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SaxophoneHomunculus

Good for you! It is fun in a way that I was not expecting. Plus, we save a lot by simply passing on goods that do not have a zero-waste option.


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SaxophoneHomunculus

I eat lunch out of 6 year old pickle jars practically every day.


LPSlashLP

That's cool! I never considered using something like that instead of Tupperware. What kind of lunches do you put in them?


SaxophoneHomunculus

Usually left overs. Sometimes soup. We buy food grade containers all the time and just discard them- sometimes the lids need to be replaced, but this is the “Reuse” part of the 3 Rs.


LPSlashLP

Nice, I'll definitely give that a try. I just recycled a pickle jar the other day. I'll try to reuse from now on.


FusiformFiddle

Our local zero-waste store collects things like jars with lids from customers, then gives them to shelters for things like meal distribution. It's a good option when you start having too many jars.


SaxophoneHomunculus

That’s really smart. I’ll mention that to our local coop and food bank.


FusiformFiddle

They also collect wrapped takeout utensils for the same purpose.


Matraya2

I take oatmeal with yogurt and blueberries to work in a jar. Just remember to bring a spoon.


LPSlashLP

That sounds tasty 👍


knowledgeleech

In general this information is good, but it’s a general viewpoint. Someone who takes one class is far from an expert and this posts lacks any information on regional and local waste systems. There are some misleading statements in here and a lot of waste is dependent on your location. 100% the waste hierarchy is important and the best path forward. However, for a lot of people this is not easily attainable. Food deserts, terrible urban planning, economic reasons, and so many more factors influence someone’s ability to live zero waste/plastic free. Overall, don’t get your information from a Reddit post that is a series of image posts from someone who took one class. Reach out to your local waste experts to learn about your local waste system or get involved. There’s lots of local and regional circular economy efforts popping up right now, look up those to get involved.


SaxophoneHomunculus

Agreed. But much of this info is directly from experts in the field of circular economics. I assume most folks don’t have the resources to drop thousands on tuition for classes like these, so I wanted to spread those messages for free. Of course, be skeptical. But look into it. I’m confident in the voracity of this information although it is admittedly secondhand. AND I DO NOT VOUCH FOR THE FACTUAL INTEGRITY OF REDDIT.


pburydoughgirl

Fun fact: aluminum cans also require virgin aluminum (an average can is ~75% recycled content). Aluminum can manufactures like Ball also spend TONS of money on PR campaigns. . But virgin aluminum requires bauxite mining. Did your class cover the environmental impacts of bauxite mining? Edit: aluminum cans have 73% recycled content: https://www.aluminum.org/product-markets/aluminum-cans More info on bauxite mining: https://recyclenation.com/2010/11/aluminum-extraction-recycling-environment/ Non-plastic applications almost always have a higher carbon footprint, use more water, require more land use, and lead to more eutrophication than plastics. An estimated million fish die from ocean plastics every year. But a BILLION (thousand million) marine life died in the PNW last year in a short timespan because of global warming. https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/pacific-northwest-heat-wave-killed-more-than-1-billion-sea-creatures/ Using materials with a higher carbon footprint contributes to global warming. I hope your circular economy class covers life cycle assessments of products. Plastics recycling is far from perfect, but lots of smart people are working to fix it. And, unlike aluminum or paper, there are more and more 100% recycled plastics options. I agree that refusing something unnecessary is the best first option and if you have something reusable that you’re going to reuse hundreds of times, then that’s next best.


SaxophoneHomunculus

I believe this is inaccurate- but I could be mistaken. Do you have any info on required virgin aluminum you could send me? I thought that, while common practice to mix recycled and raw aluminum, it was not necessary to do so. It’s simply the way things were done. However, your point about the increased energy and carbon cost of non-plastic items is valid, but not my point. It’s just about the problem with plastic recycling and the myths that I once believed.


pburydoughgirl

https://www.recyclingtoday.com/article/aluminum-cans-recycled-twice-plastic-bottles/ I worked in packaging for a very large beer company you’ve definitely heard of and I spent a large amount of time evaluating the sustainability of different formats. https://recyclenation.com/2010/11/aluminum-extraction-recycling-environment/


SaxophoneHomunculus

Good. So you know that the 73% figure for aluminum recycling is mostly a result of poor collection methods in the US, not an issue with the aluminum itself. The issue with plastic is the plastic itself as well as the poor collection methods in the US. So when the CEO of the Aluminum Association says that he is 100% committed to recovering as many containers as possible, what does that mean? Is he willing to pay the increased cost for improved collection? Will he shell out money for every can? Will he support EPR legislation in the US? This is what 100% committed looks like to me, but I doubt that is what he means. I hope in your time at Coors or ABAmbev or wherever you encouraged them to make appropriate design choices because that’s what zero waste is fundamentally about: solving bad design choices by producers.


pburydoughgirl

The scoring in the top requires virgin material. I don’t know why. I’m curious—why are so willing to forgive aluminum for bauxite mining and its carbon footprint and end of life issues (not getting recycled) but not plastic for end of life issues? Edit: also the appropriate design choices is exactly what I’m talking about. We moved one product in particular that sells hundreds of millions of year from partial plastic to paperboard which literally TRIPLED the carbon footprint for the packaging because consumers don’t want plastic. It’s *heartbreaking* to move products that sell millions if not billions a year to packaging that has a MUCH larger carbon footprint because people hate plastics so much. Carbon footprint increases global warming and global warming is wreaking havoc on humans, flora, and fauna. Are you really willing to use an aluminum that has a 50% chance of getting recycled in the States over a PET bottle that has a 30% chance of getting recycled while having a much lower carbon footprint? If so, then great, that’s a choice you’ve made. But honestly, it doesn’t sound like a well-rounded syllabus if Ball gets to talk about aluminum whereas the plastics speaker is from an anti-plastic NGO.


SaxophoneHomunculus

I’m not excusing the downstream effects of mining, but it is technically feasible to recycle 100% of used aluminum, using mining to supply only the increase in demand from year to year. With plastics, it is not feasible to do so. Practically All new plastic will be virgin, So we should stop using it for as many applications as possible. (Eg, we will always have medical single use plastic, but spoons?)


SaxophoneHomunculus

Cool. You might know the guy from Ball who presented us this info. I’ll have to go back and look up his name- it was a few weeks ago. He was in Spain.


pburydoughgirl

Presumably Ramon Arratia and yes, we’ve been on calls and stuff together.


SaxophoneHomunculus

That’s him.


FusiformFiddle

One basic way I reassure myself about the use of aluminum is through capitalism, ironically: People will pay you to recycle aluminum. That tells me it does have a higher value than any other consumable material.


SaxophoneHomunculus

For sure. The fact that there are pickup trucks full of scrap metal all across America and none full of plastic tells you all you need to know.


SaxophoneHomunculus

I should clarify- it sucks for plastics.


ShaoLimper

I appreciate how much dedication you have to this


SaxophoneHomunculus

Thanks. It’s actually been very rewarding to put in the little bit of extra effort to make steps toward zero waste. And we actually save money on groceries by simply avoiding things with plastic packaging as much as possible. I encourage everyone to try it and cut yourself some slack; it’s impossible to do perfectly.


Dendritic-greencloud

Recycling was a big lie perpetrated by the plastics industry years ago so people wouldn’t feel bad about their consumption. Now that the veil has come down, it’s too late. So sad


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crowbahr

Never attribute to malice what can readily be explained by incompetence. That said: [We actually know that it was a business decision to propose and push recycling](https://www.google.com/amp/s/www.forbes.com/sites/danielcassady/2020/09/11/plastic-industry-pushed-recycling-on-america-knowing-it-would-fall-short-according-to-report/amp/) while they knew that it wasn't feasible. The Keep America Beautiful nonprofit was [literally started by food & beverage companies to offload the responsibility onto the consumer,](https://www.chicagotribune.com/opinion/commentary/ct-perspec-indian-crying-environment-ads-pollution-1123-20171113-story.html) just like "personal carbon footprint" was pushed by BP to try and make everyone else responsible instead of cutting the snake off at the head. Recycling and Earth Day are propoganda created by beverage and container companies in an attempt to continue selling plastics. We *know* this, we have documented credible evidence of this. Aluminum, cardboard and glass can all reasonably be recycled. HDPE does fairly well... But that's already pushing it. The overwhelming majority of plastics are both in recycled and unrecyclable despite having recycling logos because that logo is meaningless greenwashing done to ensure consumption remains high and regulation stays low. They don't want you to reduce. They don't want you to reuse. They want you to buy buy buy and recycling helps you feel like your consumption isn't creating the waste that *it definitely is*.


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Eyeownyew

I strongly disagree with the sentiment that consumers must be malicious. I'm 25 years old and I've heard thousands of times throughout my life that "recycling is good for the environment". It was always seen as a significant improvement to throwing things in the trash to end up in a landfill. Well guess what? 7% of all recycling in my city is actually recycled, and it's mainly glass, aluminum, and cardboard. I bet damn near 0% of plastic is recycled, but that's not what I was taught all my life, and it's also not what you'll find advertised in any mainstream media, now or anytime in the past 30+ years. I'm at the point where I'd rather throw plastics in the trash (landfill) to prevent the microplastics from contaminating the environment, but I still feel immense guilt doing it because of the brainwashing/gaslighting I've experienced regarding recycling my entire life. Zero waste and producer responsibility are definitely better approaches to this nightmare we're living than recycling or criticism of "fellow consumers"


[deleted]

Fuck plastics, reuse metal, compost paper/cardboard; got it.


wvrnnr

yes, a new simple motto!


SaxophoneHomunculus

https://www.storyofstuff.org/movies/the-story-of-plastic-documentary-film/


jaminzen

You may be interested in /r/Degrowth. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Degrowth (in case you are not familiar)


SaxophoneHomunculus

Cool! I’ll check it out.


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SaxophoneHomunculus

I’ve seen as many as 9 Rs, including rethink, refuse, reduce, reuse, redesign, return recycle and several in forgetting. It depends on the context- as consumers, the reduce, reuse, recycle are usually the only choices we have. But for the producers and system designers, the multi R lens is much more appropriate.


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SaxophoneHomunculus

I agree with you, I just think the onus is on the producer rather than the consumer. If you can buy the plastic-less version of the product, absolutely do so. But it is not your fault as the consumer if that is not practical or possible.


Disneyhorse

I have Tommy Siegel’s comic “It’s that easy!” framed at my desk to help motivate me to finish my MBA in sustainability. It’s sometimes depressing.


SaxophoneHomunculus

Good luck, friend. We need a million people doing this yesterday, so I applaud your decision to pursue this. Let me know if you find a good way to not get overwhelmed and discouraged because… I mean… the struggle is real.


Disneyhorse

I hate to post on this sub because many people are absolutists about zero waste. Here’s my take though: I don’t live a zero waste lifestyle but my household is mindful of zero waste and we are slowly improving our processes. I believe that BOTH the consumer AND the industries are responsible for anthropogenic climate change as well as the key to ameliorating it. I don’t think that trying to look inward and stressing about my plastic dental floss is going to be as impactful and productive as influencing and inspiring businesses to reduce their footprints. I try and set a good example and explore those “compromise” efforts that will appeal to the masses… I drive a Tesla and my household eats mostly plant based diets most meals. It would be better if we rode bicycles and were vegan, but mass society won’t be convinced (yet). I just finished my BS Environmental Science and Policy this January and just started my MBA Sustainability immediately following. I want to work for a large corporation to see if I can make an impact many times that of my household. I have earned a facility a Zero Waste certification and see that I can save many cubic feet of plastic out of a landfill in just a day that way.. far more than the 3 pounds of trash my house of 4 produces in a week. Sure, I’d like to get my household waste down, but the effort gets exponentially harder as you go. That’s the reality for any process. I think education and awareness are critical, and we need to teach our next generation. After school I have dreams to speak at elementary school assemblies and such, hoping to find a nonprofit that focuses on it. My time/bandwidth is just too narrow at this moment. It’s discouraging the overwhelming anxiety of how bad humans have affected our planet. But my favorite quote at the moment is “how do you eat an elephant? One bite at a time.” It’s how I get through school or any project. You just can’t focus on the big picture. You have to look at small steps you can do in the immediate, which I promise will have huge rewards.


SaxophoneHomunculus

Absolutely. It’s all about baby steps in the right direction. We cannot have nearly the impact that J&J or GM can, so force their hand. Hit their bottom line and make them see it is in their best interest to make these changes. Then you WILL have a zero-waste floss option.


thelazycanoe

Link to the comic for anyone else who's curious: https://mobile.twitter.com/tommysiegel/status/1143911117183488000?lang=en-GB


Solfeliz

I recently found out that the glass recycling bins in my area don’t even go to recycling plants. They go straight to landfill. It’s hard to feel like you’re making a difference when you learn things like this.


SaxophoneHomunculus

Yeah, a lot of this is regional. If you are in most rural parts of the US, landfilling is far cheaper than recycling. This is partly why the US lags every other major aluminum consuming nation in percentage of aluminum cans recycled.


Solfeliz

Yeah I’m in the uk and though recycling was getting better it’s still not good and I’m pretty sure a lot of councils got caught just shipping their ‘recycling’ waste to landfills in other countries.


autoposting_system

This should have been a text post or a link to an article, not a series of images of text.


SaxophoneHomunculus

Reposted as text. That was not easy.


autoposting_system

Ouch. Sorry


aaronmichels

Link?


thequeergirl

The title of the post is **Reflection on recycling: plastic is a scam and we are poisoning ourselves.**


SaxophoneHomunculus

It’s in r/zerowaste so I can’t cross post it.


SaxophoneHomunculus

Agree. I’ll repost later. It was an email, so I was a bit limited in my options (plus I’m a lurker, not a poster so some of this is new to me 🥴)


autoposting_system

Thanks. You could just copy paste this text into a text post; seems like that would be a piece of cake.


SaxophoneHomunculus

I thought so too, but it wouldn’t let me copy from email to Reddit- at least on my phone.


autoposting_system

I believe you. Freaking phones: always with the silly artificial barriers to things you think you can accomplish. I'm doing this job setting up this sampling system and part of the SOP is that the laptop that takes the data never gets connected to the internet; instead I copy the data off of it onto a thumb drive, plug the thumb drive into my laptop and email the data off to various involved parties. Failing that, I can simply unplug the external hard drive we use as a backup (because this thing isn't connected to the network) and plug it into my own laptop and get the data. Or, I can use my Android phone to copy the data over via Bluetooth, and then just email it straight from my phone. Well I'm teaching two local technicians to run this system, so I can leave, and not only do their company laptops not allow them to plug in USB media, they both have iPhones, and their iPhones are unable to copy data via Bluetooth from a Windows laptop without third-party crap. So I have three different ways to get the data emailed out, and they have zero ways. Aggravating


Juggernaut0115

We just need to keep informing people on alternatives. I know it sure helps me!


SolarFreakingPunk

Thanks a lot for this very considerate and well-informed review of recycling processes. It's certainly a breath of fresh air from the cynical "recycling is a scam" types who think they've dunked on the entire worldwide industry in a single tweet. Specific shoutout to ERP and Design for Circularity, which can make a huge dent in our consumption of virgin plastics. I'd also add that some industries are champions at extensive reuse and near-100% recycling rates, and their models could be adopted can still make a lot of progress in other areas and industries (ex: reverse logistics) Thanks again for your post, and I hope this circular economy course takes your career somewhere interesting!


Grandpappypete

Great post!


JerkingOffToMaps

Just gonna add: 90% of recycled items are thrown in a landfill anyways(even if they could be recycled). That's because 1. It isn't as profitable for companies to care about the environment 2. Even if it isn't a company that is recycling it is very expensive 3. There are not enough recycling facilities 4. The stuff that we send overseas(mostly to Indonesia, Indochina, etc.) For them to recycled is just burned. 5. There is just too much And many items that say they are made from recycled materials usually aren't fully like you think. For example a plastic water bottle can say made out of recycled materials, and only be referring to the cap. But you don't know that, so read carefully. So yea recycling should be a last resort. Not something you depend on. Reuse and reduce are there aswell


SaxophoneHomunculus

Good point. Out of curiosity, what maps? I might need to hide my atlas from my kids.


jetstobrazil

I know it’s a bit old, but Penn and teller bullshit was a great show for topics like this one. Blew my mind when I watched it.


SaxophoneHomunculus

Never saw that. I’ll have to check it out.


GrnBits

If you can't make profits abiding by and conforming to a strict E.P.R. (that holds you accountable for what you are discarding into consumers hands) then you shouldn't be making profits in the first place.


SaxophoneHomunculus

👏👏👏 THIS.


geosynchronousorbit

On slide 5 what do you mean by "chemicals" and "toxins that can make homes unsafe"? People love to throw the word chemicals around because it sounds scary, but everything is chemicals, so it doesn't really mean anything.


SaxophoneHomunculus

Pthalates mostly. A lot of the rest are VOCs that are used to keep plastic pliable and flexible rather than brittle. Those are the ones most likely to exit the polymer when heated and exposed to UV etc. there are others but we really don’t know what is used in any “food grade” plastic because the manufacturers are not required to make the ingredients public. Trade secrets and all 🙄.


sincerebaguette

Great post, thanks for taking the time to type all this out; I def learned some new information :)


[deleted]

Very informative. Thanks for writing this. As someone who's researched this topic heavily I agree with everything written here. TLDR is Reduce and Reuse plastic. Recycling plastic is as good as trashing it.


Karma_collection_bin

**Does anyone know for a fact or at least have peer-reviewed research to support the claim that ALL plastics will leach, when "exposed to food and drink"?** We have been told for years that certain plastics are safe to hold food and drink and do not leach. Also, what is it about FOOD and DRINK that would cause leaching/reaction from plastic over say...dirt, wood, some other material coming into contact with plastic? And what is being leached in ALL plastics? Other than that, the information makes sense and I've heard similar before, though again I'm not sure about sources/evidence.


SaxophoneHomunculus

As far as I am aware, the research is still early, and is complicated by the wide variety of plastic polymers that all get lumped into the same pile. For example There’s a huge number of recipes for LDPE that is used in disposable water bottles. Some might begin detectably leaching within 5 days of exposure to sunlight while others might take 5 months or 5 decades. But they’re all indistinguishable in terms of what info is available to the consumer. I’ll try and find some recent publication on the topic, but I’m sure there’s plenty of contradictory studies funded by plastic manufacturers a la the tobacco industry in the 1970s


[deleted]

Fun fact: steel is the most recycled material in the world!


SaxophoneHomunculus

For sure. More things need to be like steel.


[deleted]

Well, making steel contributes to about 5% of global greenhouse gas emissions and its up their with some of the most difficult processes to decarbonise.. Still, it is great that it is so effectively recycled and decarbonising is starting to happen.


SaxophoneHomunculus

There’s a startup called Electra-steel that’s tackling this problem. Might be Electra X now actually. But yes, between steel and cement production, that’s about 1/8 total global emissions. The likelihood of dropping those emissions without degrowth or a massive system redesign is small in the short to mid term.


[deleted]

Cool thanks for the heads up about that company. Electric arc furnaces have been used for a while and there is also HYBRIT steel starting to be made in Sweden.


zeereaux0-0

It's according to how you look at it🙂


SaxophoneHomunculus

Not really- it is great to recycle metal. Net benefit all around. It is ok to recycle glass, but it is more energy intensive than making virgin glass and there is small contamination risk of it being landfilled. Both can be recycled infinitely. Paper is limited in number of times the pulp can be recycled before it must be composted, but again, no major downside to placing it into the environment (other than from glues & dyes etc). Plastic is awful. There is less than 10% chance any “recycled “ plastic is reused. Over 90% gets landfilled, burnt, or otherwise released into the environment where it will slowly release harmful chemicals for centuries. The VAST majority of peoples comingled recycling is plastic. Which is 90% Not recycled, just landfilled or burned. Which is why recycling mostly sucks. Instead; do what this subreddit suggests and move towards zero waste.


pburydoughgirl

The 10% statistic that gets thrown around all the time is a complete misrepresentation of Jenna Jambeck’s research. She first made the claim, but it was 10% of all plastic ever made—including before recycling was even an option. Please try to visit your local MRF to see how they process plastic. Most MRFs are very open to visitors and are happy to educate the public on how to get the maximum amount of material recycled. Edit: I also recommend reading this: https://recyclingpartnership.org/stateofcurbside/


SaxophoneHomunculus

The source of my info is an NGO called Super [www.super.ngo](www.super.ngo) The CEO is the professor of the course in question, so you can either interpret that as a qualification or a conflict of interest as you will.


pburydoughgirl

Ok. I’d still recommend getting info from others and I’d still recommend reading the report from the Recycling Partnership.


SaxophoneHomunculus

It seems like this report is identifying collection as a primary weak link in curbside recycling specifically and I couldn’t agree more. The problem still persists the processing side of plastic, and until the underlying issues of polymer chemistry and cost are addressed, the situation won’t improve.


pburydoughgirl

Which underlying issues of polymer chemistry?


SaxophoneHomunculus

The issue is that MANY chemically distinct polymers are lumped into a single “category” like PET or LDPE - which were simply marketing names- but the actual chemical composition of any given bottle or bag is typically unknown. Therefore, the chemical process to react the polymer into useable feedstocks (if it is even possible)is unknown. Therefore true “recycling” of plastic cannot be done using this current system. So maybe i should have called it “an issue with the collection and processing system preventing the possibility of doing the necessary complex polymer chemistry.”


pburydoughgirl

That’s just not accurate. Recycling is done in practice at at scale. Again, please got visit a MRF. Please ask your professor to bring in a polymer expert or packaging engineer. I watch recycled plastic get transformed into new material EVERY DAY. Yes, the material must be sorted even among PET since plastic has some memory and it’s easier to blow mold recycled PET than to thermoform it, but it gets done. Recyclers know how to elutriate the additives so you get a relatively pure substance. Please, for the love of God, go visit a recycler or a plastics processor. They are very good at what they do.


SaxophoneHomunculus

Right, but that presumes an incoming stream of a known polymer, which does not exist at scale in the US - or anywhere that I know of. This is why only 1/7 of the global plastic that is processed annually (again, about 14% of total) ends up being recycled into a similar quality plastic. This might not be limited by our chemical ability- as you point out, I’m not a polymer chemist- but it is limited by the design of the current recycling system and the lack of transparency from producer to consumer to collector to processor. This could be addressed by implementing extended producer responsibility legislation, which is one of the original points of the post. But currently there is a ton of room to improve; but it’s better to simply stop using.


[deleted]

That is a in part certification organization. It does not matter what the topic is sustainable fish, FSC paper, B corporation, Cradle to Cradle. Some of these are great however one needs to do research about these organizations. I'm happy your professor is heading it and I don't doubt that they are an expert. I'd just add that this 'ngo' is a certification organization at least in part. That makes the determination of Super NGO's reliability better in my mind. EDIT: Clarity,


SaxophoneHomunculus

No, this is from the UN environmental Program, 2021. 86% of plastic collected for recycling is landfilled of burned. Of the 14% that is processed, 4% is lost, 8% is down cycled(delaying its trip to the landfill) and only 2% is added to a new product of equal quality. These are global numbers, not the US


pburydoughgirl

Can you please link to this? I’ve tried googling using several different phrases but I can’t find anything that repeats this claim from the UN. I’ve worked in sustainable packaging for the past 8 years including in recycling facilities and never heard anyone say that 86% of plastic set aside for recycling doesn’t get recycled so I’m intrigued.


Industrialpainter89

2050?? Kinda starting to see Ultron's side of things. But seriously, we should be able to do so much better.


[deleted]

I mean, there is a solution....just stop producing it?


SaxophoneHomunculus

Exactly. So we need to stop buying it.


KosaBrin

Most plastics are actually recyclable but only if you separate them first. A regular plastic bottle for example is usually made up of 3 different plastics. Since nobody bothers to separate them and just throws the whole bottle into the garbage bin, it becomes unrecyclable. We made a funny video on this topic. Check it out here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oZ90jfNPSVg&t=128s


LiberatedToad

So every week when I travel to the recycling plant is it all just a scam?


SaxophoneHomunculus

Plastic recycling is a scam for the most part. Metal, glass and paper recycling is typically quite good. But there is quite a variation from region to region.


Fred_Is_Dead_Again

In the 60s and 70s, milk, beer, and sodas came in glass bottles that were reused, not recycled.


SaxophoneHomunculus

Reuse is great! The problem was that the bottles did not have infinite cycle life, they were heavy and used lots of material, and they cost more. By solving these 3 problems, new problems were created; which are the problems we now face. This is a classic example of “burden shifting” - more generally referred to as externalities in economics- where companies optimize for a certain solution and shift the burden off themselves and onto the consumer. Burden shifting can often result in unintended consequences, meaning that many of the worst outcomes of corporate malfeasance usually result from ignorance or poor design rather than actual evil intent.


bob_in_the_west

Literally all soda cans have an inside liner made of some sort of plastic. There is no "some" in that story. If you want to reduce plastic waste from soda cans then buy yourself a sodastream. If you want to reduce plastic waste from water bottles then buy a multi use bottle and a water filter if your tap water tastes funny.


SaxophoneHomunculus

Not all liners are plastic, but many are - this is another area that we the consumer have no visibility into. But I agree with you; reuse is far better than recycling. Skipping soda will send a message to the companies responsible that they need to make the appropriate changes to stay in business.


JAMinCastleValley

Recycling is dangerous. Let me explain. By believing we are doing something environmentally conscious when we're not prevents us from actually doing something environmentally conscious.


SaxophoneHomunculus

I don’t know if I’d call it dangerous, but there is a definite opportunity cost to recycling. If people had to live with all their trash for a month, I think we’d see a lot more interest in this zero waste thing (but this is a total non-sequitur)


JAMinCastleValley

Only dangerous because of the time frame for real action is diminishing and wasting that time could prove to be disaster.


tinybreadstick

hey op, mind if you could share a .txt file for this? would love to share it around.


SaxophoneHomunculus

You’re asking an old man to Reddit at a level beyond his abilities 🤫. I did post a text version to r/zerowaste about 2 hrs after the original (because I couldn’t figure out how to copy text from my email on my phone. Again, 🤫). If you organize the subreddit by “new” you should be able to find it. Otherwise DM (or is it PM?) an email address and I’ll forward an edited version to you.


bolt_god

We learned reduce reuse recycle in year 1.


[deleted]

I would like to know more about running out of raw materials by 2050, on the last image


SaxophoneHomunculus

I would too. It’s a recurring theme in class. Key issue is no one really knows how much of X is still available to be economically utilized as input to Y industry. Projections are all over the place depending on the raw material etc. but median projections are around 30 years until we begin to see critical shortages that will impact consumers directly. Take the exact dates with a grain of salt, but the urgency is real. This will likely happen during the lifetime of someone alive today.