Recycling is a scam

[Phil C. McNasty]

This dude claims recycling is just a big scam: https://www.tiktok.com/@ktoegse/video/7433334859277405482?_r=1&_t=8rI7Fa5ea3U

Less than 10% of all plastics are recycled.
For steel its a bit higher, but not many households throw out a lot of steel.
I also heard that in many cities garbage collectors just mix the blue bin with the waste bin.
They dont even bother separating them anymore.

I googled to see if its true and CBC did a piece on it, so it sounds believable

https://www.cbc.ca/documentaries/the-passionate-eye/recycling-was-a-lie-a-big-lie-to-sell-more-plastic-industry-experts-say-1.5735618

 

[SchlongConery]

This dude claims recycling is just a big scam: https://www.tiktok.com/@ktoegse/video/7433334859277405482?_r=1&_t=8rI7Fa5ea3U

Less than 10% of all plastics are recycled.
For steel its a bit higher, but not many households throw out a lot of steel.
I also heard that in many cities garbage collectors just mix the blue bin with the waste bin.
They dont even bother separating them anymore.

I googled to see if its true and CBC did a piece on it, so it sounds believable

https://www.cbc.ca/documentaries/the-passionate-eye/recycling-was-a-lie-a-big-lie-to-sell-more-plastic-industry-experts-say-1.5735618

To some degree, recycling is effective. But the overall cost is grossly disproportionate to that benefit.

Also, when it comes to plastics, there are few uses for recycled plastics, and only some varieties of plastics are even able to be recycled. AND... something has to use the refined fraction by-product of crude oil which is used for virgin plastics.

But as you say.. at my condo in Toronto, there is great emphasis placed on separating waste from recyclables. Yet the bins are interchanged and picked up by random trucks, not a dedicated recycling truck.

The plastic shopping bag fiasco is a huge scam. Those new $1.00 reusable bags are made of petroleum based plastic materials and cost the big grocery stores and Walmart about ten cents each.

 

[JackieJack]

I remember bringing stuff to the Keele Valley Landfill long time ago and was always amazed when I was driving over and through a mountain of trash.

I know allot of recycling goes into landfill but still try my best to sort my trash out.

 

[Jenesis]

To some degree, recycling is effective. But the overall cost is grossly disproportionate to that benefit.

Also, when it comes to plastics, there are few uses for recycled plastics, and only some varieties of plastics are even able to be recycled. AND... something has to use the refined fraction by-product of crude oil which is used for virgin plastics.

But as you say.. at my condo in Toronto, there is great emphasis placed on separating waste from recyclables. Yet the bins are interchanged and picked up by random trucks, not a dedicated recycling truck.

The plastic shopping bag fiasco is a huge scam. Those new $1.00 reusable bags are made of petroleum based plastic materials and cost the big grocery stores and Walmart about ten cents each.

We have separate trucks. One truck, usually early morning, picks up the trash and another specific recycling truck picks up blue bins, usually early evening.

 

[Phil C. McNasty]

The plastic shopping bag fiasco is a huge scam.
Those new $1.00 reusable bags are made of petroleum based plastic materials and cost the big grocery stores and Walmart about ten cents each

Also I used the plastic shopping bags as garbage bags.
But now that they're banned, I have to buy plastic garbage bags again.
So nothing really changes, I'm still using plastic garbage bags.....LOL

 

[DesRicardo]

 

[SchlongConery]

Also I used the plastic shopping bags as garbage bags.
But now that they're banned, I have to buy plastic garbage bags again.
So nothing really changes, I'm still using plastic garbage bags.....LOL

Same with me.

Now I have to buy kitchen sized plastic garbage bags that end up in the landfill... as well as those stupid "cloth" (polyester = petroleum-based fabric = aka PLASTIC) bags.

I live downtown so I like to walk and browse and shop if I see something interesting etc but I hate bringing those bulky empty reusable bags. So I end up buying more reusable bags. I gotta have 30 or more of them between cars and kitchen and closets etc.

And the cheap Dollarama roll of 10 bags is $1.25, so 12ccents per bag... more than the plastic shopping bags.

It's all greenwashing. In this example, MORE plastic is produced and thrown out, all things considered

 

[oral.com]

I hate it so much when I have to buy a new bag, you wonder why grocery chains are posting such huge profits. Probably not the bags, but those bags are an unwanted commodity.

 

[rgkv]

I remember bringing stuff to the Keele Valley Landfill long time ago and was always amazed when I was driving over and through a mountain of trash.

I know allot of recycling goes into landfill but still try my best to sort my trash out.

you have been around for a while my friend. i remember watching tractor trailers full of bicyles being dumped out there.. but that was quite a number of years ago.

 

[SchlongConery]

you have been around for a while my friend. i remember watching tractor trailers full of bicyles being dumped out there.. but that was quite a number of years ago.

I remember when it was an operating gravel pit! My parents were friends with the owners as they belonged to the same snowmobile club so I got a big tour of the pit one day. As a little boy the loaders and the actual pit were HUGE!

 

[Shaquille Oatmeal]

... as well as those stupid "cloth" (polyester = petroleum-based fabric = aka PLASTIC) bags.

You have no idea how many of these cloth shopping bags I have at home. Sigh.

 

[versitile1]

If you remember the "3 R's", you'd recall that "Recycling" was the last "R", The first 2, "Reduce, and Reuse" are the steps we need to take before "Recycling". But, of course, people like Phil don't wanna hear that "commie" talk, so they continue throw out everything, and expect "Recycling" to be the fix-all solution to this problem.

 

[Shaquille Oatmeal]

The H&M recycling program is a scam: what to do instead — Polly Barks

So you’ve got some old clothes to get rid of and you’ve heard about H&M’s in-store recycling scheme. Stop right there. Fast fashion — and the endless push towards never-ending consumption — never gives us a solution. Push back against the corporate greenwashing and find better solutions.

pollybarks.com

 

[rgkv]

If you remember the "3 R's", you'd recall that "Recycling" was the last "R", The first 2, "Reduce, and Reuse" are the steps we need to take before "Recycling". But, of course, people like Phil don't wanna hear that "commie" talk, so they continue throw out everything, and expect "Recycling" to be the fix-all solution to this problem.

I agree with you completely.. except the part of throwing Phil under the bus

 

[Phil C. McNasty]

If you remember the "3 R's", you'd recall that "Recycling" was the last "R", The first 2, "Reduce, and Reuse" are the steps we need to take before "Recycling". But, of course, people like Phil don't wanna hear that "commie" talk, so they continue throw out everything

I actually dont do that.
I still recycle, because it means I use less garbage bags
(since the blue bin doesnt require to be lined with a plastic bag)

 

[james t kirk]

The only thing that truly gets recycled is metals. Aluminum, steel, copper (if you're so dumb as to throw out copper). It gets recycled because there is money to be made recycling metals.

Glass, usually not recycled because the jars and bottles are not rinsed clean and thus they contain residues which means it goes to the landfills. In addition the glass needs to be sorted by colour. Adds to the cost. But glass could definitely could be recycled.

Newsprint and cardboard, sometimes gets recycled based on the market price for paper. When the proce is low, it's off to the landfill.

Plastic, now this one is the worst. Most often it never gets recycled because it's all but physically impossible to recycle. So many different types and colours and clarities. Usually they just grind it up and use it as filler. The number is about 9 percent gets recycled.

Now here's the rough part....

We like to say it gets recycled in "other jurisdictions" What that really means is that it gets shipped in containers to Asia. China and the Philippines and other countries claim they "recycle plastic". They recycle it alright. If you think that dumping it from a barge into the ocean is recycling, then yeah, it's getting recycled alright. And the best part is that they send us the bill for it too. So it's one big giant fucking lie from top to bottom.

Now I'm not the biggest believer in global warming. In fact, I don't believe in it one bit. It's the great scam ever.

But I'm a big believer in plastics being an absolute ecological nightmare, especially when it gets dumped in the Oceans. I fully support an across the board ban on all single use plastics . Save and except medical plastics. No more water bottles, no more pop bottles, no more clam shells, no more encasing my fusion razor blades inside a water bottle like case that I need a bandsaw to open. (And even still i cut my hands.) 100 percent ban now. You want to buy a coke, it comes in a glass bottle with a dollar deposit. Even 2 dollars, I don't care. Just like beer. We need to stop the pollution of the oceans. Now.

 

[Phil C. McNasty]

I'm a big believer in plastics being an absolute ecological nightmare, especially when it gets dumped in the Oceans. I fully support an across the board ban on all single use plastics . Save and except medical plastics. No more water bottles, no more pop bottles, no more clam shells, no more encasing my fusion razor blades inside a water bottle like case that I need a bandsaw to open. (And even still i cut my hands.) 100 percent ban now. You want to buy a coke, it comes in a glass bottle with a dollar deposit. Even 2 dollars, I don't care. Just like beer. We need to stop the pollution of the oceans. Now

I'd like to see that too, but how do you get 3rd world countries to go along with that??

 

[JackieJack]

Now think about all the oil that went into making that plastic.
I know people are looking into bacterias that can break down plastics, but dont know how practical that is.

 

[Adam_hadam]

I hate it so much when I have to buy a new bag, you wonder why grocery chains are posting such huge profits. Probably not the bags, but those bags are an unwanted commodity.

Wonder no more!
Read this, 163 pages!
https://dis-prod.assetful.loblaw.ca...relations-reports/annual/2023/LCL_2023_AR.pdf

 

[opieshuffle]

Copper: $4/lb if you take it to a metal recycler
Aluminum: (less) but still pretty good. (many states add a deposit to cans to you get money back. Imagine that... a financial incentive!)
Steel: $.25/ pound.
Glass: smash it... it's sand FFS. (but why the beer store can run a successful operation of recycling bottles for a zillion years, yet no-one else can figure it out is beyond me. Oh I know... financial incentive: deposit)

This is why you see the pickups driving around the night before garbage grabbing all the metals. If you have a lot of copper... that's an SP visit. Get recycling everyone! "Recycle for pussy". Steal that slogan!

Plastics industry: the biggest lie sold to all of us since the 50's that should make all the producers libel in a global class action for crimes against the planet! JMHO of course...