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Plastic recycling is a minefield. Here's why it's so difficult and how we can make it easier (www.abc.net.au)
submitted 3 years ago by to c/australia@aussie.zone
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[–] 8 points 3 years ago* (1 child)

TL;DR:

  • Clear PET: sure!
  • All other plastics: probably wont' get recycled. Maybe a few % as a downcycled product.

I believe the rates for paper and glass are much better.

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  • [–] 2 points 3 years ago

    And even PET only gets recycled a relatively small percentage of the time.

    The industry claims that 9% - 18% of plastic put in recycling bins gets recycled but even that's probably an overstatement. Also they're including the plastic which gets shipped to SE Asia for "recycling" - but once it gets there it's actually landfilled because that's cheaper than recycling. So the amount of actual plastic recycling which actually occurs is probably negligible.

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