Why Plastic Recycling Isn’t Working

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Does plastic recycling actually work because plastic pollution is everywhere? From Mount Everest to the bottom of our oceans. In this episode, Andy decides to track his plastic waste to figure out where it ends up in the hopes of answering this question, and this journey leads him somewhere he didn't expect.
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Faultline is produced by:
Executive Producer/Story Editor/Host: Andy Burgess
Story: Jennifer Landrey & Andy Burgess
Research: Jennifer Landrey
Senior Producer: Anjali Sharma
Editors: Andy Burgess
Motion Graphics: Jatin Nahata
Consultant:
Erica Cirino
‪@BrothersMake‬ Jonny Browning & Matt Browning
Find out more about Live Love Recycle and The Ocean Clean Up here:
liveloverecycl...
theoceancleanu...
Music from Musicbed // fm.pxf.io/c/24...
Sources 🔗
www.ncbi.nlm.n...
www.statista.c...
ourworldindata...
www.sciencemus....
tnmuseum.org/j....
www.unep.org/n...
www.theguardia...
www.npr.org/20...
www.nytimes.co...
www.theguardia...
ourworldindata...
ourworldindata...
www.gov.uk/gov...
theoceancleanu...
education.nati...
www.nationalge...
Time Stamps:
0:00: Is Plastic Recycling a Lie?
1:31: I'm so confused...
2:22: Putting AirTags in my recycling to track it.
3:30: Am I obsessed with plastic?
4:07: The origins of plastic.
5:50: Plastic bag hype.
7:06: Maybe plastic isn't so cool.
8:30: The highjacking of the recycling symbol.
10:38: How much plastic waste do we produce?
13:07: The Global Waste Industry, explained.
16:00: A country that can't manage it's waste.
17:18: How plastic ends up in our oceans.
18:28: Following the plastic tracker to find out where it's ended up.
20:11: The Great Pacific Garbage Patch.
21:49: Why does so much plastic end up here?
23:00: How do we live with plastic?
#recycling #plastic

[@Faultlinevideos]

Hey everyone, this is the last video of 2023, we hope you enjoyed it. Whether this is your first video or your 20th, thank you for supporting our work this year! We've had an incredible one you helped us cross 100K subscribers and we created multipul on the ground stories, whilst I also rasing a newborn baby! 🤯We're going to be taking the next few weeks off to enjoy the holidays. We're so excited for 2024 and we'll be back mid January with a new video. Here's a clue 🍅 leave some funny title suggestions in the comments below 👇 Happy holidays! - Andy & the Faultline team.

[@tims9434]

You're really good at making these documentaries. Very impressive

[@BrothersMake]

Brilliant video mate! Glad we could help share some insight. Would love to see the AirTag experiment done on a BIG scale! 👍🏽

[@gmclucy]

this is horrifying, how are you supposed to avoid all this plastic from harming your health?

[@DJB01]

Unfortunately, we can’t, but we can start the process of dealing with our trash for future generations.

[@lowwastehighmelanin]

You can't. It's already having an effect

[@thomasdam9916]

You can't. And turns out microplastics are not only found in food and water, but even in the air you breathe

[@ItsMeChillTyme]

It is an inert material for the most part. A microplastic doesn't have enough to offgas because it is so small and amount determines the poison for everything. Think of it this way, if you drink 1 litre of water vs. 100 litres of water in a day or carbon dioxide for the breathing case. The risk with eating plastic or wearing it depends on not the plastic but the chemicals used in manufacturing. Phtalates, etc. The internet like always is losing their minds about it without thinking about it too much.

[@cuttinaboot]

You can’t it’s in your blood, it’s in your bone marrow

[@wreakhavoc1001]

This is an incredible storytelling of the realities of plastic waste and the responsibility that we all have to prevent it at the source.

[@punkdigerati]

The resin identification code purposefully looks like the recycling symbol but is *not* the recycling symbol.

[@muscato0083]

Incredibly high quality video. Hope this channel continues to produce such content and gains more success in 2024! 🙂

[@av_oid]

Most waste plastic may be best burned to generate electricity, reducing the use of coal, oil or gas. That’s because the energy needed for recycling of many plastics is approaching or exceeding the energy needed for its original production.

[@RuiEspinha]

Would this actually work? Doesn't burning plastic release hazardous chemicals?

[@rizkyadiyanto7922]

​@@RuiEspinhawe can filter the smokes and other dangerous byproducys and turn them into ash. then bury those ash to make a new island. this is what singapore do.

[@benmcreynolds8581]

This is what I hope we start seeing places do because this so-called approach we are currently doing is not working. I'd much rather we attempted this other option

[@osnisida]

Sweden and Japan does this approach and are strict with filtering emissions

[@McSwirlywirly]

@@benmcreynolds8581exactly and the patches are gonna kill us because of the oceans and how they produce 66% of the oxygen we breathe in

[@apoco_lips9957]

This is such a tough problem but there are some good solutions that need expanding

[@veggieboyultimate]

Plastic pollution is no joke.

[@gustavomarques2997]

You're videos are amazing man!

[@ISureDont]

The worst part about all of this is we don’t even know how far reaching the health hazards from all of these chemicals is. It’s getting to where microplastics are making their way into our cells. That means our bodies are slowly becoming plastic. These microscopic plastic bits disrupt every biological process. I’d be willing to say that the huge spike in depression and anxiety could be correlated to the chemicals we’re exposed to everyday. Think about it for a second. Even the clothing we wear is primarily plastic. Our shoes. What we drink water from. Our food. Our cars. Medications are mostly plastic. Our children get the worst of it. Every pencil, bookbag, book, snack, drink, toys. Blankets, pillows, sheets. We are constantly wrapped in plastic. Everything we touch and consume is toxic to life. Coupled with the mass extinction event currently happening this will end up being the single most devastating product in the history of the planet. And we can’t do anything to stop the production. All we can do is stop buying it but absolutely everything has plastic. How do you avoid it when half the time it’s not even mentioned on labels. Almost everything we can buy has lead and plastic in it.

[@nicolascommisso3151]

One thing that bugged me was you telling you're cleaning your food plastic waste as you're told to. Is it really a thing in the UK ? Here in France (or at least where I'm living) we're explicitly told not to, because it's a huge waste of water. Plastics are instead washed at our processing facility.

[@Think-dont-believe]

😂😂Sure it is.. and why save water? I thought we had so much excess fresh water it is gonna raise sea levels? Building dams and transporting the fresh water cld supply the world w as much water as we need and prevent the rise and much much less expensive then the billions being spent …..

[@13ccasto]

We really need to ban or tax the living shit out of single-use plastic

[@sylviohache3467]

Amazing video. Well made, everything sounds right to me.

[@Sierrawavemp4]

We don't have a plastic management problem. we have a waste management problem. even if we get rid of our plastics by putting a halt on their consumption + usage, it will never solve the issue of garbage pollution where trash is still littered everywhere. One of the best ways to fix this issue is not through segregation by instated policy but through daily collecting and proper disposal of our wastes. I even see some people nowadays still burn their waste just because these dump trucks that were commissioned by our local government, barely move. and if they do, they only move once a week to do collection and sometimes they don't at all! Nowadays, people advocate for the removal or the prohibition of using plastics and they are ineffective towards making a greener please, just because they overlook on a bigger spectrum of the issue, which is waste management.

[@sobyeski]

Great vid. If I had one small criticism I feel some more focus on the "reduce" of part of "reduce, reuse, recycle" could have bene explored more. Especially when Coca Cola is the worlds largest plastic polluter.

[@Krill_all_health_insuranceCEOs]

Banning all new consumer-use plastics is a great step forward. I really wish govts would do it.

[@ItsVasl]

wow, this deserves at least 100k views. I love this!

[@amethyst49ergurl]

The music is everything ❤❤❤❤

[@CraigMilesYoutube]

Interesting video. I learnt a lot. Thank you.

[@lexinexi-hj7zo]

We need to make a not for profit that buys tons of air-tags puts them in the bin and see where they go. A sample size of is interesting but imagine 1000 per US state all going into the blue bin divided up with 1-7 plus a durable (PLASTIC!) 3d printed that will make the air tag indestructible until incineration.

[@WalterBurton]

Conspiracy is a difficult charge to support when the product is so universally transformative for the quality of life of literally every human being. plus, the thing is, they didn't to sell it that hard. Not for long, at least. And they quickly realized that plastic sells itself. There's no evil capitalist conspiracy here. Well, depends on how you look at those who knew better, but didn't say anything. It boggles the mind that Western electorates to this day don't understand the relationship between plastics and petroleum. Point being, let's not be too hard on ourselves. Let's always strive to be better (be progressive), but let's not condemn the past too quickly. Because that has a profound effect on the present. It's, kinda----. I guess, just be thoughtful about who your audience is, and about making distinctions, where necessary. A lot of us from back then are still alive, you know?

[@natkat202]

Check out Climate Town’s channel on recycling and everything climate change related. He goes deep into the myths behind the carbon footprint which was made up by oil companies to pass the blame onto the consumer. It’s a great channel!

[@Anduuu077]

why does this video only has 14k views? This is such a good videow

[@GalaxyMusicInc]

what a bangin video jeez

[@jeffthekillercriticremixer5968]

Some countries did find a bacteria that actually degrades plastic😊 budget set such a slow rate is only the start as far as that maybe making plastic that can be safely burned might be an option temporarily. But this plastic problems and the contamination of the ocean is going to be the downfall of man

[@bbd121]

Why doesn't KZbin recommend your documentaries to me anymore? What's wrong with KZbin?

[@ChrisS1mp]

Kettering mentioned POG

[@thogameskanaal]

23:28 Asterix

[@cuddlepaws4423]

We have seen other clips relating to this, and the plastics manufacturers are trying to push the blame onto the consumer, but they are the ones who actually make the stuff. Also, the fossil fuel industry is branching into making more and more plastic in an effort to shift more product as we move from combustion engines to electric. The old saying, 'Don't shit where you eat', doesn't seem to apply to us humans, does it?

[@UndeadKIRA]

Please fix audio, music too loud, cant hear you

[@r3dpuma]

Reycling

[@dissonantdreams]

Prohibitated 😛

[@tims9434]

Prepostrious

[@Krill_all_health_insuranceCEOs]

Sounds like 🔥 is the far better choice than the landfill for plastic.

[@Michael-yi4mc]

Convert the beverage container nickel fee and make it non refundable and use that money to clean up the plastic pollution. Don’t expect people to separate their trash. That’s the government’s job.

[@CatsOfMarrakech]

Reselling not recycling the waste commodity. They just sell it on or burn it. Recycling really is just waste that's not landfilled as we reckon

[@harrishartman]

in the end, up to us as the plastic user. use it wisely.

[@Comrade725]

Good video

[@tims9434]

The single use plastic should be burnt not recycled as recycling it doesn't produce reusable plastic. Plastic should be made to be reused not recycled

[@leanneambil1142]

Only nine percent of plastic are recycled, highlighting struggling waste systems, especially in poor countries. Hence demands for better infrastructure, reduced plastic usage and more innovative solutions are looked upon in combating pollution.

[@WalterBurton]

Pete and Repeat were sitting in a tree. Pete fell off, so who was left?

[@Krill_all_health_insuranceCEOs]

It's time to ban the manufacture of new single-use plastics.

[@michaelhiggins9188]

This is a very interesting video. I like the idea of following the plastic recycling with an air-tag (although technically you aren't supposed to do this). I wish it had given a clearer answer to what happens. I am pretty sure that plastic waste is landfilled in the US and that is okay because it won't be burned and make co2 and it won't wind up in the ocean. Plastic is very hard to recycle and most plastic recycling is just wish-cycling for the reasons you pointed out. Dealing with ocean pollution is a big issue and I think it is disappointing that the US doesn't see it as our responsibility. Reducing the four pounds of waste that we use in the US down to 2 or less seems like a reasonable start. It should be easy. Everything we buy has too much packaging on it.

[@lowwastehighmelanin]

This is a poor take. It gets into the soil and underground aquifers instead. L take.

[@TDesil5000]

The US doesn't see it as our problem because we account for less than 1% of ocean plastics. The vast majority comes from Asia.

[@jmillar71110]

​@@TDesil5000the US contributes the most plastic out of all countries. Each person in the US produces the equivalent of 130kg plastic waste each per year. You should very much see it as your problem.

[@TDesil5000]

@jmillar71110 If we are talking about ocean plastic, then no, it is not our problem because we do not cause it. If we are talking about plastic in general yes we have a problem. But we also have a solution that involves plant based packaging that is fought by environmentalists aswell.

[@Think-dont-believe]

@@TDesil5000large waste companies came together 10 yrs ago and said offering recycle means we have to recycle a percentage. Since we don’t recycle we pay another country that doesnt have regulations to take it. They dump it in ocean or burn it. Our landfills are becoming parks etc and best for now. Every red bin is damaging the ocean. The county and HOA came back and said offering recycling was non-negotiable and if they were not gonna offer it then they wld find a company that did and many comments stated how disappointed they were that recycling was not most important. Their comments are so telling. Paper bags, paper straws, recycle bins and trash are all about displaying recycling.., not care for environment.,, it’s obvious plastic straw in paper wrapper used all night is better then 20 paper straws in plastic wrap. Just like plastic bags which get reused for pets, trash cans etc . Now sale of small trash bags n pet waste bags has exploded

[@dogsoljer]

Come on to my podcast Andy , this would be a great subject for a show

[@OldManDave1960]

There is NO “Great Pacific Garbage Patch”. It’s a lie.

[@BoboSLO1]

Why the fck just 7 000 views?? 😢

[@lowwastehighmelanin]

I was watching this while tidying my pill bag. Discovered that the container for my migraine tablets shattered. That "shatterproof" quality is a boldfaced lie. Gimme a foilpack any day...

[@oskarsbambalis1766]

То что нельзя переработать нада жыгать . Только беда что жигать все дишевле чем перерабатавать и жигать

[@mactire6045]

Total fuckin fugazi...