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

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
    1·
    3 months 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.

    • HubertManne@moist.catsweat.com
      0·
      3 months ago

      The crazy thing is the reduce is so easy. Im just old enough to remember soda being in aluminum cans and glass bottles and nothing else. It worked fine. There are some things were plastic has a significant benefit like medical but man. We don’t need to use plastic for pop. Getting meat from the butcher with butcher paper was pretty good to.

      • djsoren19@yiffit.net
        0·
        3 months ago

        ah but you see, it’s like 5¢ cheaper per bottle to put it in plastic now, so think of the corporate profits that would be lost if they switched back!

        Sure they’ll kill an ecosystem, but think of the shareholder value they’ll generate while it happens!

        • HubertManne@moist.catsweat.com
          0·
          3 months ago

          It is annoying as the glass bottle deposit thing was actually the cheapest option. It had a higher up front cost but once you returned the bottles it was cheaper. On top of that the taste is just better from glass as most beer drinkers know. Speaking of which beers should all use a standard bottle that does the same deposit/return thing.

          • AA5B@lemmy.world
            0·
            3 months ago

            I’m fine with transition away from glass. There’s always some asshole who likes to break them and leave the shards for the rest of us to step on. Nature is so much more enjoyable without broken glass

            • HubertManne@moist.catsweat.com
              1·
              3 months ago

              hey wanted to mention to you may not have realized how that system worked. Its much like oberwiess if you ever used them. Essentially you pay a depost that is like 50% of the cost of the item which means at the register 33% of what you pay will be the deposit. You then get it back when you return the intact, unbroken, empties. The glass is not recycled, instead the recepticals go back and are washed in machines that pretty much sterilize them with the heat they use (if you ever worked in a dishroom with a giant dishasher and seen what happens when the sides are detached when it was just running you would know how crazy hot it is). Anyway anyone who breaks containers running under that system is throwing away a considerable chunk of change.

              • AA5B@lemmy.world
                1·
                3 months ago

                Yeah, I guess I’m starting from the point that no one around here re-uses glass anymore. It’s all single use.

                Given that glass bottles are disposable and there is always some jackass breaking them for giggles and leaving the shards, I’d rather get entirely away. From it. Aluminum is very recyclable and doesn’t cut your feet

                • HubertManne@moist.catsweat.com
                  1·
                  3 months ago

                  The deposit system is way better environmentally though. Washing and reusing is a pittance compared to any type of recycling. I guarantee you would not see as much breaking of them. Oberweiss last I knew the deposit was two bucks but that was before the recent inflation.