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0 pointsknowaveragejoe6y ago0 comments

Plastic bottles are pretty much all included according to this site. There's no reason not to include them too.

0 comments

TylerE6y ago

It takes more energy to ship and reprocess them than you save. That's why you don't.

If you do, it's explicitly because it makes you feel good - it's worse for the planet.

tren6y ago

In my city, plastic bottles are shredded and converted into filament for 3D printers: https://www.greenbatch.com/

SirLuxuryYacht6y ago

Maybe it takes more energy because of the diversity of materials? If we used an order of magnitude less types of plastic than we currently do, it might become more economical because it wouldnt require as much mechanical labor to sort and process. Removing shipping from the equation seems like the removal of quite a bit of carbon.

TylerE6y ago

When you melt plastic down, you get lower quality material than what you fed in. It's not a closed loop. Plus, the wide variety of available properties are what makes plastic so useful in the first place.

xugy6y ago

Source?

TheSpiceIsLife6y ago

This is what the big kerfuffle is all about.

All we’ve been doing is paying the Chinese and Malaysians to feed our plastics to the dolphins for us.

Now they won’t take it, and people here get upset if you feed the animals, we’re realise the whole deception for what it is.

Edit to add sources:

https://www.nationalgeographic.com/environment/2019/03/whale...

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2019/may/29/malaysia-to-se...

Self evident that if it were economically & environmentally sound to recycle we wouldn’t be shipping it around the planet to do so.

1 more reply

csears6y ago

Thomas Kinnaman was interviewed on Planet Money recently and mentioned roughly this conclusion based on his 2014 study. More details here: https://www.realclearscience.com/blog/2019/07/15/why_its_pro...

shkkmo6y ago

Plastic and Glass recycling can be borderline and it depends on the specific local implementation. Either way, the savings are never going to be massive and it is an open question if it is worth the effort. (Glass re-use is different)

Aluminum is completely different. Prices for aluminum recycling per ton is an order of magnitude higher than other recyclables.

jeromegv6y ago

What's even better than putting your plastic bottle in recycle is not using plastic bottle at all. Is there any use case where plastic bottle is better or required?

frankzinger6y ago

Apparently manufacturing glass uses way more resources/energy and has a much bigger carbon footprint. (No source at hand, sorry.) It also weighs more so is more expensive to transport. Plastic is good for some things, no doubt about that.

j / k navigate · click thread line to collapse

0 comments

TylerE6y ago

It takes more energy to ship and reprocess them than you save. That's why you don't.

If you do, it's explicitly because it makes you feel good - it's worse for the planet.

tren6y ago

In my city, plastic bottles are shredded and converted into filament for 3D printers: https://www.greenbatch.com/

SirLuxuryYacht6y ago

TylerE6y ago

xugy6y ago

Source?

TheSpiceIsLife6y ago

This is what the big kerfuffle is all about.

All we’ve been doing is paying the Chinese and Malaysians to feed our plastics to the dolphins for us.

Now they won’t take it, and people here get upset if you feed the animals, we’re realise the whole deception for what it is.

Edit to add sources:

https://www.nationalgeographic.com/environment/2019/03/whale...

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2019/may/29/malaysia-to-se...

Self evident that if it were economically & environmentally sound to recycle we wouldn’t be shipping it around the planet to do so.

1 more reply

csears6y ago

shkkmo6y ago

Aluminum is completely different. Prices for aluminum recycling per ton is an order of magnitude higher than other recyclables.

jeromegv6y ago

What's even better than putting your plastic bottle in recycle is not using plastic bottle at all. Is there any use case where plastic bottle is better or required?

frankzinger6y ago

j / k navigate · click thread line to collapse