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submitted 3 weeks ago by fpslem@lemmy.world to c/news@lemmy.world

Is there anything more pathetic than a used plastic bag?

They rip and tear. They float away in the slightest breeze. Left in the wild, their mangled remains entangle birds and choke sea turtles that mistake them for edible jellyfish. It takes 1,000 years for the bags to disintegrate, shedding hormone-disrupting chemicals as they do. And that outcome is all but inevitable, because no system exists to routinely recycle them. It’s no wonder some states have banned them and stores give discounts to customers with reusable bags.

But the plastics industry is working to make the public feel OK about using them again.

Companies whose futures depend on plastic production, including oil and gas giant ExxonMobil, are trying to persuade the federal government to allow them to put the label “recyclable” on bags and other plastic items virtually guaranteed to end up in landfills and incinerators.

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[-] Eatspancakes84@lemmy.world 57 points 3 weeks ago

Household plastic is essentially non-recyclable. No way is plastic waste ever sufficiently sorted by the type of plastic, or cleaned sufficiently from food rests etc. The focus should be on Reduce, Reuse, and properly dispose. That most likely means burning it. Great? No way. Better than in nature? Hell yeah. Better than shipping it to Asia for pretend recycle? Definitely.

[-] reddig33@lemmy.world 14 points 3 weeks ago* (last edited 3 weeks ago)

Yep. What isn’t recycled should be burned for power plant fuel. It’s made from fossil fuels anyway. It doesn’t belong in a landfill.

We really need to tax single use plastic for the REDUCE part. It would make a huge dent.

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this post was submitted on 15 Aug 2024
351 points (99.7% liked)

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