zerowaste

Every time I hear someone complain about a single tiny piece of plastic on the ground or someone uses slightly more than needed cling wrap, all I can think of is the couple of warehouses I used to work in a couple jobs ago.

Everything comes on pallets wrapped in about a dozen layers of cling wrap. 8-10ft tall pallets.

Every box gets opened, the items pulled out of a large plastic bag, each item wrapped in its own plastic bag.

Those items get put in other boxes, stacked on a different pallet, and wrapped in another dozen layers of plastic wrap.

The pallets get moved to a temporary spot for a few hours, then someone comes up and curs all the wrap off. Moves the boxes onto 4 other pallets, and each of those goes to a separate forklift driver who puts them on shelves.

When the item leaves, it's placed in plastic bags, then a box, then goes on a pallet that gers wrapped in a dozen layers of plastic wrap. Onto the truck for shipping elsewhere.

They have a truck that comes twice a day to replace a shipping container filled with plastic.

So much plastic, every day, all day, they only close for Christmas and 4th of July.

Am I still going to use anything but plastic wherever possible? Sure. Am I still going to pick up that piece of plastic and put it in the recycling bin? Absolutely.

Companies suck and will blame you for their shitty treatment just like every abuser does.

Yes, you can recycle plastic. Yes, its complex due to different types and grades of it. The only responsibility of the consumer is to put it into the right bin.

Yes, the corporations creating plastic products should do more. It doesn't have to be financially feasible to recycle it, It needs to be ecologically feasible and companies producing plastic products should pay the recycling toll.

We can also just burn it for energy like we do with tires... I recycle it like a good little cog in the machine because even if 5% of it gets back into product and not into my penis, is a win.

Me rinsing the yogurt container before putting it in the recycling bin vs reading that a Belgian airline had 3000 empty flights just to keep airport slots

https://www.independent.co.uk/travel/news-and-advice/brussels-airlines-empty-flights-lufthansa-b1987187.html

One of the many other problems with recycling besides this tidbit, is the fact that most people don't even follow the first two instructions before recycling. Nobody reuses anything and nobody has reduced their consumption.

I used to recycle, then I moved out on my own and found out I have to pay extra for it.

Should be paid for by these corporations, imo.

Recycling is chemically possible at very high temperatures and pressures; it's just energy intensive and wasn't financially feasible until just about now, when solar energy can offer cheap energy.

We'll see how this will develop in the future. For the point of oil consumption (and therefore CO2 emission), plastics is only like 3% of oil consumption anyways (other 97% is fuel for vehicles). For the point of pollution, you don't need recycling, just collecting and combusting at high temperatures (to fully oxydize it and not leave any toxic fumes.

what's the fix?

Too far. Too far.

It's on now.

This is why I need to remember the based takes I had when I was young.

I always thought it was silly that we were told to recycle because, who could do anything with an old half-melted plastic bottle of coke? But I assumed the people who owned the companies knew something I didn't.

I still recycle because it's just the right thing to do, but... I wonder what other lies I accidentally called.

Plastic can be recycled. Adding high quality synthetic oil into poor quality plastic can completely restore it's potential for use. HOWEVER! The main and mind consuming problem with plastic: plants can't grow in microplatics. Test it out, grind up plastic, put it in a bowl, and plant a seed in it, use growth hormones, use plant food, use whatever you like. The plant will sprout and die shortly after. It will never flower. Meaning once the Earths soil becomes statistically enough microplastic particles, crops won't grow, any new plants in nature will never reach maturity. Complete decaying death of the natural world because a purified compound that is incompatible with life, has been ground up and spread all over the globe. That's the fear of microplastics. That and the long term impact on people that get exposed to high enough concentrations that plants can't grow... Likely dehydrate to death as the body won't be able to absorb micro plastic laden water. You can also test that at home, but I do not recommend drinking micro plastic heavy water to see what it might be like for your grand kids.