Plastic is a finite resource that is not going to disappear from global usage any time soon.
Just fucking recycle.
These statements are you throwing up your hands, but towards the actual problem of plastic waste.
“where I live they don’t do it well”
Where I live is on Earth, they don’t do it well anywhere here. In the US, people have been actively trying to get people to recycle more since the 70s, plastic recovery from recycling barely gets over 5% and that’s consistent throughout that 50 year period. That’s not just “not 100%” that’s dismal.
As an initiative it has been wildly unsuccessful at best, and a cynical distraction at worst. The plastics industry is largely the same entities as the oil and gas industry, and they have run the same playbook to defer meaningful action against their damaging products.
To bring it back:
People not recycling plastics is equivalent to people not eating their pizza crusts in that they are trivial and ineffectual solutions to the problems of waste.
It’s not dwindling, it’s not dismal and it’s certainly not pointless.
To bring it back: choosing to not recycle your plastic because you think only 5% of it will get recycled is indeed as stupid as throwing away your pizza crusts and thinking it doesn’t contribute to food wastage.
These statements are you throwing up your hands, but towards the actual problem of plastic waste.
Where I live is on Earth, they don’t do it well anywhere here. In the US, people have been actively trying to get people to recycle more since the 70s, plastic recovery from recycling barely gets over 5% and that’s consistent throughout that 50 year period. That’s not just “not 100%” that’s dismal.
As an initiative it has been wildly unsuccessful at best, and a cynical distraction at worst. The plastics industry is largely the same entities as the oil and gas industry, and they have run the same playbook to defer meaningful action against their damaging products.
To bring it back: People not recycling plastics is equivalent to people not eating their pizza crusts in that they are trivial and ineffectual solutions to the problems of waste.
Welcome to earth. Here outside the US there are countries that recycle up to 35% of plastic waste and intend to recycle more through regulations on types of plastic used and improvements in processes. https://www.scb.se/en/finding-statistics/statistics-by-subject-area/environment/waste/waste-packaging/pong/tables-and-graphs/recycling-targets/
It’s not dwindling, it’s not dismal and it’s certainly not pointless.
To bring it back: choosing to not recycle your plastic because you think only 5% of it will get recycled is indeed as stupid as throwing away your pizza crusts and thinking it doesn’t contribute to food wastage.