I’ve said for a very long time that there’s sensible recycling — like batteries, computer parts, paint, used oil, etc. — and then there’s what everybody actually does, which is to recycle paper, plastic, glass, and such, which is mostly a waste of time.
But recycling is largely immune to rational criticism or consideration. It’s an object of faith. It’s a way to show that you care. It’s virtue signalling.
Never mind that most plastic can’t be recycled, despite the little labels they put on there.
And now, despite brother Raccoon’s testimony above, even NPR says it’s a waste of time. It was all a conspiracy by the plastics companies to make people feel better about creating so much plastic waste.
“Oh, I’m not creating waste. It’s being recycled.”
No. It’s being shipped to China where they throw it in the ocean.
I’m optimistic about recycling long-term. Ultimately I expect improvements in nanotech to make bulk reprocessing automatic and thus viable. I know it’s not popular to say that profit-hungry materials physics companies and arrogant grad students are going to do more for the health of the planet than millions of well-meaning people sorting their plastics from their papers, but it’s probably true.
Or we might become grey goo. Who knows?
Oh, I’m sure we’ll have nanotechnology that will eat our garbage and turn it into compost. But for now, recycling plastic is a big public relations stunt.
The article says recycling plastic is a waste of time. Appears to have originated as a scam of corporate America telling us it could be recycled.
When I was a kid, we had a local soda manufacturer that only sold in their single purpose stores and you’d make deposits on the bottles and receive the deposit back on trade in. I’m pretty sure their recycling was more of a wash the glass bottle. I don’t see why glass bottles can’t be recycled that way still.
I also see many products that are made out of recycled paper.
For many, many years I washed, sanitized and re-used beer bottles for my homebrew. (Now I usually keg, but sometimes I use bottles.)
My problem with recycling is the same as my problem with so many other things these days. It’s more about politics and propaganda than it is about reality.
If I believed I was helping by recycling bottles or paper or whatever, I’d be happy to do it. But as far as I can tell it’s mostly virtue signaling nonsense — with the exception of the things I mentioned before: paint, oil, batteries, computer parts. Those things really do need to be recycled.