this post was submitted on 30 Oct 2023
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In some places, they burn the trash and make electricity out of it. I don't know what ends up being better, burning it or letting it seep everywhere?
It depends. I find a lot of Japan will burn plastic that isn't economically viable to be recycled, with a lot of effort spent on scrubbing the smoke of harmful chemicals. That seems to be better than other alternatives.
Almost no plastic is economically viable to recycle. Even when it can be done you can usually only put a few % into the new product before it fails to meet spec.
Surprisingly 'make less plastic' is the answer to 'we have too much plastic.'
Edit: Check out Climate Town's Awesome Video on plastic!
There is a total energy savings compared to making new plastic, but it is only like 10-20% less energy. But that is a better solution than jusy dumping into a landfill. And yeah a plastic plant recycling material for new plastic bottles is like 16-20% recycled and the rest new material, so you need to make 4 bottles at least to consume an old one, so it is an expanding pyramid of bottles required.
but what about the plastic makers? /s
Indeed. I remember where I lived in Japan it was specifically PET plastic only (and I'm pretty sure it wasn't even all forms of PET). That generally amounted to just plastic bottles for various beverages, only. Meanwhile lots of other types of plastic were in existence as well.
Burning isn't the right word necessarily. Plasma gas plants disassociate stuff into constituent elements and produce nothing toxic. They're just expensive to start up and there aren't many.
Space. We need to somehow work out a system where we use gravity to float our garbage out in orbit and then shoot it towards the sun. Like we just have to.
I canβt believe we have literally been sweeping our shit and piss and plastic everything under the living room rug and everyone is like yeah this is fine we can keep doing this forever π«
This is terribly incorrect. Space is not a solution. The amount of energy required to send trash into space is very high and therefore expensive, like ~$5000/kg, and would generate a stupid amount of C02. Watch this video, it gives a great perspective on the scope of the problem: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Us2Z-WC9rao
Alternatively, the Earth is HUGE. All the garbage ever generated in the history of humankind would fit into a comparatively tiny space. This is obviously a terrible option too, but WAY better than space.
Burning it is also terrible - no matter how good we get the incinerators, they still produce unacceptable levels of dioxins and other chemicals. You are much more likely to get cancer if you live near an incinerator.
The ONLY solution is to stop producing so much plastic.
Friendly reminder that Reduce, Reuse, Recycle is in order of priority.
We should require deposit-based packaging (like beer bottles) for most consumable goods.
I agree. We also need regulation that makes manufacturers responsible for the end costs of their packaging and products. This kind of thinking is starting to come around, as municipalities and taxpayers have finally started waking up to the fact that it's ultimately our dollars that are paying for the corporations to create as much waste as they want. We're the ones that have to pay for the garbage pickups and the landfills where it all ends up.
This. 90% of modern waste comes from excesses. Everything from kitchen waste to disposables and clothes. We build cheap crap and throw them out after one use all the time, rather than getting quality and enjoying their use for years.
There's a reason why fast fashion is considered one of the greatest sources of waste in the world.
Here is an alternative Piped link(s):
https://www.piped.video/watch?v=Us2Z-WC9rao
Piped is a privacy-respecting open-source alternative frontend to YouTube.
I'm open-source; check me out at GitHub.
We just need to dig a deep enough hole in a subduction zone so it eventually turns into lava
Throwing stuff at the sun is super hard to do, as well as the fact that this would be wasting precious resources that is now gone from earth. I feel like one day, there will be businesses mining old garbage patch for long lost metals and stuff.