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More plastic than fish in the sea by 2050

MrT said:
I think the nations which are producing the most plastic needs to step up and do a better job of garbage collection / recycling / energy recuperation.
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What if they already do? The quote below the image in the article read: Just 5% of waste plastic is effectively recycled, at plants like this one in Indonesia. In my country, we sure as hell recycle / recuperate energy.
 
Natan said:
What if they already do? The quote below the image in the article read: Just 5% of waste plastic is effectively recycled, at plants like this one in Indonesia. In my country, we sure as hell recycle / recuperate energy.
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If only 5% of plastic is effectively recycled, then your country is not doing a good enough job of recycling.
 
MrT said:
If only 5% of plastic is effectively recycled, then your country is not doing a good enough job of recycling.
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I'm not Indonesian. Damn, I removed my location (Belgium) from my profile just yesterday.
 
Natan said:
I'm not Indonesian. Damn, I removed my location (Belgium) from my profile just yesterday.
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Your quote is about the location of the facility where the plastic is recycled...not the amount of plastic being recycled by that one country.
 
MrT said:
Your quote is about the location of the facility where the plastic is recycled...not the amount of plastic being recycled by that one country.
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Actually, deeper down in the article the 5% figure resurfaces:

Despite the growing demand, just 5% of plastics are recycled effectively, while 40% end up in landfill and a third in fragile ecosystems such as the world’s oceans.
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It seems to be not specific to any location.
 
MrT said:
I think the nations which are producing the most plastic needs to step up and do a better job of garbage collection / recycling / energy recuperation.
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I think governments like the United States need to step up and do a better job cutting down the huge restrictions on recycling and energy recovery with regards to plastics. As it is, they are only exacerbating the problem.
 
ocean515 said:
I think governments like the United States need to step up and do a better job cutting down the huge restrictions on recycling and energy recovery with regards to plastics. As it is, they are only exacerbating the problem.
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What do you mean by huge restrictions?
 
MrT said:
What do you mean by huge restrictions?
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There are restrictions on what can be done with many types of plastics that can be recycled, and there are restrictions on how many types of plastics can be treated that are in the waste stream.

For example, plastics used in food packaging can't be reused to make more food packaging, even though the process of recycling such products would destroy any pathogens, and render this recycled plastic harmless. Only pre-consumer plastics can be used in the manufacturing of food contact plastics, which leaves a massive amount of material to simple be buried.
 
ocean515 said:
There are restrictions on what can be done with many types of plastics that can be recycled, and there are restrictions on how many types of plastics can be treated that are in the waste stream.

For example, plastics used in food packaging can't be reused to make more food packaging, even though the process of recycling such products would destroy any pathogens, and render this recycled plastic harmless. Only pre-consumer plastics can be used in the manufacturing of food contact plastics, which leaves a massive amount of material to simple be buried.
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I knew that certain plastics could not be recycled together, but I thought it had more to do with the molecular make-up of the plastic and the various processes used for recycling. Do you have a source for the aspect that you raise here?
 
MrT said:
I knew that certain plastics could not be recycled together, but I thought it had more to do with the molecular make-up of the plastic and the various processes used for recycling. Do you have a source for the aspect that you raise here?
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You are correct that plastics of different types are like oil and water. However, co-extrusion technology has advanced enough that these disparate materials can be sandwiched together in a form of encapsulation that would allow them to be used in the same product. The problem is, there are laws against using any post consumer plastics in any food contact packaging. Imagine all the plastics used to hold, market, and transport food. Every bit of it must be virgin material, or only pre-consumer plastics typically recycled in from the manufacturing process.

In other countries, notably Japan, they don't have room for landfills, so the incinerate the bulk of their waste. As a result, the plastics they use for food is designed to incinerate cleanly, so energy can be derived from the process, and very little waste is left over. They actually use the resulting ash as a filler for a number of other plastic products they use.

This type of common sense approach would go along way towards cutting down on the "bury it" approach so many lean towards.
 
Scientists have also found that countless tiny fragments drift to the bottom of the oceans, carpeting the sea bed. The environmental and health impact of this is unknown.
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Well once it's down at the bottom of the oceans it can stay there. Be evidence for our existance should aliens one day find the earth....
 
Tim the plumber said:
Well once it's down at the bottom of the oceans it can stay there. Be evidence for our existance should aliens one day find the earth....
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I suspect it is a good news bad news sort of thing.
Not all plastics have a specific gravity of greater than one, but the ones that are lighter
than water, tend to break down with UV exposure.
 
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