Companies knew for decades recycling was not viable but promoted it regardless, Center for Climate Integrity study finds

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.”

  • slingstone@lemmy.worldEnglish
    43·
    9 months ago

    Why couldn’t we switch back to glass as our primary container material? Wasn’t that always fully recyclable?

      • ILikeBoobies@lemmy.caEnglish
        30·
        9 months ago

        For people that don’t want to read/don’t already know

        It’s the types of sand, desert sand is useless

        • shastaxc@lemm.eeEnglish
          142·
          9 months ago

          Sounds like someone needs to make a new glass processing method so we can use desert sand

          • force@lemmy.worldEnglish
            9·
            9 months ago

            Sorry but this comment is completely ignorant of the chemistry & manufacturing… you can make some shitty unusable glass with it, but unless you waste an unsustainable amount of resources to try to make the problems less apparent, a majority of desert sand is too low-silica to work. It’s a problem with the material, no new glass processing method will change that.

            And if you do decide to use desert sand, it’s practically a logistics nightmare, especially considering you’ll likely have to be centered in one of the few deserts made of sand (most of which are in North/South-East Africa and the Middle East, but also Central Asia, Australia, some parts of the Americas). But even if you did it’s not sustainable or practical, and it most probably won’t be in the future, there’s a reason glass manufacturing plants smack dab in the middle of sandy deserts have to import their sand.

        • Omgpwnies@lemmy.worldEnglish
          6·
          9 months ago

          I wonder if we can “recycle” desert sand to have more of the properties that we’re looking for… It seems the biggest problem is it’s weathered in such a way that it doesn’t bond properly as an agregate like sand harvested from the water does

    • azenyr@lemmy.worldEnglish
      16·
      9 months ago

      Good luck shipping stuff in glass packaging. Very heavy, extremely fragile, big, expensive. Glass is only worth it on reusable stuff. We need to find a good material for “throwaway” stuff. Eco plastic made from stuff like bamboo are great starting points. They feel like plastic even mcdonalds is using this material for their throwaway spoons. And it can’t be that expensive or they wouldnt be using it for free spoons

      • bitwolf@lemmy.oneEnglish
        4·
        9 months ago

        PLA is made from beet juice and degrades in a few weeks I’ve recently learned

        • ReveredOxygen@sh.itjust.worksEnglish
          6·
          9 months ago

          There might be a plastic that applies to, but it’s definitely not all PLA. PLA is the main material used for hobby 3d printing and I can’t say prints tend to degrade in weeks (or smell or beets)

        • AnyOldName3@lemmy.worldEnglish
          5·
          9 months ago

          It degrades in a few weeks in a heated industrial composter, and it doesn’t meaningfully degrade in a sensible amount of time in natural conditions. It has the potential to be less bad than other plastics, but anything that biodegrades in a similar way to food is going to go off at a similar rate to any food it’s containing, which is obviously bad for packaging.