this post was submitted on 02 Sep 2024
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A Boring Dystopia
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Recycling is mostly a scam. Most recycled trash is just dumped on third world countries.
This is wrong, please stop spreading this misinformation.
It probably differs from country to country, but in Germany, for example, between 38-48% of plastic is recycled (source). Sure, that‘s far from all of it, but still far, far better than nothing. Falsely claiming that recycling is mostly a scam and, by that, implying that it doesn‘t make sense to try to recycle you trash, is a horrible idea and only makes the situation worse.
That’s just Germany though. They said most, so unless Germany is responsible for most plastic recycling, globally, it’s not misinformation.
Yes it is.
Generalizing something as a "scam" without any sort of facts to back up that claim is plain and simple misinformation. If OP did, for example, say that they're referring to the US specifically and that the issue isn't really the recycling part, but the corruption part, I'd be completely fine with their claim. The way it's written right now is misleading at best, and straight up false at worst.
Also, no, it's not just Germany.
Right away that wiki says that only 9% of plastic produced has been recycled, and only about 1% has been recycled more than once. So… yeah, most plastic recycling advertised is a lie…
Sorry that I can't really take your argument seriously, but which recycling advert claims to recycle every bit of plastic ever produced on earth? That's what those 9% are.
I'm sure there are misleading ads in the recycling industry. Those are practically everywhere. But I'd really like to see that one.
The percentages which are probably actually used in promotional material, because they actually have something to do with what your local recycling plant is responsible for, and not what has been polluting the environment since the early nineteen-hundreds, can be seen in the table for Regional Data, which I've previously linked to.
If you still want to stick to the claim that because only 9% of every bit of plastic ever produced by all of humankind (1% more than once) makes plastic recycling in general a scam, I'll be genuinely envious of your ability to reach mind-twisting conclusions from data which has absolutely nothing to do with the actual argument and your persistence in keeping that opinion. Maybe you can teach me sometime.
That regional data link is broken for me. Goes to the larger recycling article, not a regional data table. That must be why I missed it.
Still though, if only 9% of it gets recycled, then the general claim that plastic is recyclable does seem like a scam, which is likely what the commenter above was referring to.