Does recycling actually help the climate? (it's a relatively minor act, with the notable exception of metals recycling) ( yaleclimateconnections.org )

  • Myth: If you dispose of recyclables properly, they will be recycled.
  • Myth: Recycling is the best thing you can do to fight against climate change.
  • Myth: “Reduce,” “reuse,” and “recycle” are equally beneficial.
  • Myth: Anyone can recycle.
  • Reality: Recycling education could be more than just trash talk.
Overzeetop ,

Reduce, rise, recycle in that order. That last bit should be obvious, but I'm always surprised how many prior I talk to have never considered the progression.

BumbleBeeButt ,

Went to dump with greenwaste compost, saw recycling truck dump sorted recycling into general rubbish hopper. Councils are charging for services not rendered. Criminals.

silence7 OP Mod ,

Document it and send it to one of the papers. Assuming you're in the UK, this is the kind of thing tabloids would run with.

derf82 ,

There are a lot of problems with recycling, thanks largely to laziness and capitalism.

  • Plastic recycling is largely a marketing ploy. Oil companies (after all, most plastics are made of oil) and chemical companies saw that plastic waste was a huge issue that might stop people from adopting plastic. So they created a myth that it could easily be recycled and started marketing efforts to blame consumers for waste by not recycling. They still don’t know how to recycle some plastics, if they can it’s more expensive than new, and those that are get turned into lesser quality products that usually can’t be recycled again
  • We adopted single stream recycling to make it easier, but it just leads to massive contamination, which goes to the landfill. Furthermore, we also have to put forth a lot of effort to sort what isn’t contaminated.
  • Marketing, while promoting recycling, has also encouraged “wishcycling” where non-recyclable items are put in recycling because people wish they were and figure that recyclers will find a way.

My city, after getting so much contamination, lost its contract for recycling and just tossed everything put in blue bins. They have since reintroduced it, but making it opt in and providing stickers for the bins to make it clear what is and isn’t recyclable. Contamination has gone way down.

IntentionallyAnon ,

They only recycle resin id codes 1,2,5 commonly

floofloof ,

Many people believe recycling is the ultimate antidote to climate change.

Do they? I've never heard it. I've heard people say recycling is a way to reduce waste and pollution, but not that it addresses climate change. Is this really a common belief?

silence7 OP Mod ,

Yes.

https://slrpnk.net/pictrs/image/aa0b3211-013c-42e8-8eb6-66b2d8e91ae7.webp

DontRedditMyLemmy ,

What happens to aluminum foil in the waste stream? Does it get picked out and recycled?

silence7 OP Mod ,

There is no one answer to this kind of question; it depends on the specific facility handling your recycling. Some can pick it out and recycle it. Some just send it to a landfill.

The only way you get answers to this kind of question is to talk to the people responsible for it where you live, and understand what they do, and where things go after sorting

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