Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
Those paper bags are very bulky and much heavier. 10 bags likely takes up the same volume of space as 100 plastic bags. That all makes it more expensive and a less economical choice. You have to ship them... Paper obviously costs more. You have to store them... You will be utilizing your limited space less efficiently, costing you more, if you choose paper. Also, think of the trees
I live in a town of 8,000. Our recycling center runs 40 hours a week and can't keep up with just cardboard. They quit recycling plastic because no one would take it.
According to the report, here are the five reasons that plastic recycling has failed.
Mechanical and chemical recycling of plastic waste has largely failed and will always fail because plastic waste is: (1) extremely difficult to collect, (2) virtually impossible to sort for recycling, (3) environmentally harmful to reprocess, (4) often made of and contaminated by toxic materials, and (5) not economical to recycle.
Paper, cardboard, metal, and glass do not have these problems, which is why they are recycled at much higher rates.
Note #5... can't make any money on recycling plastic.
I actually said recycling items other than glass, paper, and metals were a waste of time over three years ago.
Well, good on you.
Now, how about applying yourself now to working toward increasing awareness that the plastics are being pushed upon us needlessly in many cases -- where materials that could be recycled were used in the past? Perhaps use your know how and intelligence toward advocating for packaging consumer goods as they were before plastics?
Most plastic simply cannot be recycled, a new Greenpeace USA report concludes. Circular Claims Fall Flat Again, released today, finds that U.S. households generated an estimated 51 million tons of plastic waste in 2021, only 2.4 million tons of which was recycled.
The report also finds that no type of plastic packaging in the U.S. meets the definition of recyclable used by the Ellen MacArthur Foundation’s New Plastic Economy (EMF NPE) Initiative.
...
“Corporations like Coca-Cola, PepsiCo, Nestlé, and Unilever have worked with industry front groups to promote plastic recycling as the solution to plastic waste for decades. But the data is clear: practically speaking, most plastic is just not recyclable. The real solution is to switch to systems of reuse and refill.”
The answer is always regulations.
According to the report, here are the five reasons that plastic recycling has failed.
Mechanical and chemical recycling of plastic waste has largely failed and will always fail because plastic waste is: (1) extremely difficult to collect, (2) virtually impossible to sort for recycling, (3) environmentally harmful to reprocess, (4) often made of and contaminated by toxic materials, and (5) not economical to recycle.
Paper, cardboard, metal, and glass do not have these problems, which is why they are recycled at much higher rates.
Note #5... can't make any money on recycling plastic.
I actually said recycling items other than glass, paper, and metals were a waste of time over three years ago.
Our area quit recycling glass because it cost too much. The still recycle plastic and cardboard.
Sweden recently cut down 14 million trees to set up a wind farm,
Hopefully they used the wood for something useful. Their forests are made up mostly of pine and birch, which grows fast. Not even worth shedding a tear over, especially since they have a huge amount of forests.
Trees should be thought of as a completely renewable resource, so long as more trees are planted in their place. Things like plastic are made from petrochemicals, which is considered non renewable according to modern day western science.
Please register to post and access all features of our very popular forum. It is free and quick. Over $68,000 in prizes has already been given out to active posters on our forum. Additional giveaways are planned.
Detailed information about all U.S. cities, counties, and zip codes on our site: City-data.com.
Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
