Postcard from California: Plastics 'recycling' – out of sight, out of mind(thenewlede.org)
thenewlede.org
Postcard from California: Plastics 'recycling' – out of sight, out of mind
https://www.thenewlede.org/2025/07/postcard-from-california-plastics-recycling-out-of-sight-out-of-mind/
4 comments
It boggles the mind that trash is being sent 8,000 miles, but this happens because profits are made at each stage of the process. Local waste collectors are paid by cities and counties to collect recycling. They sort and sell the valuable materials to whoever will buy them. Everything else is exported, because this is cheaper than sending it to local landfills or trying to process it domestically. Brokers and exporters profit by buying this waste cheaply and selling it at a markup to buyers in developing countries. Shipping companies make money by filling empty containers on return trips from the U.S., earning extra revenue with little additional cost. Overseas, small companies sort through the waste to extract and sell the small percentage that’s actually recyclable, often dumping or burning the rest.
There's been several companies promising a way to "recycle" plastics and other waste via pyrolysis that have yet to actually succeed. They all seem to be technically viable but not profitable (enough) and then go out of business.
It seem like it would be a better option to subsidize those efforts and maybe just break even rather than this environmental three card monte.
In a different universe, the government would invest in that solution rather than dumping it in third world countries and pretend it was taken care of.
It seem like it would be a better option to subsidize those efforts and maybe just break even rather than this environmental three card monte.
In a different universe, the government would invest in that solution rather than dumping it in third world countries and pretend it was taken care of.
Planet money episode Waste Land (https://www.npr.org/2020/09/11/912150085/waste-land) was also quite informative: plastic recycling was never a possibility. It was simply a marketing tool for the industry to sell more of it
Plastic is not recyclable. Chemically and economically. Simply not a reasonable proposition.
It was a myth created by the plastic companies to shift responsibility and blame from the producers (them) to the consumers (you).
It’s one of the most masterful campaigns of disinformation in history.