations, then we won't be able to have children anymore. All these problems solved!

[@CultureAgent]

I live in a mini hi-rise, when I take my carefully compiled recycling down and lift the lid on the communal bin my eyes are met with trash that is not suitable for local recycling. Right from the get-go my careful recycling is a complete waste of time. I tried highlighting this problem but that was also a waste of time. It's hard to be positive under these circumstances.

[@BernardLS]

Change your community? The folk you live with are the problem so beat some sense into to them or move on (assuming either is possible)

[@brianjensen2532]

I worked at a plastic factory where we would take old plastic, ground it down and melted it again to make sheets of plastic for injection molding. PET and PVC were the 2 plastics we did this with. So you should also include PVC as a recyclable plastic not just PET and HDPE.

[@f7ipper]

I currently work in a facility that recycles PP, LDPE and PS - Matt is either misinformed or lying like click bait.

[@santiagodraco]

But that would impact the video's attempt to sell the "scam" concept. Can't have that.

[@tenchuu007]

I wondered about this as well. It's 1,2, and 3 that are actually recyclable, 4 sometimes and 5 and 6 are a total joke, right?

[@packagingscientist9530]

@@tenchuu007 It isn't just the recycle code numbers that matter. It is the form as well. Rigid plastics #1 (PET) and #2 (HDPE) are accepted in most places. Make sure to leave the HDPE closures on the bottles so they don't get lost in sorting. Rigid #3 (PVC) is accepted in some places, but not widely. Rigid #5 (PP) is accepted in some places, but not widely.. though there are many efforts to improve collection availability. Rigid #6 (PS) aren't widely accepted. Flexible packaging made from ONLY #2 and #4 (LDPE) are accepted via store front drop off if they are clean and dry. Curbside recycling of Flexibles is at least a few years away because the sortation tech to sort flexibles isn't available nation-wide. Plastic recycling is very complicated in comparison with metals, glass, and paper. Plastic recycling is getting better, but it isn't moving fast enough.

[@markmurray406]

I think there is a difference between recyclable and recycling. There's a great book by Tom Szaky called the future of packaging. Most plastics are recyclable however the demand for most recycled plastics is not very large yet and the cost to recycle them are much higher than the virgin plastic. As a result most plastics are usually not worth recycling. The reason he mentions PET and HDPE is that most single use consumer packaging is made from these 2 material. Because they are usually single material products it's easier to separate them and Industry has made a point of buying much more rPET and rHDPE therefore the demand has increased sufficiently so MRFs to collect and recycle it. Your above points are very valid and would highly recommend the book I mentioned.

[@beebob1279]

My biggest issue is being required to buy products packaged in plastic. First of all a person can have a horrible time trying to open the thing. Second, the packaging is three times bigger than what I bought. And you’re right about the labeling system and people not knowing what to recycle. It’s very confusing to the average person.

[@jackli6592]

you sound like someone prefer all products wrapped in a metal can. well have fun opening all the metals

[@ZeeCaptainRon]

Simple, don't buy the product. Who says that you are "required" to buy any products?

[@beebob1279]

@@ZeeCaptainRon Good luck looking for things not in plastic

[@HoagieHut]

With the economy the way it is right now, not many people have the cash to pay for products that are more environmentally friendly because they are siimply more expensive. Everyone wants to be more green, but people want to eat and pay their utilities too. One Native deodorant costs $11 if you subscribe whereas a two pack of degree deodorant costs just over $6. Another option I'd love to see is to be able to go to a store I currently visit regularly to refill my laundry detergent or any other detergent in concentrated form. Then I can use the container I have at home to dilute with water. That is a simple solution that should be able to be implemented rather easily.

[@codygarner2095]

As a composter, I can't think of a more satisfying thing than to receive a package and throwing all the material that protected it into the compost bin. Plus I imagine many of those fungus sheets will be excellent seedling beds.

[@tanakaryuji9410]

In UK most plastic that is supposed to be recycled is shipped off to other countries where about 95% of that plastic is burned for energy !! these countries have cheap labor and UK follows "Not in my backyard" policy for almost anything that does not look good.

[@Dats_Mark]

This really frustrates me... the amount of time I wasted rinsing and sorting plastic thinking I was doing something good. And I'm very guilty of Wishcycling

[@circuitdotlt]

before rinsing anything I always think about the impact of rinsing itself, being water and energy used, and my time, which is also not free.

[@lancelotlake7609]

"the impact of rinsing"... is considerably LESS than disposal into the environment untreated... so it's not much of a calculation.

[@dentatusdentatus1592]

I knew recycling was a scam from the start. That's why I always put my plastic waste and my regular trash in the same garbage bags.

[@FR4M3Sharma]

@@dentatusdentatus1592 Fuckin' Genius.

[@TheSteinbitt]

@@FR4M3Sharma It wasn’t a secret, lots of documentaries about this, also public studies done in Norway at least. I never recycled plastics either.

[@zutrong]

Here where I live (Quebec, Canada), consumers pay a 5c fee for every plastic bottle (except water) they buy. There is a similar thing for beer bottles and soda cans. That fee called "consignement" is then given back to consumers when they return the empty containers. Every groceries store have "Reverse vending machines". They say they get back around 70% of them back. Is that not a thing in the US?

[@bocadelcieloplaya3852]

It should be. We had doposits on glass bottles as a kid. 5cent, 10 cent . Bring that system back for plastic bottles.

[@billy-go9kx]

Yeah we have that crap too. I doubt the 70% number though because it is a pain. I used to recycle my soda cans but half the time they were broken or full. I think glass is better than plastic. Simpler recycling?

[@archstanton3931]

It varies by state. California, Connecticut, Hawaii, Iowa, Maine, Massachusetts, Michigan, New York, Oregon, and Vermont each have some bottle / can redemption system in place. Living in Massachusetts, I can tell you still see plenty of empty bottles and cans on the side of the road, but you most commonly see nip bottles (usually fireball) which don't have any deposit.

[@troyclayton]

It's state by state. We have a "bottle bill" here in Maine which covers plastic, glass, and metal cans less than 4 gallons for redemption. Hi, neighbor!

[@zutrong]

@@billy-go9kx Yeah, those numbers are provided by a government organization Recyc-Quebec so we never know

[@CajunWolffe]

I grew up in the 50s and 60s. We made good money collecting glass pop bottles. People brought empties back to the store or paid extra as a deposit on the glass bottles. In my days, things were wrapped in paper, not plastic. Your groceries were put in paper bags and cardboard boxes, not plastic bags. The good ole days. 😎

[@robinmorales4241]

they need to bring it back

[@lddcavalry]

Plastic make’s products cheaper.

[@CajunWolffe]

@@lddcavalry So What? That in no way makes them better.

[@QAlba1074]

Now we're all eating plastic! Wonderful! What could possibly go wrong!

[@mikhailhunter5277]

So what had happened was the Climate Activist back then said, we were killing trees, that is why we moved to plastic packaging, then they said we were polluting the environment, so we bought into the recycling lie, and now there's a push to use reusable bags, and bring back paper bags. There's also a push to reuse containers.

[@kajatab]

The problem is its. Reduce, Reuse, Recycle. But every company just screams about recycling. Apple releases a new phone every year, makes repair almost impossible for 70% of the components and then offers free recycling.

[@davelindenmuth1421]

Many communities have banned single-use plastic shopping bags. I carry my own bags at the grocery store (including produce bags) because for many years I would leave the store shaking my head as the baggers would frequently place only two or three items in a bag. At that point, why not just attach a handle to every product and be done with it?

[@waqasahmed939]

You can't even get those bags in the supermarkets in a lot of European countries

[@stapleman007]

Funny side effect of banning single-use plastic bags. Sales of plastic bags goes up to compensate. Single use plastic bags actually get used multiple times.

[@MKorostoff]

Great video matt. I must say, it's refreshing to see you take such a strong, clear position on an important issue. You cover a lot of "jury's out" topics, but it's great that you are also capable of reaching an unequivocal conclusion when the evidence is clear and overwhelming. Would love to see more like this.

[@Based_Is_Best]

Agreed So long as it also doesn’t preclude and forego individual critical thought. We don’t need any more NPCs. When it comes to the topic of plastic, recycling it, and embracing endeavors striving to eliminate its impacts on the environment, there’s no strong counterargument. Great video.

[@UndecidedMF]

Appreciate that feedback. I'll probably be working in more of my stronger opinions from time to time.

[@Daekar3]

As long as he doesn't fall into the trap of techno-cultural imperialism, decreeing one position as the only civilized possibility and declaring those who disagree as unsophisticated barbarians. There is enough of that on Twitter.

[@Diana1000Smiles]

I find this "information" decades old. Plastic particulates are wrecking Humans' respiratory systems.

[@granddadjad2892]

@@Daekar3 you sound like one of those filthy plastic users. Off with his head!! /s

[@brenthinton6855]

This is why I'm starting a local plastic recycling center that processes used plastic into 3d printer filament. If every town has at least one small scale recycling center like this there would be less carbon used in transportation as well as a direct product being put back into the community.

[@eirinthemedicgf3962]

This is so cool

[@paulkelly9250]

Excellent video. This issue is extremely frustrating. We're the most advanced country in the world yet we don't have a uniform recycling system that is effective. There needs to be some kind of cooperation between commercial manufacturing and recycling advocates. This mass of plastic growing in the Pacific is tragic. I visited Guatemala and went to a remote lake, one of the volunteer activities was collecting plastic out of the lake. So sad. We must solve this.

[@osco4311]

Most plastic in the ocean comes from..7 rivers in SE Asia and Africa.

[@rtd1791]

I don’t think my solution to the plastic waste stream nightmare is THE solution as it’s probably not scaleable, but it is a solution that provides the individual with a lot more control over their own waste. Some years back I decided it was crazy that I throw out all of this packaging only to go out and purchase more plastic containers for storing and organizing my stuff. So I decided to use the packaging of my consumables to make containers for housing my stuff. There are three secrets to making this work: 1) a rotary tool to cut and shape plastic, 2) papier-mâché that uses plastic packaging as armature 3) patience. Upside is my organization containers are totally custom to my stuff and my space and my taste. And it’s cheaper in general depending on how fancy I get with decorations. For example all of my pegboard bins were made out of berry baskets, paper grocery sacks, and junk mail. I used whatever wire and paint I had on hand for other projects so technically I didn’t spend any extra money on my pegboard organization system. I even bought used pegboard at a going-out-of -business sale so 120 square feet of pegboard cost me $20. I still haven’t come up with a reasonable replacement for big plastic tubs, but I have drawer organization down. I also don’t have a grand solution for plastic bags. I can say that shredding bags and using them for outdoor pillow stuffing did not work. Plastic bags can be bound and shaped for armature but the best way I have found to do that is tape and hot glue both of which are made from plastic. It’s far from perfect but it is something. I figure more experienced makers and better designers will have even better ideas.

[@snowgods2195]

I work in the packaging industry, and one of the side effects of reducing plastics is an increase in the use of cardboard (wich has a suprisingly high carbon fooprint). There is currently a worldwide shortage of pulp and paper products

[@KalebPeters99]

Interesting! I hadn't heard of the pulp shortage. I would imagine that cardboards footprint is still less than plastics though right? And it's much more biodegradable at least.

[@tenchuu007]

The pulp shortage has more to do with the shipping crisis, doesn't it?

[@packagingscientist9530]

@@tenchuu007 The pulp shortage is a combination of many things. One huge factor is the explosion of e-commerce shipments during the pandemic. The supply chain just couldn't keep up. Additionally, recycling rates for corrugated cardboard went down because people couldn't / wouldn't recycle everything that was going to their homes.

[@packagingscientist9530]

There is also a huge shortage of aluminum cans.

[@snowgods2195]

@@KalebPeters99 Actually I think it's got a higher carbon footprint, as it's quite energy intensive, and produces methane when it degrades, where plastic locks the carbon up (Ok it's locked up inside birds and fish), Higher carbon footprint but lower environmental impact

[@EliotHochberg]

Whenever I see something about recycling, I always want to mention plasma gasification. Look it up, but this is a procedure where they use a plasma furnace instead of a simple fire furnace. The result is that any waste that’s put in the system is either turned into synth gas, or inert slag that can be used as a construction material. The biggest benefit is that this system can take anything that would go into a landfill and turn it into something it’s potentially useful. The slag, which is sort of a glass compound can be used for construction or infill for various tasks. The synth gas is basically natural gas that can be used to both fuel the gasification plant, and potentially provide excess power. The biggest benefit, besides not having to sort the materials, is that any biohazard waste is completely broken down. This is the technique that they’ve landed on, but when I originally saw this technology being proposed, it also included separating out various types of materials and elements. I suspect that that version wasn’t cost-effective, and I’m not sure if some current versions can also sort out the metals from the waste feedstock. With a big take away from this is that on like a regular furnace, which gives off noxious fumes, the system, as I understand it, only gives off 99% useful waste.

[@jperin001]

Thermal depolymerization is an option. High temperature, high pressure, water, and catalysts can break down plastic into polymers and oil. It is beset with financial and technical hurdles. At the end of the day there really don't seem to be any profitable solutions that would really tackle the problem at scale. Realistically our best hope is for economical alternative materials that can out compete plastic on price.

[@cinilaknedalm]

Also, it's time to end this blame shifting onto consumers, and change the laws. Initiate the transition away from this scam, and punish all responsible. It's the same as leaded petrol. Something that had an awful impact on humanity, and remained a part of our lives for decades just because of insane profits.

[@ToriZealot]

name one awful impact on humanity due to plastics ... oh nothing

[@chow-chihuang4903]

@@ToriZealot Bisphenols, PFAS & PFOA, plasticizers, flame retardant additives messing with our health in known (cancers, mimicking function of some hormones, etc.) and currently undiscovered ways. Plenty more beyond these. Never mind trashing the place in general.

[@ToriZealot]

@@chow-chihuang4903 Yosef, many problematic substances that are mostly banned meanwhile. But what is your point? Food contact materials do not contain these substances. Some jewelers contains 90% Cadmium, not very healthy either. It is about controlling unwanted substances not about demonizing plastics that is free of all that.

[@chow-chihuang4903]

@@ToriZealot Whataboutism at its finest! 🤣🤣🤣

[@ToriZealot]

@@chow-chihuang4903huharhar, what is your point? Some plastic can be dangerous? Sure, Luke many other things.

[@sitnstill4now]

I've been bingeing similar recycling videos on youtube lately, this is by far one the most comprehensive videos on what's really going on and why.

[@mouldyboats]

I was an employee of the worlds 2nd largest plastic manufacturer for 8 years. Previously I had worked offshore and in pristine North Pacific and Bering seas. Plastic and Fossil Fuels were the sole cause of any ugliness I experienced in my life up there. There was so much of it, it made me ill. The Irony that I had to take a job in that in plastics to survive, (2010), learning less than 10 percent could ever be recycled- Killed me. Everything I had left over from my paychecks went to buying TSLA shares.

[@stapleman007]

Sounds like you have a good idea of the magnitude of the machine. In the end you just do what everyone else does: bend the knee to the powers that be, and wish someone else will fix the problem.

[@ProgrammerInProgress]

This is why I hate the whole "blame the consumer" attitude to saving the environment. The problem is that the externalities aren't priced into the manufacture of plastic, so you end up with this situation where everything is plastic, companies get to say they're encouraging recycling and we all end up using more plastic, some of which can't be truly recycled. The current state of things is a mess and needs to change, good work on highlighting this in your video.

[@AndrewMeyer]

I don't think it makes sense to price the externalities into the _production_ of plastic, since most of the externalities associated with plastic seem to be from how it's disposed of, not how it's produced. Plastic manufacturing companies don't have any control over whether I recycle my plastic bottle, incinerate it, or throw it in a river, but the externalities associated with each of those three choices are very different.

[@ProgrammerInProgress]

​@@AndrewMeyer I think there's definitely different ways you can tackle it, none of which are simple and probably won't work on their own.

[@AndrewMeyer]

@HoboGardenerBen If you choose to purchase plastic bottles then it's your responsibility to figure out how to dispose of them, "the bottle manufacturer made me do it" is a foolish excuse. Advertising is not mind control. If you're a "sheep that's easily led", that's your problem, not the bottle companies. To the extent that current labeling practices are misleading, I agree those practices should be changed. More information is almost always a good thing. That's not an argument for making innocent third parties (like those who properly dispose of their plastic waste) pay for your mistakes via increased costs to future plastic products.

[@torinnbalasar6774]

@@AndrewMeyer that is exactly the argument that lead to the existing issues. It's not the consumer's fault that they can't effectively recycle a product, it's the result of the manufacturer's decision to make it out of a material that couldn't be easily recycled. Consumers also only have a limited number of options in many cases on what products to choose when they are in need of a particular use case, either because of market share and availability or because the bad practices are the standard because it's cheaper.

[@benjammin7469]

@Andrew Meyer Real and impactful change can only occur when the market forces (ie. cost to consumer) changes. Plastic is way too damn cheap! I disagree with the idea that we should all become some ideal consumer enlightened to the realities of environmental externalities and recycling scams. The system needs to be redesigned to account for the stupid nature of people as the rash and careless consumers that we so obviously are. Educating the masses has failed. We shouldn't keep putting our eggs into the same broken basket.

[@TheJttv]

I am a Packaging Engineer meaning I design all that trash. I have way more to say than could ever fit in one comment. But I will say one thing. The number of times I have been told be execs that "our customers don't care about sustainability" is way way way too damn high. You going on twitter, youtube, facebook or the product reviews and mentioning that the packaging sucks, or is unsustainable makes a MASSIVE difference. It gives the packaging team a stronger leg to stand on. We are constantly told to chose the cheapest option. But if they know the customers care that conversation changes.

[@SunnyNatividad]

Wow, thanks for sharing!

[@chow-chihuang4903]

It’s like a mantra they learn in manager training. I was in the same boat as you. The guilt eats at me often. They continue to make things worse, by either wrapping a PETE or HDPE bottle (by themselves, often the most-recycled plastics) in a full-height shrink sleeve, which makes correct optical sorting at an MRF impossible, or making packs out of different plastics in a way that is impossible to separate from each other easily or affordable. Think snack bags, toothpaste tubes, sachets, drink and food pouches, aerosol vessels. All these are single use. Pumps and sprayers are also complex composites, but at least you can refill and reuse those many times before something fails and you have to trash it. Take care what refill you buy. They claim refills in bags are more sustainable than ones in PET bottles, due to the smaller amount of total plastic. However, those bags (usually a multi-layer monstrous composite of different plastics) are not recyclable in almost all places, but the clear PET bottle is recyclable most places. One the one hand, they sell the concept of recycling, but on the other sell the bagged refill as if none of the packaging is ever recycled.

[@packagingscientist9530]

Hello Fellow Packaging Engineer/Scientist! What type of work do you do in the industry? Sounds like you work at a brand owner / brand?

[@TheJttv]

@@packagingscientist9530 I like to do design + sustainability work so I tend to stick to consumer product brands.

[@packagingscientist9530]

@@TheJttv That's cool. Did you study packaging in school or wind up in the field from a different path?

[@jmbrougham]

Just my 10 cents: 1. To reduce our waste of plastic, we must see the material as special, not common. Refill your plastic bottles with water and use them. The more you use them, the more value you’ll begin to feel that they have, and the more ridiculous it will seem to buy them all of the time. I learned this from living in Africa where people could afford a coke once in a year for a wedding. They used the bottles again and again for just about anything. 2. Although I’m an artist, the topic of recycling materials makes me despise creativity. When there is uniformity in materials used by design, systems for separation become simplified and then more efficiently upcycled. Example: Labeling on bottles. Why do they all use different materials for labels and also completely different adhesives? In Japan there is a regulation that requires all disposable bottles to have a plastic label with a rip tab on it. No glue. The more we begin simplifying our design and making those designs standard in our production of plastics, the more quickly we will realize that the solution is about simplifying, not reinventing the wheel.

[@4-kathryn]

Messaged a tea company awhile ago about the use of plastic lining the bags of the product. They expressed they wanted to change to a better alternative however they've done research and want to the product to have a longer shelf life. I think this topic is more nuanced then I realized at the start.

[@ericlotze7724]

Can you do a dedicated video on “The History of Incineration” maybe? Could go from open burning, to incinerators with some pollution control, to waste-to-energy / “Refuse Derived Fuel” + “Tire Derived Fuel” plants, to even the most modern techniques like “Integrated Gasification Combined Cycle” and “Plasma Gasification” (i think “plasmarok” is a company? Essentially makes glass like slag via plasma instead of ash)

[@dansw0rkshop]

+ This. While I agree that open burning is a risk of furans and dioxins -- open burning is rarely, if ever, a method of incineration on any legitimate scale. Search "municipal waste incineration" -- it is a process that usually involves gasification in oxygen-free and high temperature environments. Gasification produces some basics like H2, CO, CH4 that can be used as fuel, and is probably what the enzymes make at a much lower pace.

[@michaelharrison1093]

One legislative change I think that would make a difference would be to force the plastic industry to change their PRI codes on plastic items. Let them keep 1 & 2 the way they are but change all the others to a symbol that clearly indicates that the plastic is non-recyclable.

[@mjc0961]

Rather than make them clearly indicate it's not recyclable, let's just outlaw the crap as much as practically possible. Use recyclable plastic or use a different material.

[@janwillemkers2923]

@@mjc0961 but recycled plastic is non- or at least hardly recyclable. But I see what you mean;)

[@FibonacciK]

There needs to be a distinction between pollution and waste. The plastic entering the ocean is a problem, not the plastic entering land fills. The US produces the most plastic waste, but isn't close to the top plastic polluter. Indonesia creates 30x, China 40x, and india pollutes the ocean 50x more than the US. If the US stopped using plastic completely, ocean pollution would be reduced by less than 1%. Get these other countries to stop littering and the problem is almost completely solved.

[@zshakoblahROBLOX]

The amount of "recycled" plastic that gets landfilled blew my mind when I first heard about it a couple years ago. Backstory, I work at a company that a few decades ago was one of the world's leading producers of PET. Nowadays, there are collection bins around the plant that accept plastic (#1 and #2, like in your video) from employees and other sources, which we break down into molecular components and upcycle into all kinds of other materials. Feels good to actually know where my plastic is going (even got to help engineer some of the equipment for the recycling plant!).

[@gamerlifeon8794]

I feel the best path is to use substitutes of plastic in areas where there are it's bio-degradable substitutes no matter the cost. Like in India Bubble-wrap is replaced with a poofy paper and use of cardboard boxes is being standardized. And to minimise use of plastic in areas where substitutes aren't available as of yet. A little hard work now would prevent our children from facing the wrath of climate change.

[@gregbailey45]

Except plastic doesn't cause climate change. It's aside effect of overuse of fossil fuels.

[@redrock425]

Whilst I agree with your other points the climate will change regardless. We need to spend more money learning to adapt whilst reducing pollution.

[@KalebPeters99]

@@redrock425 of course the climate will change. But I think @GamerLifeOn is clearly advocating for *minimisation* of temperature increase. Which reducing plastic use will certainly help.

[@glhfggwp6232]

Engineering enzymes: PETase

[@marcd6897]

@@glhfggwp6232 This will only have the greedy plastic industry to produce even more.

[@BigMikeECV]

I've abandoned hope for plastic recycling, and I'm simply reducing the plastic I choose to buy. There are weird things that happen with some of my choices, such as buying bamboo toothbrushes from amazon and having them shipped to me in a plastic envelope. Or try buying cheese or tortillas without plastic wrappers at the grocery. I bought a box of rubberbands which has reduced the number of plastic bags I need to use to keep cheese fresh.

[@waqasahmed939]

Consider vacuum sealing too, though look if it's safe to do so given certain bacteria loved that It does unfortunately require plastic, however it is washable plastic and it means you can still keep your food fresh

[@hamsterminator]

Thanks for this video Matt. I think those of us concerned for the environment fixate too much on CO2 sometimes. While that is important, if we forget that we are impacting the world in other harmful ways too then we are simply going to bounce from one disaster to the next. Plastics in particular are simply physical components of the same carbon problem…

[@bocadelcieloplaya3852]

Plastic pollution is actually far more important than CO2, the chemicals in plastics interferes with biogical processes in organisms. This is a real issue.

[@scientificapproach6578]

Cleaning up plastic pollution is also a non-partisan issue.

[@MattyEngland]

We've been trying to tell you that your CO2 obsession is counterproductive. The whole thing is a psy-op to have people afraid of their own breath

[@MattyEngland]

When it comes to plastic in the ocean, 99% of it comes from developing countries. 2 billion people in the world don't have a refuse collection, and a large proportion of their waste ends up in rivers and then floats out to sea. The usual gutless NPCs don't have the nuts to call it out, for fear of being 'racist'!! It's pathetic.

[@mjc0961]

@@scientificapproach6578 It _should_ be a non partisan issue, but here in America there are plenty of clowns on both sides that will find ways to make it partisan.

[@Sircnait1377]

One thing that I’ve seen only in Germany. In the store there is for each bottle of plastic and some of glass a surcharge. The customer receives it back when he/she brings the bottle back. The stores have machines which automatically recognize the type of bottles and routes them to the relevant container. Non-reusable plastic bottles are compacted in the machine. Some bottles for mineral water are made of thicker PET and are reused. I find this system excellent, some people collect bottles from outside and come to the store to get money for them. You can even leave bottles on the sidewalk (in a busier part of the city) and people would take them to the store.

[@markiangooley]

I live in a condominium complex for over-55 people and the wish-cycling is very heavy. Lots of us old folks think that packing foam is readily recycled rather than seldom, despite signs next to and on the bins explicitly rejecting foam.

[@LoneOakWoodworks]

Along with reducing usage, I think there's a couple of significant changes that could be legislated. Since clear plastics are the most valuable for recycling, I would like to see a council including manufacturers and recyclers to determine which resins are the most recyclable and require that to be used in clear for as many products as possible. Labels can be used to change color for marketing, or for protection of UV sensitive items. A second change would be to require one type of adhesive for all labels, consulting the recyclers for what is the most practical (cost, less toxicity) so one solution could bath remove all labels (no shrink labels that have to be cut off, would be required to have an overlap with the specified adhesive). These changes wouldn't solve the issue by any means, but could possibly raise the % that gets recycled by quite a bit.

[@ddhdk5414]

@@GeorgeWashingtonLaserMusket skip the tax credits. The producers can swallow the cost of recycling. Worst case scenario we will have less “liquid diabetes” peddled to us when it comes to bottles and cans. Rewarding them with tax credits is just rewarding bad behavior. There was always a better option but corporate execs chose to maximize profits.

[@joewwilliams]

@@ddhdk5414 "...but corporate execs chose to maximize profits." This is why we'll always be the ones to "swallow the cost of recycling".

[@wades623]

@@GeorgeWashingtonLaserMusket glass isn't preferred because it is heavy and it breaks. that is the biggest issue with glass coming back

[@Real_MisterSir]

Take a look at the Nordic recycling system called "Pant". It's been in use for a century and is pretty much dealing with exactly this issue. The system requires that all recyclable bottles (plastic and glass included) have a letter marking (A, B, or C). The letter indicates the recycling value of the bottle. At every grocery store it is mandated to have a bottle sorting/recycling machine, works like a reverse vending machine. You feed it your used bottles, and it hands you a receipt for their recycling value. This receipt can then be used to pay with inside the grocery store you just recycled at. Basically this system introduces a small upfront recycle tax on bottles (15-40 cents depending on bottle size), and this tax is then refunded to you when you recycle your bottles. So essentially it comes at no overall cost to the consumer, and it greatly incentivizes people to recycle their high value plastic like this. Furthermore it completely removes the requirement to sort the high value plastic and glass at a sorting facility, there is no manual labor involved, the recycling machine does the job for you locally, and packages the recycled bottles on easy-to-transport pallets. It ensures a 100% perfectly sorted recycling system with no manual labor and without large sorting plants involved. And after having existed for over 100 years since its origin (1922), it's a tried and proven system that simply just works. More countries should look into this, as a start.

[@notreallyme425]

I work in the biz (won’t say who or I’ll get death threats) and I agree. Our life would be a lot easier if we could make all our products in the same color or clear. PS in white foam, PET and PP in clear, and a standard color for HDPE. The last one is what your detergent and Clorox bottles are made of. I say make them all in white and Tide can glue a red label on the bottle. It’s still Tide. Standardizing would increase recycling, reduce the cost to sort and process, and lower costs for producers and consumers. But a big part of the packaging is the marketing, and believe me it helps sell products. Our efforts to standardize go on deaf ears especially when the “other side” just wants us to go out of business. There’s a compromise in there that we can live with if people are willing to look for it.

[@eddyalienstudio7227]

Back in my Mother's day, they had Paper, Wax Paper and Glass Bottles. Wax Paper could be reused multiple times and Glass Bottles kept for Years and could easily be reused and recycled. Big Plastic didn't want to spend money on Glass because of pricing, but I feel like it could have easily help avoid micro-plastics from getting into our bodies and our oceans

[@gordonstewart5774]

Exactly! These are a few of my favorite things.

[@JPEight]

@@gordonstewart5774 As long as that string isn't synthetic!

[@MichaelZenkay]

Food for thought , glass is significantly more fragile and heavy than plastics. For transporting liquids, plastics are probably orders of magnitude more efficient.

[@anthonyperks2201]

I'm glad you raised the China-dumping thing. It is an ugly fact that this happened, and there are many other examples of rich countries using poorer countries as their dump yards. In order to ask poorer countries to be more responsible with their waste, carbon plastic or otherwise, we have to demonstrate that we practice what we preach.

[@horus2369]

I almost went to work for a startup company in 2015 that was designed to recycle plastic bottles back into petroleum products, but I ended up climbing cell towers instead. After 3 years working in oil fields all over Texas/Louisiana/gulf of Mexico, I'd had enough. We should go back to glass bottles and reusable milk jugs, etc. Also, why are we still making/selling/buying fountain drinks in Styrofoam or any plastic cup? We could eliminate plastic if we really wanted to.

[@michaelmoorrees3585]

The sad part about the plastic recycling controversy, is that in popular culture many people make the mistake of judging with broad brush, and apply it to everything that goes into the "Blue bin". This includes aluminum cans. As someone that has work in metal fabrication, I can tell you that unlike plastic, metal recycling is a very profitable business. Metal recycling is so profitable, that the crimes involving metal recycling, involve stealing metal items still in use. This includes catalytic converters, Copper wire & pipes in vacant houses, and aluminum window & door frames, from those same vacant houses. We use to make money selling our leftover scrap. The scrappers came to us. This include scrap steal, too. Making "new metal", from mined ore, is very energy intensive, while scrap takes only a fraction of that energy. With current gas prices, that energy cost has gone up, even more.

[@brad9529]

This is going sounds really stupid so I'm sorry, however, why doesn't the government ban single use plastic bottles, we already have an alternative, glass bottles and cans?

[@nemesis1588]

Glass is brittle and breaks easily, so you need a lot of it to make a sturdy bottle, as such glass bottles are very expensive to transport because they weigh so much. most glass waste gets put in landfills because it is not economical to transport it for recycling. i remember when SoBe and Snapple stopped using glass bottles. it just made them seam cheaper (and affected the taste as well imo). and metal is already relatively expensive. if you suddenly decided to switch everything even to the cheapest available metals the price of that metal would soar due to the sheer increase in demand. It all boils down to money. nobody wants to actually spend the money to build the necessary sorting facilities and properly pay workers to staff them, because raw polymers are orders of magnitude cheaper.

[@brad9529]

@@tracejohnson6611 It need only apply to the bottled drink industry for say anything less than 1.25 litres/42oz. Big bottle packaging generally uses the same amount of plastic as a small bottle (they often use the same Blank and expand it bigger) so start there for now and work up to bigger later. This alone would stop most of the plastic problem. (Problem of floating ocean plastic, from what I've seen a big chunk is coke bottles)

[@brad9529]

@@nemesis1588 Everything you said is as the mouthpiece for the plastic industry, I assume you are playing devils advocate. It would cause disruption of course, but that was the system once apon a time and it worked just fine, even if glass and aluminum isn't recycled and ends up in land fill it doesn't matter, both are natural materials, or at least not harmful, they are both the ultimate packaging material, that and the beverages tastes much better. I always buy coke in glass bottles when I can, its worth the extra cost for the taste, I'm not a hippie and use lots of plastic, but if I had no choice, then so be it.

[@nemesis1588]

@@brad9529 I'm not saying we shouldn't do something about I was just giving the reasons we don't. Transporting glass is expensive because all that extra weight requires additional energy to transport, which equals an increase in fuel consumption and greenhouse gas emissions. Glass is not the perfect packaging material unless all of our transportation is fusion powered..

[@brad9529]

@@nemesis1588 yeah I agree nothing is perfect, only humans disappearing from the planet would be close to perfect, but even with the disadvantages of glass, weight, cost, footprint, its still a better option. It would get cheaper to produce again once they ramp up production. Electric trucks in the future would offset some footprint. Encourage the use of aluminium bottle like they have in Japan, a can with a screw top lid.

[@TeslaEVolution]

Single use plastic should be BANNED as it is in Europe!! Including waterbottles... get filters. Single use Plastic bags should too be banned.

[@stapleman007]

Ban single use plastic bags, and sales of plastic bags goes up to compensate. I use my single use bags multiple times.

[@NazriBuang-w9v]

Lies again? Prime Cups Reduce Reuse Recycle

[@TheGibby13]

Believe me, the consumer still pays for the cost of plastic. Payment may have shifted onto the manufacturer but I see that reflected with an increased product price Great video as always! Love your channel

[@TheMyrkiriad]

Correct but the difference is that there is an incentive to lower the cost through competition if the cost is paid by the companies. If the regulation is well thought, cost reduction should mean less plastic thus be good for the environment.

[@eaaeeeea]

It has been so long due to start including the environmental cost to everything we buy. We can't live like kings if it means we destroy the only planet we have.

[@Joe-Dead]

@@rogerstarkey5390 welcome to greed and price gouging along with lack of regulation. capitalism has nothing to do with it...but hey, name any system that can't be gamed by greedy humans...i'll wait...as humans have been waiting for centuries for this magical system.

[@Shrouded_reaper]

@@rogerstarkey5390 Well you see, the vast majority of the reason of inflated price of goods stems directly from the government endlessly printing absurd amounts of money and has little to do with the economic system my commie friend.

[@Breadnought_]

@@TheMyrkiriad well thought out regulation? keep dreaming

[@SuperSaltydog77]

I heard much the same thing in a public tv show last year. It is more expensive to recycle old plastic than to use frash raw materials. Plastic waste gets sold and resold many times often ending up in third world countries in low lying flood prone areas and low income areas. Where the plastic waste get washed out to sea to float in the ocean until it degrades into plastic soup

[@thecrippledpancake9455]

What pisses me off is that at my college they have dumpsters and similar sized recycling bins. The dumpsters are brown and the recycling bins are blue and have a sign on them people what they can take. The number of idiots that throw their trash in the recycling bin makes me incredibly sad! Half the people that actually do it right are putting them in trash bags, trash bags that our recycling centers don’t accept. I’m guessing that everything just ends up in the landfill because our recycling goods are so contaminated.

[@matthewwallace5682]

I share your anger at the state of recycling (and waste as a whole). It seems the majority of people see it as someone else's problem and refuse to take the time to do even the smallest of things to help. I look forward to seeing some of these new methods make a real change on our planet. Thanks for great research!

[@cinilaknedalm]

Something that can only be recycled 3 times isn't a recyclable material. End of story. Single use plastic needs to go away big time.

[@Toobula]

Like Like Like 10,000 times! Excellent. One thing I observed during Covid was that "Reduce" went out the window. The bans on plastic bags and take-out containers seemed to vanish and I feel we took a big step back.

[@ardaghion]

I live in Cheyenne Wyoming, but out in the county. There’s pretty much no recycling for us. My wife wanted to recycle so we used to drive to the next state where a state drive up facility took plastics, glass, and paper/cardboard. When I worked out the cost of driving the 100mi round trip to recycle, as well as the recycling efficiency, I realized we were doing more damage recycling than dumping. We will now reduce as much as possible. For instance, even though soda in aluminum cans is usually more expensive per ounce than plastic bottles, aluminum is highly recyclable and the return offsets the extra cost by a little.

[@AuntJemimaGames]

Something tells me that once companies are made to actually cover the cost of the plastic waste they produce, they'll be all for recycling it!

[@tomaszszupryczynski5453]

sure imbecile, they will put that into price of product you buy. they always do

[@xxsnow_angelxx3953]

LMFAO aunty even gov demands people to pay, they blame us when they lied to us.

[@ThundaAaAaAaAaAh]

You are the one that will be paying for it, not companies

[@jcummins2177]

I was at Cape Cod a month ago, one of the towns banned plastic water bottles. The results were canned water. I’m not a “save the earth” or “hug a tree” guy. But I am sickened by the waste and I’m not a fan of plastic. I think going back to glass and metal containers would be the way to go.

[@just.jose.youtube]

"Reduce, re-use, recycle". There's simply no other way of "saving our planet" besides actually REDUCING the amount of useless crap we consume and buy. Period. But that puts money on no-one's pocket and we've been brain washed into buying everything we lay our eyes on, so there's that. Good video!

[@dominicm2175]

I have literally seen the local trash/garbage truck also dump the recycle bin into the same truck on multiple occasions when it is typically 2 completely separate trucks

[@davidwebb2318]

incinerating plastics is actually a good way to use it. It makes a very pure fuel because the materials in plastics are already highly refined. If burnt at over 650 degrees then it emits virtually no CO2 or greenhouse gases. Think of it this way, it is a really useful energy source that we managed to use as a useful product (as a plastic container) on the way to the power station. Thinking of it this way and you realise that we have actually managed to get two uses from all plastic which is used as a fuel in power stations. That is far better than most people think and loads better than putting it in landfill.

[@malcolm_in_the_middle]

We don't need to wait for a new material to reduce plastic: we can go back to wax paper for the vast majority of single-use plastic cases. This will also raise demand for wood, and therefore sustainable forestry.

[@dreamcreator2552]

When fees are charged to the plastic producer or user of plastic products the CONSUMER PAYS not the company. It might be a feel-good tactic but in the end the consumer always pays. Companies don’t reduce their profit margins when taxed more. Some years ago our company was trying to reduce waste hauling costs as we had a cardboard/paper dumpster and a garbage dumpster. The sales rep told us hey, “just go to one dumpster as cardboard is not recycled anymore…”. Still have the same single dumpster for cardboard, plastic, paper, food, aluminum cans etc. Yet the municipalities still have the masses with two garbage cans giving the impression recycling is still happening. It’s a good thing all of the conscientious citizens doing the home recycling have no idea their efforts are mostly in vain.

[@SoberAddiction]

The unfortunate thing is that even if you recycle correctly, the other people in your neighborhood might not and then the truck load is contaminated. So off to the landfill/incinerator it goes. A city near me has stopped their recycling program because it isn't working.

[@dissectingdiy]

This bums me out so much. I recycle like crazy. I’ve gone to beaches and loaded up my truck with all the plastic blowing around. We need to go back to glass and reuse the bottles by sterilizing them. Having a milk man again that drops off milk in the milk tin. Looks like our grandparents had a sustainable model. With solar it may be more sustainable today than before.

[@heidivanloosbroek8095]

Wow... it is so gratifying to FINALLY hear someone shedding light on this virtue signaling, deceptive LIE. We need real, HONEST solutions. It’s nice to see that there are companies trying to do just that. Hats off to Maine; hopefully, other states will soon follow their lead.

[@dumitrupogolsa7769]

What do you propose then?

[@dumitrupogolsa7769]

But, the author of the video states that ALL PLASTIC RECYCLING IS FAKE AND A BIG SCAM and you try to say that some companies do recycle for real? Bro, you must be ashamed!!!!

[@darkh0st]

@@dumitrupogolsa7769 Germany has one of the biggest recycling programs on earth and is only able to recycle ~30% of all “recyclables”.

[@dumitrupogolsa7769]

@@darkh0st So what? Do not recycle? It needs to get to 60%. This doesn't allow you to poison our planet.

[@shyamdevadas6099]

I'm glad that Americans are finally getting a clue about their need for "feel-good" environmentalism, versus the substantive type. I spent three years in China on business and during that time I got a chance to see some of this recycling up close. I was at a recycling center where a big Chinese-made machine used high-pressure jets of scalding water to wash plastic bottles and remove their labels. The bottles then went through a hot air dryer before entering a giant shredder that spits out tons of plastic confetti that were repackaged in huge bags for reuse. The problem was no one wanted to use it. My Chinese colleague (who got me on this tour under the pretense that I was interested in buying the machinery) told me how crappy the recycled confetti was and that it was only used to make disposable shopping bags...which are a bigger form of pollution than even bottles. That was nearly 15 years ago and it immediately made me realize that plastic recycling is mostly bullshit.

[@tokagekobushi]

The best path forward I've found @op, is circulen plastics. Particularly, to be able to take plastic and return it, not only to reusable PCR resin, but to feedstock, so that virgin resin can be made from the converted waste. To make it economically viable to take waste plastics, and then remake them into virgin polymer. The only way forward IMO (considering the amount of infrastructure already in place to process plastics that would likely need to be changed/retooled to work with other biological substitutes), is to make an economic incentive to recycling, and from what I've read circulen (at least, circulen revive) does that.

[@timothye.2902]

the best path forward with plastic is to heavily restrict when and where plastic can be used. Plastic is an incredibly versatile material. It's durable, easy to produce, easy to clean, and has a million and one functions. And when a plastic object is made properly and used for years (or even decades), the impact on the environment isn't that huge. The plastic that's killing the planet is the "disposable", single use plastic that exists (edit: exists in the economy, not the environment) for < 1 year. Stuff like plastic grocery bags, cutlery, and packaging, that becomes trash almost instantly after the consumer touches it. Outside of some highly specific circumstances (e.g. some kind of medical hygiene necessity), single use plastic should simply not exist. And consumers have little to no power to make that happen. Single use plastic bans need to happen at the legislative level. National/super-national governments need to make it happen, not me and my neighbours.

[@RuffStuff420]

A buddy of mine made a still in his backyard and uses it to turn plastic into deisel and gas. He runs his vehicles and lawnmower off what he makes almost exclusively. He actually goes to the dump and takes plastic from the recycling area. Also, why is no one in the US melting down plastic into garden pavers, retaining wall bricks, even building blocks for people to make sheds and such out of? They are doing this in South America and Africa, why aren't we? I'd love to buy a few pallets of garden pavers and building bricks so I can cheaply make my raised garden beds. and walkways.

[@BenRangel]

In parts of Sweden we used to have separate recycling for hard and soft plastic. But stopped. I guess it was not worth it. Had a marginal benefit since hard plastic is generally easier to recycle and sort through while soft plastic will often just become fuel. But it was quite a hassle for consumers since it was often unclear where to put semi soft things. I feel like it makes more sense to not bother with it unless it makes a significant difference. Instead focus on separating some more niche products. Like the bottle deposit system where only PET bottles are separated. That part is infinitely easier for both consumers and recycling plants.

[@jonglewongle3438]

An extremely high percentage of PET bottles, beverage and non-beverage, and also assorted other PET packaging, is now coming up as post-consumer recycled in Australia. And not just water bottles but carbonated beverages also. You get the volume streams right, you get the manufacturers on board, you get the hi-tech food grade standards operational, you get all the synergies in place, and there is industry and commerce to be had with post-consumer closed loop recycling. Rather than trying to circumvent that by breaking the material down to constituent component for re-diversion.

[@mikeciul8599]

I've heard that glass is also really hard to recycle, but it's easy to reuse! I'd like to see a world where everything is sold in mason jars, and it's easy to return empty mason jars for reuse.

[@jonglewongle3438]

I have noticed in the last few days that McDonalds clear plastic cups have been coming up as RE PET, that being recycled PET. Not merely ' recyclable ', but made from recycled material. I have come across 4 of those recently. Hopefully that is post-consumer recycling and not merely sugar cane resin by-product.

[@nonyadamnbusiness9887]

I have wondered for years why plastic bottles are not recycled into building materials similar to OSB. It should be cheaper and far more durable than OSB. As it is, I quit recycling because I got tired of finding a pile of stuff pulled out of the bins by the recycling company and just dropped on the ground beside the regular garbage can. They took out steel springs and aluminum brackets. That's when I stopped bothering with it.

[@todd8806]

UK company Recycling Technologies has developed a machine that can treat usually unrecyclable plastics and break them down into oil. The oil can then be sold back to industry for fuel or to create more plastics.

[@nathanielscreativecollecti6392]

Something I've always wondered is the impact micro-plastics have on food. How do they affect the taste? How unhealthy are they? Do they simply pass through the body if present? I can understand they could be a major issue but I want to better understand their mechanism.

[@RayMrRobert]

Did that incognito setup by following your link. Thank you. 105 data clearings are happening already. This is useful to me.

[@iowa_don]

We were also sold a bill of goods on lead acid battery recycling, a "global health hazard" according to the Yale School of the Environment. "We tend to think of recycling as an unalloyed good thing. But not the way it is done with lead in batteries."

[@ermakers1297]

Lot of people out there now figuring out how to use the PET bottles as material for their 3D printers too. Pretty easy to build a setup that processes the bottles into filament for printing with.

[@kenhyde1781]

It's pretty clear a lot of plastic packaging can be replaced with other products that are effectively 100% recyclable or can be used for compost. Also, plastic packaging should be moved away from sources that at not recyclable. Since some plastic containers are recyclable, then corporations and businesses should have incentives to use that kind of plastic. It is a bit of a puzzle why 2/3 of plastic that is manufactured cannot be re-used. A company called Trex makes a composite deck material that contains plastic. The decking material is warrentied for up to 50 years. A lot of plastic packaging can probably be replaced with non-plastic sources. For what remains, it appears to be a technology, engineering matter.

[@Financial_Awareness]

Really do hope we can implement new technologies like hemp-plastic…it can biodegrade in months not decades.

[@mcwolfbeast]

I think the way forward is what has been done in quite a few countries in Europe for decades: make people pay a stipend for each bottle they buy, which they get back if they properly recycle it. This incentivises people into making sure bottles are returned separately and not thrown in the trash. Recycling machines that automatically scan and sort the returned bottles are commonplace at each grocery store. This way, countries have been extremely successful in keeping different plastics separated, with PET being the biggest winner as it won't be contaminated by other plastics (non-PET would be rejected by recycling machines, or sorted in a different bin) and therefore allows recycling the same plastic many more times.

[@thomasmoss1066]

I accept your apology for when I had crazy people whom were invited to my house digging through my garbage to get the recyclables out. I thought better than explaining the reality of recycling to a recycle witness. It’s a damn religion to so many. I’m into repurpose and purchasing items that last and when recycle proves to be a benefit I will do that. When I was young they had glass bottles and we paid a deposit on each bottle which we got when we returned the bottles to the store and got reimbursed. Seems like so many things we’re figured out many years ago and then it all went to shit. Now we have brainwashed Harpee’s attacking people to ‘save the planet’ I don’t believe anything anymore until I deep dive into any subject matter. You can not trust anything. I have also heard in China I guess contractors would at times just dump the plastics into the ocean. Maybe that has stopped since China is not taking in as much plastic anymore. Sad to say KZbin is so much better than any news report on TV.

[@richwillis4966]

Im a garbage truck driver and most of it is people not recycling.. i see so much cardboard. plastic bottles and cans in the trash its crazy

[@sethleblanc4698]

I literally saw my waste management truck dump that trash can AND the recycling bin in the SAME truck.

[@charlessudom288]

Another great post! More people need to understand the lie about plastic recycling. Incineration may sound bad but it is definitely the least of the evils in dealing with our existing plastics. We definitely need to re-examine our plastic manufacturing processes and look at other alternatives t plastics in general.

[@jjirish2]

Great video. My wife has learned from myself, the impact of compost waste recycling. She and I currently produce 1.5, 13 gallon bags, of discarded waste a week. (While living in an apartment) I have been seeking ways to greatly reduce that output.

[@robrobason]

I think the most effective way to improve the situation is to inform consumers directly of the impact of their purchase choices, then let the market drive reform. To do that, I suggest the following: 1. Change the regulations so that only truly recyclable materials are labeled as such. From the video I think that was just types 1 and 2. This applies not just to plastics, but to other materials as well (I'm thinking of glass and paper products, for example}. 2. The regulations above could be expanded as well to require that package labeling include information about the recyclability of the product and packaging. For example, it's volume in landfill, biodegradation life, etc. This will put market pressure on businesses that choose non-recyclable materials for products and packaging. 3. Change rules for blue barrels used for recyclable pickups to comply with the new definitions in 1, above. This will keep non-recyclables out of the system to reduce wasteful cost of sorting. 4. Let consumers put market pressure on products and packaging that's non-recyclable.

[@moldyketchuphead]

When one reaches a certain level of holistic understanding and observation it can be seen that the solutions are there for this and many other major problems, but the real requirement for large scale sustainable change is some degree of enlightenment. That may sound a little woo woo, but it's only by stepping away from the ego that we can begin to see the bigger picture, to shift from human dysfunction to cooperation. And I mean cooperation with one another AND with nature. This video illustrates that well when you see that nature based solutions are likely the most optimal.

[@daubentons1]

The whole recycling market is a problem and one of the biggest misconceptions is the amount of it. Most systems set the percentage of recycling achieved by weight. That means 20 tons of waste bricks that are easy to sort and recycle and comes in on one lorry, is given the same recycling statistics as 20 tons of general or plastic waste of considerably greater volume and complexity. Remember with plastics too that whilst we think of bottles and foam cups etc, it also includes most modern waste carpets and a wide range of footwear and clothing. If these are heated, the oil used to make them can be sweated out for reuse but this is only generally viable for hard plastic types but more small units for doing this are coming onto the market. This oil content of plastics are why they burn so well and can be incinerated. Great video.

[@tenchuu007]

One of the most irritating things about 3D printing at home is proper disposal or recycling of the waste filament. PLA, the most common material, is derived from corn and touted as compostable. It isn't, outside of very specific high temperature industrial composters. In a backyard or tabletop powered composter it won't degrade at all. PET is an alternative, but it is notoriously finicky and difficult to work with. On top of that, both are often mixed with glycol (creating PETG) or other materials recyclers may consider contaminants. On top of all of that, there is no easy way to determine what a specific filament is without visual and tactile inspection up close. That means even if you send it to recycling it is 99% likely to be thrown out as better safe than sorry. Filament CAN be up cycled at home but it requires the purchase of an expensive set of machines, a significant amount of power, and six to ten feet of floorspace to make.

[@willardhunt7000]

Interesting, all our house hold waste is taken to a plant where it is sorted and all that can burn is used to make electricity. We used to recycled until there was no market, then we sought an alternative to a landfill.

[@postulatingspin4470]

You wanna do the right thing…but constantly get kicked in the nuts when you learn the truth. So, now I have an electric car…felt good at first, but soon I learned it just made things far worse. I’ve learned that most micro plastics in the food chain come from vehicle tires. My new electric car has a 20% weight penalty which increases tire wear by 20%, which consequently increases micro plastics on the roads by 20% via tire wear. Well, I can throw my plastic water bottle into a recycle bin, which generally goes to the landfill and gets buried and it’s not recycled, the excessive tire produced by my electric car run straight into the waterways around my house. I live on the coast, it all goes into the ocean. It makes me feel bad that I was so gullible and that I am hurting the environment and people in other countries who are enslaved by what I’ve done. Riding my bike more, but my work commute is 43 miles oneway.

[@jsnsk101]

We could make the beverage companies use glass bottles and take the empties back when they deliver new full ones to the store, then wash them out and reuse them. You know, like they did for decades up until the 80s.

[@bmw803]

We can start by going back to glass bottles for Soda. I'm 46 and soda was all sold in glass bottles back in the 80's. Also, how about the 1 time use containers? Can't they be somehow converted to either glass or "milk carton" type of container?

[@shadynovaihed5895]

Actual plastic recycler here, I have only come so far as to @04:14 in the video, but it is in my experience, that most plastics can in fact be recycled. The problems are: 1) Although a product is recyclable, doesn't mean it is easy to do so, example: water bottles are made of PET and the lids are made of PP or HDPE. 2) Businesses, governments, waste companies and people in general see plastic recycling centers as a free landfill area where they pay nothing, feel free on top about themselves and on top of that, they reckon, they are doing a favor to the recycler as obviously all recyclers are super rich (we are not).

[@visualcontrast]

The issue of putting the burden on Big Plastic and plastic manufacturers is that all the overhead and regulations required to enforce any burdens will only increase costs, which is then turned around and placed on the consumer in the checkout line. This is often overlooked - although yes, I agree the companies utilizing plastic have an obligation (even a moral obligation) to consider alternative strategies.

[@abdelrhmanhashem3256]

thank you for the episode it was amazing that plastic eating plastic is a real game changer I really hope scaling it up actually works and that algae and mushrooms solution is very awesome as will it will really make a difference i think if it is implemented right

[@JohanNordberg]

In Sweden PET bottles has a extra fee associated with the bottle that you get back when you recycle it. And because of that fee bottles get thrown in the regular trash or recycle bin. And many homeless people actively collect them for some extra money. Coca Cola says that there bottle is made from 100% recycled plastic. They claim their Swedish factory was the first of its kind. Not sure if it’s true or not. I would like to know more how well other types of plastic is recycled here and how different kinds of packages are sorted. A very hard thing with reducing plastic packaging is that metal or glass is more energy intensive to produce and also weighs more making transport emit more co2. I’m not convinced switching back to glass bottles would improve climate crisis.

[@M.N.Baxter]

I have noticed that as years go by “high quality” fabrics and clothes being made of synthetic materials, the cost for genuine quality clothes cost so much now. You also have to look out side of made in china to get better material.

[@chrispound4759]

Was an Engineering Manager for the largest plastic bag mfg. They know plastic is not recycled. Not to mention the polymer chains break down when recycled.

[@saumyacow4435]

Recycled plastic has its uses. For example it can be processed and used in road pavement - or provide carbon for steel making. But very often its not fit to be reused in its original role. The technology I am interested in (and was hoping to see in this video) is the technology that takes the plastic back to its basic chemistry. So it can be infinitely recycled. The most extreme form is of course pyrolysis back to H2 and CO - from which basically anything can be synthesised. I'd also like to see the link being made to renewable energy. Renewable energy produces cheap "excess" energy that can be used in industrial processes that need cheap energy - which includes this form of recycling. Heck, cheap energy makes it possible to dig up and completely reprocess landfills.

[@HylanderSB]

Penn and Teller blew the lid on this many years ago.

[@GeorgeCoghill]

Recycling was the most ingenious marketing campaign of all time. Have to give the plastics companies credit for that.

[@edward9643]

I live in New Zealand and I'd heard the talk that because China no longer takes plastic waste all plastic is now dumped in land fill. So I googled the issue- and either the New Zealand authorities are telling bald faced lies OR our plastic waste is being recycled here and is turned into all sorts of useful products

[@leokaloper4132]

By all means, it SURELY is (at least) a bit eco friendlier to dump pet bottles with other pet bottles in a community that probably won't see videos on this topic, THAN throwing them with all the trash. I found a restaurant in my city (sure there are pretty many more) that (understandably) does not care (and aboveall has no TIME) to take PET stuff to the appropriate location. So, I do it on their behalf, every say 10 days. When people see me on the stret carrying bottles all tied using a shoelace passed through the handles and holding them at the knot, some ask me where the heck are you taking these, I answer, to my weekend house with plot to collect rainwater to water my plants. Most find it a jaw dropping idea.

[@wilomica]

Marketplace a CBC show already covered this. That you confirmed their information is nice.