tof

Real news, not politics!
This podcast is from 99% Invisible which is an outstanding podcast series from Roman Mars' Radiotopia group and KALW Public Radio.
This episode, National Sword, looks at serious setbacks in recycling that have developed in the last year or so. It will surprise you. It also gets into how to recycle better, and what can be done about product packaging and design. You can listen to the podcast in your browser here, and also view some related videos referenced in the podcast.

https://99percentinvisible.org/episode/national-sword/

MsPerky

I saw a show a few years ago that said that some places were giving up on recycling (I believe plastic) because their facilities could not keep up.

Scooterboy

Yet most everyone uses plastic water bottles and plastic bags.

I was thrilled when recently I got a a box that was filled with packing peanuts made with corn starch. I dumped them in the sink and they dissolved!

Kyras

No kidding? Interesting.

Scooterboy

Kyras

I think I got some of those once because I smelled the difference and tasted one. I didn't know it could go down the sink.

zeroptzero

I don't know about everyone's region but China doesn't want our recycled goods any more, recycling was a bigger business when the Chinese would take it all, now it has to be more heavily processed/sorted or they won't take any of it. Also, I personally don't want to recycle/sort wet food materials, I'd rather compost them myself rather than put aside a container for wet food waste, we don't have wet food waste being recycled yet but they are talking about it and they have it in other regions of our Province.

The one issue I see in our system is they want people to sort the goods into various streams. Most people I deal with on a daily basis don't read or don't want to read and they just don't give a damn about sorting streams. They can't even place the goods in appropriate sorting bins and will use just about any container they can find in their home that they want to get rid of. I was once told that in Europe they pick up all of the recycling goods at one time, and all of the sorting gets done at the recycling plant, not sure how true that is but it would make recycling more effective for people who just can't seem to get it right. Penn and Teller had a video about recycling myths , I am not sure if it is 100% accurate but some of the ideas they were suggesting had some merit, it certainly opened your eyes to the recycling process.

Scooterboy

NNY S2k

^^^^Same here.
Levi

Legal Bill

This is old news, but the main reason that I have heard does not appear in the 99% Invisible outstanding podcast series from Roman Mars' Radiotopia group and KALW Public Radio. (I can't believe it doesn't have a longer name.)

My understanding is China decided it would only take 99.5% pure raw recycling materials. The US single stream that many of you have described above is no better than 95%.

https://www.pri.org/stories/2018-07-...ca-get-cleaner

https://www.mcclatchydc.com/latest-n...213532024.html

I didn't hear anything about a movie about a little girl who bathes in recycled water.