Guess what? Any plastic marked with this symbol (for "recyclable") is not, in fact, recyclable. & stands for "OTHER" aka "everything else", and despite having a "recyclable" symbol in it, is not actually recyclable. #recycling#greenwashing
@ai6yr
See, the problem is the plastics industry pulled a fast one. Here's the actual "Recycle" logo.
After that logo was in place, approved, established, the plastics industry came up with a SIMILAR marking for indicating what resin the plastic was comprised of.
It's technically not a "recyclable" symbol. It's a "what this shit is" symbol that does not match the literal "Recycle" logo.
@kelvin0mql@ai6yr There's a great Planet Money episode about this, which pretty much boils down to this: plastic recycling is a scam, and it's basically run by the oil industry. Something like 10% of all plastics ever created have actually been recycled.
@KC8JC@kelvin0mql@ai6yr I actually really enjoyed that, especially after the bottle return kiosk got automated. It was really satisfying watching the bottles get checked in by the scanner, and having the receipt print out.
I buy a certain dairy’s milk products because the farm is 7 miles away. Every month or so, I bring a bunch of bottles at $2 each and exchange for some really great cheese that the local grocer doesn’t carry.
It WOULD be environmentally friendly, were it not for the ‘07 Tahoe I drive all these extra miles.
@kelvin0mql@KC8JC@ai6yr
We buy our milk from a milkman (local farmer) who delivers the milk to the doorstep and takes away the washed empty glass bottles 6 days a week. He also delivers 1 dozen eggs each week
It is cheaper than going to the supermarket too! #Longton#Preston#Lancashire#UK#Milkman#Recycling
@JosephAndriano Yep... aspirational recycling. It happens a lot here, even at my house... It assuages the guilt of the consumer, while doing... nothing.
@ai6yr I think we need to do a better job educating people about what is recyclable and what isn’t. I was about 35 when I first learned plastic grocery bags are not recyclable. I feel bad for recycling them for so many years, but I just didn’t have the proper information in front of me.
LB: note that the arrow triangles with numbers that are embossed on plastic items are not actually an indicator of being recyclable, it is an indicator of which kind of plastic it is
plastic manufacturers deliberately chose this marker to be confusable with the recycling symbol
@ai6yr These symbols just identify kinds of ‘plastic’ to facilitate recycling.
#7 means other and can be recycled, but not always. On the other hand #3 (PVC) cannot be recycled. Numbers 4 to 7 can be recycled sometimes.
The funny thing is that even numbers 1/2 can be recycled only if the there’s a processing plant in the area. But this should not surprise anyone, because if you have no recycling process nothing can be recycled. Not only plastics, but things like wood or paper.
@ai6yr Yup! Plastic was never "recyclable" - it was only ever re-usable. You can make stuff like Treks decking and that's about it. Plus, reused plastic is so brittle, I was told by someone familiar with it that they end up throwing a lot of cracked and broken plastic away during manufacturing of plastic lumber.
Remember: It's Reduce > Reuse > Recycle IN THAT ORDER.
@ai6yr Thanks for this info… you inspired me to go searching. We think our municipality asks us/allows us to separate these out and drop them at a specific site. (Can’t seem to find clarity on line.. might have to wait until we do our next drop off run). Of course what happens to them after that 🤷♂️
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