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Amazon says its plastic packaging can be recycled. An investigation finds it usually isn't. | Grist (grist.org)

submitted 9 months ago by [email protected] to c/[email protected]

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[–] southsamurai 9 points 9 months ago (1 children)

It's fucked up, but recycling is an empty thing when it comes to plastics of any kind. Limited times it can be done, economic non viability for most types, and lack of facilities to actually recycle any of them in a given state (for the US, but I doubt that's unique to here).

Pretty much, if it isn't a drink or milk bottle, it's trash that is going to end up as a problem. Even then you still run into how many times you can recycle the same plastic afaik.

Glass is a lot better. It's way cheaper to make new than recycle it, but at least it doesn't cause problems by existing.

What sucks is that plastics are bloody useful; doing away with them entirely would be more expensive, and lead to materials that just aren't as good at a given job being used instead.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 9 months ago (1 children)

Glass is not 100% recyclable. All recycled glass needs virgin material mixed-in.

The reason glass is great is because it can be reused, not because its a good candidate for recycling

[–] southsamurai 1 points 9 months ago

Cool beans, thanks for the info