And the last two words also struck me as kind of odd.
Recycling in the US Is Broken. How Do We Fix It?
Renee Cho, Earth Institute, Columbia University / March 13, 2020/ Phys.orgFor decades, China handled the recycling of almost half of the world’s discarded materials, because its manufacturing sector was booming and needed these materials to feed it. In 2016, the U.S. exported 16 million tons of plastic, paper and metals to China. In actuality, 30 percent of these mixed recyclables were ultimately contaminated by non-recyclable material, were never recycled, and ended up polluting China’s countryside and oceans. An estimated 1.3 to 1.5 million metric tons of plastic found its way into the ocean off China’s coast each year.
In 2018, China’s National Sword policy banned the import of most plastics and other materials that were not up to new, more stringent purity standards. The U.S. then sent its plastic waste to other countries, shipping 68,000 containers to Vietnam, Malaysia, and Thailand in 2018. When these countries later instituted bans on imported plastic waste, the U.S. diverted its waste to Cambodia, Bangladesh, Ghana, Laos, Ethiopia, Kenya and Senegal—countries with cheap labor and lax environmental rules. The U.S. still ships over 1 million metric tons a year of plastic waste abroad, often to countries already overwhelmed by it. Experts estimate that 20 to 70 percent of plastic intended for recycling overseas is unusable and is ultimately discarded. One study found that the plastic waste exported to Southeast Asia resulted in contaminated water, crop death, respiratory illnesses due to toxic fumes from incineration, and organized crime.
So what’s their margin of error?
+/- 100%?
In fact, was there any plastic recycled?
45 percent +/-15%? That’s around half or so; kind of at a guess?
Does it vary with type? Is that what they mean? I would image plastic bottles might be cleaner.
Penn Gilette used to have a show called Bullsh!t. A particular episode explained why the only material that is worth recycling is aluminum. Glass, plastics and paper all cost more to recycle than to generate new bottles or napkins from raw materials. And that doesn’t take into account the cost of sorting and cleaning the recycled goods
Translation: we have no idea and we’re too lazy to research it but still wanted contribute to the narrative.
Send plastics to trash burning plants, like the one in Pinellas county, Florida. Plastics are made from oil, and burning them produces a lot of heat. The plant in Pinellas county has scrubbers so good, that according to EPA testing they remove pollution from the ambient air (air coming out of the exhaust stacks is cleaner than air upwind of the plant). Burning it reduces the landfill volume it would have used by 90%.
The last two words confuse you?
Didn’t you watch Back to School?
He noted that the refuse business is not run by the Boy Scouts.
In NY recycling is a scam that funnels money to mobsters with some of it going back to the slimy NY pols via mafia kickbacks.
One truism you need to remember, Green Science is neither.
Well, it was just the way they dropped it in there, as if the shipping of recyclables caused organized crime, not just “was exploited by” it.