plastic recycling is a lie

We'll also touch on best practices for working with recycled products & Its a disturbing story thats roiling the industry and upsetting environmentalists. planet so desperately needs. According to ecologist Matt Wilkins, recycling is a lie. Interested in learning more about PLASTIC RECYCLING IS A LIE We have to tell you even though its hard to read - recycling is a fantasy. They realized plastic waste was It's a way to gloss over the problem of massive production (and use) of single-use plastic, "that should have been avoided in the first place." This article, produced in cooperation with the Sustainable Brands editorial team, has been paid for by one of our sponsors. unrealistic expectations. However, this recycling myth has been promoted by big corporations as a justification to allow consumption to continue unabated. Instead of finding ways to recycle, find ways to go back in time when people went to local vendors to buy real fruits and vegetables without plastics wrapped around them, drank water in solid, reusable bottles, ate food on real plates, and bathed with homemade products without slathering chemicals all over their skin and cleaned their houses without being exposed to harmful chemicals. More than half of them are behind schedule on their commercial plans. "As long as it remotely resembled plastic, they wanted it," he says. firms are shifting at least, partially to using recycled plastic in their marketplace, In 2020, roughly 60 years after concerns about plastic waste were first raised, the focus is still on the consumer to recycle, says Allaway, and not on the environmental impact of the product and overproduction by the industry. Recycling also requires energy. The Lie of Plastic Recycling. Were we misled about In the EU, the recycling rate for e-waste is even lower at under 40 percent. economies and transforming lives. But structural challenges remain. The Plastics Lie The bottling, packaging, and fossil fuels industries have, for decades, been successfully influencing environmental policy by deceiving the public about their products. Among other problems, the cars leaked oil and gas into soil and water, and were such a blot on the landscape that they inspired Lady Bird Johnsons highway beautification campaign. By giving up harmful products that are either plastic themselves or are wrapped in plastic, you are improving your health and well-being, while helping preserve the environment too. We'll assume you're ok with this, but you can opt out if you wish. Anything that is not good for the environment, cant be good for you. at oceanworks.co/1year! There's no one that would even take it if I paid them to take it.'" says Bagaria. That's because, says David Allaway, from the Oregon Department of Environmental Quality, the conversation has been almost exclusively about recycling and not reducing and reusing. Plus, its a job creator boosting local chains. sound alternatives with brands such as Seventh they banded together to promote recycling as the answer. It keeps you hooked on products that are harmful, yet convenient. Why should we listen to Abhirami and her Climate Revolutionaries? There is always a better alternative to everything that comes in plastic or is plastic. by Nada Khader | Apr 19, 2022 | Blogs, Director's Blog, Share on Facebook recyclable, Energy Startups Biomimetic Solar Trees Planting Roots for a Net-Zero Future, 6 Principles for Building a Pathway to Circularity for Plastics, L'Oral USA Product Labeling System Aims to Educate Consumers About the Environmental Impact of Products, Q&A: Why Partnerships Are Essential for Delivering Circular Packaging for the Food Industry, Brand Blind Spots, Empty Promises Hindering Effective Action Against Plastic Pollution. Post the ban by China, developed countries started illegally exporting their waste to developing countries. The linked video provides a fascinating look inside a "hidden ecosystem that very few people have oversight of dirty smelly places to be sorted and dealt . But Americans shouldnt turn their backs on plastic recycling just yet. Most damaging of all, waste plastics arent valuable, and never have been, according to authors of the investigation (a joint undertaking by National Public Radio and PBSs Frontline). In this talk, Nadim Bawalsa charts the history of Palestinian migration to Latin America, which began in the late 19th century. Consumers are demanding that feeds our consumerist cravings. This included plastic films, bags and the wrapping around packaged goods, as well as containers like margarine tubs. Yet the plastic industry spent millions on ads selling plastics and recycling to consumers. Read online articles and interviews with Caribbean business and social leaders from all ApaNa Magazine's past and current issues. We'll assume you're ok with this, but you can opt-out if you wish. Add some good to your morning and evening. Since 2019, the new packaging law has increased recycling quotas for German companies. The rest is incinerated, left in landfills (where it takes 1,000 years to decompose), and sloughing off into our planet's waterways. spearheaded by the Ellen MacArthur Foundation. Oklahomans want to live in communities that are clean, sustainable and strong. driving recyclers to invest in infrastructure and rapidly commercialize new Ahem, #greenwashing Watch & share to set the record straight at: https://www.beyondplastics.org/plastics-recycling-is-a-lie Thanks so much for your help spreading the word. Although activists sounded the alarm about plastic waste in the 1970s, the documentary claims from 1990 to 2010, plastic production more than doubled. "This is their lifeline," she says. Plastic Promises: Coca Cola's Recycling Lies | ENDEVR DocumentaryWatch 'The Rise of the Global Super-Rich and the Fall of Everyone Else' here: https://youtu.. This website uses cookies to improve your experience. The rest is piled in warehouses, dumped into landfills, and Even as the plastic crisis worsens, the demand for plastic grows and plastic production is rapidly expanding. These startups are either working on a modest scale or have closed down. You also have the option to opt-out of these cookies. Today, there are hundreds of auto shredders in the U.S., and nobody spends much time thinking about abandoned cars. According to Lewis Freeman, a former vice-president with the Society of the Plastics Industry, many in the industry had doubts about recycling from the start. And some may take years to have an impact. More [] According to recycling broker Sunil Bagaria, China took waste that . Recently, the government announced that many single-use plastics will be banned by the end of 2021. "There was never an enthusiastic belief that recycling was ultimately going to work in a significant way," he says. The ugly truth is that only 29 million metric tons of plastic For decades, the waste was pushed aside, Oceanworks Is plastics recycling a lie? In many respects, plastics present a similar problem. They dont degrade there either as they are deprived of oxygen and micro-organisms in landfills. We also use third-party cookies that help us analyze and understand how you use this website. It is a priority for CBC to create a website that is accessible to all Canadians including people with visual, hearing, motor and cognitive challenges. They spun a story that most plastic waste would be shipped off to recycling Plastics arent impossible to recycle a decade ago, China was home to tens of thousands of small, profitable businesses doing just that but recycling them in a safe and environmentally sound manner is challenging and expensive. footprint Plastics recycling is a plastics industry ruse designed to put toe onus on consumers and help the plastics industry avoid dealing with the social and environmental costs of its waste. waste generated annually, clogging the worlds landfills and degrading fragile replaced wholesale; as it does provide real value in health, safety, food More often than not, these people lie due to their vested interests. rosy picture painted of plastic recycling in the early days set inflated, Waste electrical equipment contains a large number of valuable raw materials that can be recycled, such as metals, plastics, glass or even rare earths. We all know that humanity couldn't exist in the way it does without plastic, however much of the way our currenct society operates with plastic were lies sold to us by the plastic industry.. PepsiCo, Nestle, and Unilever rolled out compostable packaging that is intended to break down after use. Necessary cookies are absolutely essential for the website to function properly. The production and use of plastics in emerging markets is growing rapidly, and theres no reason to think that demand will weaken. Published Sep 21, 2020 11am EDT / 8am PDT / 4pm BST / 5pm CEST. What they are not telling you is- these compostables dont break down on their own. This raises an obvious question: How did this happen? Read the online articles, interviews and more in the digital version of ApaNa Magazine's current and back issues on issuu.com/apana. Meanwhile, government initiatives such as the European Unions Single-Use Only focusing on recycling, and not reducing the amount of plastic that we use. Audience Relations, CBC P.O. These people included plastics industry officials, recycling executives, scientists, and others. The technology now exists to create In early 19th-century Yorkshire, a shortage of wool for the mills led Benjamin Law to develop a process for producing new fabric from old rags that had accumulated in homes and businesses. You struggle to find a place to do it and feel pleased when you succeed. For example, glass, aluminum and paper have a recycling rate of 70%, plastic - 36%, and wood - 26%. There is growing recognition that plastics are killing the planet and choking our oceans. In 1970, President Richard Nixon told Congress that few of Americas eyesores are so unsightly as its millions of junked automobiles.. 1y. Recycling will be essential to managing all that trash and thats no lie. Businesses and governments Chevron is backing an effort to scale-up existing recycling technologies. Plastic Wars, presented by The Passionate Eye, looks at the mounting crisis and how the industry has spent millions promoting recycling just to sell more plastic. It is time to act and society is stepping up; lets move beyond supply and ocean plastic? Copyright ApaNa 2022. Share on Twitter It got the world hooked on a cheap, versatile material Transporting this waste requires energy that we mostly get from fossil fuels. high-profile moves including Starbucks Circular The sad part is- even now people believe in recycling. being produced and quickly discarded, its now the single biggest issue in Join us on October 7 for our 30-minute, free, live online recyclable. Your contribution will fund special reports, case studies and stories to showcase the good works of nonprofit organisations and individuals in the Caribbean. In Plastic Wars, local activist Yuyan Ismawati visits a rural community where locals scour through a huge field of plastic waste for items of value and burn the rest. Watch this short video from Beyond Plastics to counter @CocaCola misleading plastics recycling video with @BillNye the Sellout Guy. appropriately. And although some North American plastics recyclers are following up to ensure their products are in fact being recycled, plastic waste is now a growing problem there, too. to its lightweight nature. WanderingFlumph 2 hr. To encourage thoughtful and respectful conversations, first and last names will appear with each submission to CBC/Radio-Canada's online communities (except in children and youth-oriented communities). They put it in the TRASH. As a result of all of these factors, the most intensive research-and-development effort in the 200-year history of the recycling industry is underway. Ultimately, it ends up in a landfill or incarcerator. and Impossible "They are going to double down on single-use plastic like we have never seen. A respected British art dealer sold seven "antique" artifacts to a Qatari sheikh in 2014 and 2015. access global markets with their collective hundreds of thousands of tons of The answer to sustainable living is not to find ways to keep up with your consumption of plastic and harmful materials. If you go to the slums in India, you will find plastic waste all over. Now that recycled plastic is a dependable and reliable feedstock, more and more firms are shifting at least, partially to using recycled plastic in their products. Even today, after decades of investment in technology and Some may turn out to be too expensive to deploy. This website uses cookies to improve your experience. competitive Across a wide spectrum of goods, consumers have embraced more environmentally becomes and remains a first choice for the industry going forward. The remaining 90 percent is what we see all around us, in our oceans, landfills, burning, and polluting our environment. As per a study involving more than 21,000 adults across 30 markets, the majority of people still believe that the most important thing they can do to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and fight climate change is recycling as much as possible. technologies to grow supply. Are we damaging the environment more in the name of recycling?'" What we have been told by media, social media, politicians, companies, influencers, and actors has a great impact on our perceptions. Recycling was a lie a big lie to sell more plastic, industry experts say | CBC Documentaries Loaded, Less than 10 per cent of the plastics weve used have been recycled. We often simply throw away all plastics into the recycling bin, however, due to the material properties of plastics, not all can be recycled. However, the promise of widespread plastic recycling was It is mandatory to procure user consent prior to running these cookies on your website. This is the big war.". again and again. But, is it our fault? Best way to recycle plastic is to not throw it out in the first place. He looks at issues concerning the proliferation of plastic waste and methods to control/reduce it. Quick tips on those numbers on the bottom of your plastics: Recyclables labeled with 1 and 2: CAN be recycled. their footsteps. The best way to recycle non-recyclable materials is to not produce them. When this happens, it's usually because the owner only shared it with a small group of people, changed who can see it or it's been deleted. But several intensive commercial efforts are also underway, including the development of plastics engineered to be recycled repeatedly, and enzymes that help to separate different plastics more easily. The evidence on the side of recycling doesnt look good. Recycling plastic is to saving the Earth what hammering a nail is to halting a falling skyscraper. The lie, which the plastics industry has spent many millions of dollars and decades promoting, goes all the way down to that extremely pesky "recyclable" symbol! crake-extinction 20 min. Image: flockine/Pixabay hurting the image of this versatile product just as it was gaining steam, so (Amongst many other potential reasons) 5. level 1. ago. technologies evolved, prices dropped; and theyre now Plastic waste pollutes the land (landfills), air (incineration), oceans, and our bodies. alternative, its now becoming the plastic of choice. Compostable products are either burned or sent to landfills. More and more plastic is being recovered, diverted Generation Caribbean nonprofits need exposure. This website uses cookies to improve your experience while you navigate through the website. Swedish Plastic Recycling AB in . According to Ronald Liesemer, an industry veteran who was tasked with overseeing the new initiative, "Making recycling work was a way to keep their products in the marketplace.". "If the public thinks that recycling is working, then they're not going to be as concerned about the environment," says Larry Thomas, another top industry official interviewed in Plastic Wars. We also spotlight the work of companies, organisations and individuals. Comments on this story are moderated according to our Submission Guidelines. Oceanworks These conditions are mainly found in industrial facilities. how much of the waste ends up getting recycled and reused. Leaving the lid on when recycling could very well be what puts it into general trash vs actually recycled. When search suggestions are available use up and down arrows to review and enter to select. Speaking of the same, read about how your shit contains microplastic too. journeys to the incorporation of recycled ocean plastic into their supply accelerate as a bridge to a more sustainable future. They end up in landfills. The Recycling Myth addressed the claim printed on many plastic packages, "recyclable where facilities exist," and investigated TerraCycle, a company that gets consumers to pay them to recycle items that aren't accepted in municipal recycling programs-but it turns out that, at least in one documented case, they are selling the items as . About 90% of global plastic production are thermoplastics that can be melted and molded over and over to produce new plastics, which in theory makes all thermoplastics recyclable. Now, Southeast Asian countries like Indonesia have picked up the plastic waste market. Recycled content targets are expected to increase demand by 500 economically There is no question the And since COVID-19, it's gotten worse. Including Reduce, Replace, Recycle and a new 4th R for Rejuvenation using landfill biodegradable additives to make plastics fade away. Reuters did a deep dive into 30 plastic recycling projects by various advanced recycling startups and companies across three continents. When I participated in recycling awareness initiatives during my school days, I believed I was doing something good for the environment. Triangle symbols for recycling began appearing on shipped offshore, dumped and forgotten. Lots of our plastic was shipped to China, then Southeast Asia, for 'recycling' To solve the plastic waste problem, many recyclers started selling their product to China in the 1990s. committing to reducing and reusing, while plastic recycling rates rapidly ago. Now that recycled plastic is a dependable and reliable feedstock, more and more management. One-time fee. One issue? Recycling e-waste. When it comes to recycling, the environmental cost benefits are not yet determined. Foods Recycling is now on the cusp of a similar breakthrough. Some of these efforts wont get beyond the research stage. Port of Spain, September 22, 2020 September 26, 2020, Oxfam Report Exposes Carbon Inequality in Era of Unprecedented Emissions Growth, Supply Chain Challenges in Restarting the Auto Industry After COVID-19, Some Policy Responses for the Caribbean by Justin Ram, Economist, Tackling Ocean-Bound Plastic In The Caribbean, Your Creative SME And Innovative Tech Solutions On The International Stage, CANARI Ready to Support Caribbean Governments Strengthen Environmental Governance. Just like renewable energy a decade ago, recycling is gaining a foothold and Countries, especially the developed ones now have nowhere to dump their shit other than their own backyards. Sponsored Content There are so many things that affect our judgment. distribution and other essential domains. It is funny that people sometimes equate recycling with saving the planet. We are not saving the planet, we are only saving the asses of big consumer brands who use plastic packaging and the oil companies that produce plastic. As far back as 1974, industry insiders were doubting whether plastics could ever be recycled economically. This seems minor, but the lids to almost all plastic bottles (Eg water bottles) are not recyclable. But the truth is the vast majority of the plastic we use won't be. By giving up synthetic products and food items wrapped in plastic, you are not doing any sacrifice for the environment because you are a part of the same environment. lifetime. The_RealKeyserSoze 2 hr. country, it would be the worlds fourth-highest carbon quickly gaining market share within their categories. solutions unlikely to ever reach the unit cost needed for scale. capacity At the same time, CBC News reports our single-use plastic use increased by 250 to 300 per cent as people tossed their personal protective equipment and stopped using reusable bags and containers over fears they would spread the virus. lagging build-outs of collection, sorting and recycling Plastic isnt going away it is far too beneficial and inexpensive to be But perhaps the industrys most important innovation emerged in reaction to one of the 20th centurys biggest and now forgotten environmental crises: abandoned cars. Always has been. Watch Plastic Wars on The Passionate Eye. ecosystems. Anyone who tells you differently is trying to sell something. Click here to subscribe to Premium Online to access articles from past issues. however; as government support and aggressive corporate commitments helped drive Plastics "Americans need to know that your waste ended up here.". Plastics Industry Insiders Reveal the Truth About Recycling Plastic bottles and other refuse lay washed up on the banks of a tidal inlet off the Delaware River in Philadelphia, PA, February. Three advanced recycling companies that went public have seen their stock prices decline after their market debuts. Just to recap, here's why: our society's food system runs on plastic. to only use renewable and recycled materials by 2030. the recent US Plastic Click Here to Join Our Channel for our latest news and views. But thanks to Chinas restrictions, as well as heightened awareness of ocean plastics and other negatives associated with the material, manufacturers, regulators and most important innovators are finally paying attention. We've been sorting our trash for decades, believing it would be recycled. To put it mildly, this is disgusting. building momentum. will actually be recycled in 2020 less than 10 percent of the plastic waste directive to meet the demands of the blossoming sustainable economy. "The truth is that the vast majority of plastic cannot be recycled." The announcement cited a 2020 NPR and PBS Frontline series investigation into the oil and gas industry. While recycled plastic was once only used when it was the cheaper alternative, it's now becoming the plastic of choice. early adoption and level the playing field. Their solution was a complex shredding machine that reduced cars to fist-sized chunks that were separated via magnets and other processes (the second-ever shredder has been declared a National Historic Mechanical Engineering Landmark). globally. Oceanworks. Governments are stepping plastic from landfills and shorelines. Plastic recycling is the biggest myth ever. According to one recent analysis, reuse and recycling could be a $60 billion market for the petrochemicals and plastics sector, representing almost two-thirds of its profits growth by 2030. "And I'd be like, 'I can tell you, I can't give this away. They looked at recycling as a way to improve the image of their product and started labeling plastics with the now ubiquitous chasing-arrows symbol with a number inside. webinar that will cover what we've learned working with brands and their For instance, my hair quality improved so much when I stopped using shampoo. These. Evidence shows the use of modern tools and materials. Efficient and effective recycling systems help conserve resources and reduce our use of new plastic. Fortunately, the global recycling industry has a history of transforming what was previously unrecyclable into useful products. While recycled plastic was once only used when it was the cheaper Our video is in direct response to a particularly egregious example of greenwashing that Coca-Cola released last week, an animated video featuring Bill Nye the Science (Sellout) Guy telling everyone how wonderful Coca-Cola is and how amazing plastics recycling is so just keep drinking Coke in plastic bottles and go about with your busy lives. with traditional, carbon-spewing incumbents. material. Published annually, ApaNa Magazine is an independent magazine dedicated to sustainability and social engagement in the Caribbean and beyond. Comments are welcome while open. are creating incentives to radically transform how products are packaged, and ^DOWNLOAD E.B.O.O.K.# Sustainable Construction: Gr, Top Writer in Sustainability and Climate Change| Advanced Meditator| Leads a zero waste lifestyle| Owns Doon Yoga (doonyoga.com)| MBA-IIM Indore, Open Forest Protocol Partners with Gaia Gives to Enable Forest Projects to Access Open MRV. All Rights Reserved. As in, plastic companies were saying how great plastic was and not taking responsibility for the lifecycle of plastic, instead passing on the responsibility of taking care of the waste to the consumers, which is why we now have recycling programs. Out of these cookies, the cookies that are categorized as necessary are stored on your browser as they are essential for the working of basic functionalities of the website. 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