Read on Twitter
it's been publicly known for decades that most plastic is not recyclable and the stuff that is can only be recycled a few times. I'm not saying that to make people feel bad for not knowing, but to invite you to consider how corporate propaganda actually works
I learned in primary school that you can only really recycle plastic types 1-3 and they degrade significantly. i'm 32. this information is there if you look for it, but most people don't; this is what information suppression looks like, usually
do you know what this logo means? it means you can't recycle this plastic type because it's made of a mix of various crap that will burn instead of melt if you try to reshape it. that is... not what it looks like lmao
most plastics aren't really recycled and if they are they usually aren't recycled into the same stuff, or at least not indefinitely. like, soft drink bottles are used to make polar fleece, not new soft drink bottles. and then the polar fleece isn't recycled
anyway i fucking misremembered which plastic types are recyclable so i really truly wanna emphasise it's not people's fault they didn't know the answer is "basically none". nobody has time to thoroughly investigate the basis of the instructions they're given every time
this too! recycling sorting is incredibly hard work and badly underpaid. i saw some vacancies at these plants when I was jobhunting and I couldn't believe what they were offering for a 12-hour overnight shift, and I'm sure many workers don't even get that https://twitter.com/arielestrins/status/1305034095043293184
it's also just, people have their worldview and they generally just won't accept stuff that doesn't fit into it. to assimilate the information that plastic recycling is not really worth it, you have to reject the whole liberal environmentalist framework, basically. it's a lot
"wish-cycling" is such a great word and it's exactly this. people get really upset and angry when you tell them something can't be recycled, or not practicably; it's like you're telling them it's fine to trash the planet https://twitter.com/penguinpastiche/status/1305075510540599297
follow @penguinpastiche if you want to know more about recycling — where it can have an impact, where it can't, why reducing resource use is always more important https://twitter.com/penguinpastiche/status/1305075658469466117
on wish-cycling: i stopped telling my housemates what stuff couldn't be recycled because 90% of the time they would get really sad and then continue to put it in the recycling. it was like their brains couldn't process the depressing reality of how much waste we produce
if you put a pizza box with grease stains on it in the recycling you haven’t made the pizza box recyclable you’ve made the recycling into landfill
but like, that’s probably happening regardless, so whatever
shout out to all the people QTing to talk shit about biodegradable plastic. practically nothing biodegrades properly in landfill anyway because it’s packed down so much it’s deoxygenated. your old carrots are just turning into fossil carrots
it’s worth having a compost pile if you have the space imo, I’ve done a 180 on this. the trick is to remember you don’t have to have “good” compost. good compost is a myth invented by Protestant bosses to make you feel like a sinner for not digging
is it going to save the world? oh absolutely not but it won’t actively hurt anything and you might find a use for it
“Well what do we do then if we can’t recycle any of this plastic?” Boycott plastic! Buy ONLY products that come in glass, paper — ahahahah I’m just kidding, can you imagine? We have to overthrow capitalism
