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‘They lied’: plastics producers deceived public about recycling, report reveals (www.theguardian.com)

submitted 6 months ago by HowRu68@lemmy.world to c/world@lemmy.world

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Plastic producers have known for more than 30 years that recycling is not an economically or technically feasible plastic waste management solution. That has not stopped them from promoting it, according to a new report.

“The companies lied,” said Richard Wiles, president of fossil-fuel accountability advocacy group the Center for Climate Integrity (CCI), which published the report. “It’s time to hold them accountable for the damage they’ve caused.”

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[-] cronosisma@feddit.it 10 points 6 months ago

people will start hypothesizing every type of plastic substitute imaginable at the cost of moving the entire Sahara desert to the Pacific Ocean and talking about "Western packaging" vs "Chinese packaging". my loves, we live in a system that leads us to consume continuously and more and more, what do you think about stopping buying and producing what is not needed?

[-] Worx@lemmynsfw.com 9 points 6 months ago

You're not necessarily wrong, but also 90% of food is packaged in plastic. Cheap food especially, which is all that a lot of people can afford.

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[-] Gerula@lemmy.world 8 points 6 months ago

God forbid! Don't you dare say that! We need everything, but especially what we haven't bought yet and ridiculously overpriced branded shit! /s

[-] n3m37h@sh.itjust.works 9 points 6 months ago

No fucking shit

[-] azenyr@lemmy.world 9 points 6 months ago

Everytime I buy something from a local shop or a western brand, it comes packaged with minimal plastic, and a lot of well thought out materials. Even if they use plastic, its always a very thin plastic and very "soft". Can't describe. But when I buy ANYTHING from aliexpress you can tell it came from china just by looking at the packaging. It has SO MANY LAYERS of plastic, and very hard and thick plastic. If you buy for example a single keychain comes with 20x the weight of it in plastic. They smell so much to plastic chemicals too, something that "western plastic" doesn't smell like. Every time I have to drink from a paper straw I remind myself that a 10x10cm sticker I bought came with 5kg of plastic and still arrived damaged from shipping.

We don't need to reduce even more. We need to somehow force china to reduce it. I am againt taxes for everything, but maybe tax the amount/weight of plastic that comes on stuff you get from china. And find a way to tax the sender, not the buyer. Maybe that will make chinese companies to actually think about reducing they 50 tons of useless plastic waste they make each second.

[-] ManosTheHandsOfFate@lemmy.world 6 points 6 months ago

I've noticed that Japanese candy often has a ton of packaging. There'll be a box of small mints and you open it to find each one individually wrapped.

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[-] Extra_Special_Carbon@lemmy.world 9 points 6 months ago

The thing is, chemists knew it. Nobody wanted to hear it. There are only three things worth recycling: Aluminum, glass, and electronics.

[-] Gabu@lemmy.world 10 points 6 months ago

That's extremely reductionist and inaccurate. Most metals can be recycled easily, not only aluminium.

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[-] ryathal@sh.itjust.works 5 points 6 months ago

Glass is marginal at best for recycling. It's good for reuse. Cardboard is almost as good as aluminum for recycling

[-] aesthelete@lemmy.world 8 points 6 months ago* (last edited 6 months ago)

There's still thousands if not millions of products out there marketed as microwave safe plastic. There's no such thing. Get this toxic shit out of contact with your food. Feel free to mark my words for later when the science finally catches up and shows that it's a major carcinogen.

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[-] kttnpunk@lemmy.world 8 points 6 months ago

Well, as a american- everywhere I've ever worked has had a recycling bin but it's always treated as another trash can. Just something that depresses the absolute fuck out of me.

[-] Zehzin@lemmy.world 6 points 6 months ago

If it makes it feel any better, even if it were used properly it wouldn't get recycled

[-] WoahWoah@lemmy.world 5 points 6 months ago* (last edited 6 months ago)

The whole point of the article is that, in general, it WAS just another trash can.

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this post was submitted on 15 Feb 2024

1209 points (99.6% liked)

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