Reposted from a few days ago... incredibly relevant to this post.
I urge you to stop believing in recycling.
Here's some things to think about:
The "packaging" industry, is in fact a nice way of saying the "garbage manufacturing" industry.
At least in Australia, the "recycling industry" is owned by the "packaging industry". Hmmm.. why is that? It put it to you that the garbage manufacturing industry has in fact worked out how to "own" the environmental movement by pushing "recycling" as the "balance" to the spewing forth of garbage from the packaging industry. The packaging industry must be laughing so hard at how easily it has owned the environmental movement.
Have you ever wondered if all that packaging you put in your recycle bin gets recycled? It's a question worth thinking about.
I have come to believe that recycling, which environmentalists embrace deeply as a core value, is in fact just a smokescreen that allows everyone to feel OK about the garbage manufacturing industry creating an unending quantity of plastics that have made their way into every nook and cranny of our ecosystem.
Please, stop believing in recycling.... if you recycle, then you do not question the unbelievable, and unrecyclable, quantity of plastic packaging that you consume.
One you stop believing in recycling, you start to ask the question, "why the heck do we permit the packaging industry to create this unstoppable flow of garbage"
Seems to me that world MUST eventually move to a solution which is a set of standardised containers for all products, which are durable, washable, have a refund value attached, and may have paper corporate brand stuck on them after being washed.
Another strategy worth bringing forward is the idea of "garbage brands"..... showing off all those precious brands but in their true context... as garbage in our creeks, rivers and oceans, drains and footpaths. Once brands start to become associated with garbage, they might rethinkg whether they want their names and logos on the digusting mess destroying our environment.
Please, stop believing in recycling and the smokescreen will clear and you will start to ask questions about the packaging industry and our community/commercial system that supports it.
Asbestos, tobacco, sugary foods, packaging - all industries that have fooled us into believing things that are wrong but served their own ends. The packaging industry has fooled us into thinking that it is OK because recycling exists.
Our household waste stream is quite low (UK). Less than a small carrier bag per week of what basically boils down to plastic wrapping and lids. Most of which is unnecessary.
All our food wastes, cardboards, poor quality papers, (pretty much anything the worms will eat) ends up in the compost heap. Nature is a good recycler in that regard.
Our recycling bin is mainly full of glass and metal. These packaging materials do feel rather extravagant, but at least they are simple mostly non-composite materials. I still don't understand how and why it's worth recycling a Tetrapak.
While I agree many plastics are probably better burnt for energy rather than shipping them to China; buying into incinerators just perpetuates this rubbish packaging industry.
Simple compostable packaging is certainly a swaying factor for me when buying a food item.
> which environmentalists embrace deeply as a core value
Environmentalists say "reduce, re-use, recycle" - recycling is the last, worst, option in this phrase. Reducing the stuff you buy being the first, best, option.
I don't disagree with the point you are trying to make, but how else would you expect the concept of recycling to work?
So, let's take Visy, in the context of this post, they are in the business of waste disposal, recycling, and packaging. For their packaging business, they turn raw materials into packaging. For cardboard, that's either dead trees or recycled/reprocessed cardboard.
So they either pay for brand new raw materials or recycled materials. They decide to skip the middle man and setup a plant, negotiate contracts with councils/governments and take peoples waste so they can turn it into packaging.
That's what recycling is. It's not magic. If there is no one/business on the other end to consume or process it, it's not recycling, it just garbage and goes to a land fill.
I'm just using cardboard as an example because it's easier to grok (trees/cardboard etc), but over the last 5 years there has literally been occasions where the price of brand new cardboard has been lower than recycled cardboard. So yes, sometimes this the recycling industry is all sorts of fucked, but if you don't have industry/business/consumer on the other end of this recycling equation it's worthless.
It's refreshing to spend time in the undeveloped world and see how glass bottles are re-used hundreds or thousands of times, how many things you buy don't come wrapped in plastic and how people simply buy less crap.
In order of importance - Reduce, re-use, recycle.
The developed world is just now catching on to the worst of the three.
Another reason to not recycle is that recycling is to protect local environments from immediate short term damage. A bigger environmental problem is global warming and I don't think recycling help with that at all. If anything, it seems like it would make it worse by reducing the amount of oil needed to make plastic, thus keeping the demand and price low so more of it can be burnt cheaply instead.
How about we convert as much oil as we can into plastic, bury it in the ground for a few 100s of years and stop worrying?
China invests in Africa. This is both an economic (coltan, and trade) decision, and a political (influence, votes in the UN) decision.
Now, it looks like it might be a shrewd environmental decision, if you are a province in China with a huge pollution problem from plastics recycling. Voila! export the problem to Africa. .. (not saying this is good in any sense, but it would make sense as an operating model: its what we did to them, so they do it to the next emerging colonial empire)
Why the fxxk you drew conclusion like this? It has nothing to do with Chinese domestic wastes. It is about wastes used to ship to China. There are many other countries has been the dump field for west for so many years. India for example. Yes, Africa. If China has been processing imported wastes for a very long time, they should be able to process domestic wastes for some time. I am Chinese, and I get very annoyed that for any title with 'China' in it, you just draw negative conclusion from it which has nothing to do with the article.
They are above it. In a turn up their noses and leave it to the third world to do the dirty work sort of way. Burning plastic is regulated in the EU, using recycled plastic is basically forbidden due to the risk of contamination with lead and other toxic chemicals. It's like the king who is above cleaning his toilet.
[+] [-] andrewstuart|8 years ago|reply
I urge you to stop believing in recycling.
Here's some things to think about:
The "packaging" industry, is in fact a nice way of saying the "garbage manufacturing" industry.
At least in Australia, the "recycling industry" is owned by the "packaging industry". Hmmm.. why is that? It put it to you that the garbage manufacturing industry has in fact worked out how to "own" the environmental movement by pushing "recycling" as the "balance" to the spewing forth of garbage from the packaging industry. The packaging industry must be laughing so hard at how easily it has owned the environmental movement. Have you ever wondered if all that packaging you put in your recycle bin gets recycled? It's a question worth thinking about.
I have come to believe that recycling, which environmentalists embrace deeply as a core value, is in fact just a smokescreen that allows everyone to feel OK about the garbage manufacturing industry creating an unending quantity of plastics that have made their way into every nook and cranny of our ecosystem.
Please, stop believing in recycling.... if you recycle, then you do not question the unbelievable, and unrecyclable, quantity of plastic packaging that you consume. One you stop believing in recycling, you start to ask the question, "why the heck do we permit the packaging industry to create this unstoppable flow of garbage" Seems to me that world MUST eventually move to a solution which is a set of standardised containers for all products, which are durable, washable, have a refund value attached, and may have paper corporate brand stuck on them after being washed.
Another strategy worth bringing forward is the idea of "garbage brands"..... showing off all those precious brands but in their true context... as garbage in our creeks, rivers and oceans, drains and footpaths. Once brands start to become associated with garbage, they might rethinkg whether they want their names and logos on the digusting mess destroying our environment.
Please, stop believing in recycling and the smokescreen will clear and you will start to ask questions about the packaging industry and our community/commercial system that supports it. Asbestos, tobacco, sugary foods, packaging - all industries that have fooled us into believing things that are wrong but served their own ends. The packaging industry has fooled us into thinking that it is OK because recycling exists.
[+] [-] keypress|8 years ago|reply
Our household waste stream is quite low (UK). Less than a small carrier bag per week of what basically boils down to plastic wrapping and lids. Most of which is unnecessary.
All our food wastes, cardboards, poor quality papers, (pretty much anything the worms will eat) ends up in the compost heap. Nature is a good recycler in that regard.
Our recycling bin is mainly full of glass and metal. These packaging materials do feel rather extravagant, but at least they are simple mostly non-composite materials. I still don't understand how and why it's worth recycling a Tetrapak.
While I agree many plastics are probably better burnt for energy rather than shipping them to China; buying into incinerators just perpetuates this rubbish packaging industry.
Simple compostable packaging is certainly a swaying factor for me when buying a food item.
[+] [-] DanBC|8 years ago|reply
Environmentalists say "reduce, re-use, recycle" - recycling is the last, worst, option in this phrase. Reducing the stuff you buy being the first, best, option.
[+] [-] pilsetnieks|8 years ago|reply
[+] [-] doesnt_know|8 years ago|reply
So, let's take Visy, in the context of this post, they are in the business of waste disposal, recycling, and packaging. For their packaging business, they turn raw materials into packaging. For cardboard, that's either dead trees or recycled/reprocessed cardboard.
So they either pay for brand new raw materials or recycled materials. They decide to skip the middle man and setup a plant, negotiate contracts with councils/governments and take peoples waste so they can turn it into packaging.
That's what recycling is. It's not magic. If there is no one/business on the other end to consume or process it, it's not recycling, it just garbage and goes to a land fill.
I'm just using cardboard as an example because it's easier to grok (trees/cardboard etc), but over the last 5 years there has literally been occasions where the price of brand new cardboard has been lower than recycled cardboard. So yes, sometimes this the recycling industry is all sorts of fucked, but if you don't have industry/business/consumer on the other end of this recycling equation it's worthless.
[+] [-] grecy|8 years ago|reply
It's refreshing to spend time in the undeveloped world and see how glass bottles are re-used hundreds or thousands of times, how many things you buy don't come wrapped in plastic and how people simply buy less crap.
In order of importance - Reduce, re-use, recycle.
The developed world is just now catching on to the worst of the three.
[+] [-] nash_tr|8 years ago|reply
[+] [-] averagewall|8 years ago|reply
How about we convert as much oil as we can into plastic, bury it in the ground for a few 100s of years and stop worrying?
[+] [-] imron|8 years ago|reply
It will move to another country whose leaders value money over the environment. China now has enough money and clout to say no.
There are plenty of places that don't.
[+] [-] ggm|8 years ago|reply
Now, it looks like it might be a shrewd environmental decision, if you are a province in China with a huge pollution problem from plastics recycling. Voila! export the problem to Africa. .. (not saying this is good in any sense, but it would make sense as an operating model: its what we did to them, so they do it to the next emerging colonial empire)
[+] [-] powerapple|8 years ago|reply
[+] [-] wiineeth|8 years ago|reply
[+] [-] dang|8 years ago|reply
[+] [-] Myrmornis|8 years ago|reply
[+] [-] timthelion|8 years ago|reply
[+] [-] ztjio|8 years ago|reply