The real joke is how annoying it is to clean plastic waste before recycling it, only for it to end up not getting recycled at all
We have been played for actual fools
The real joke is plastic recycling to begin with. It’s an inferior product, one much more likely to produce harmful microplastics.
Almost as bad as biodegradable plastics.
Reduce, reuse, recycle. Recycling is supposed to be the last resort, not the first choice for profits.
Am doing work with plastics. When someone says “made with 100% recycled plastic” I automatically know it’ll be brittle and it’ll suck. Sadly, plastic isn’t really recyclable. The bonds break down in the injection machine itself if you leave it a minute too long (heated). Now imagine getting a product that was injected properly, cutting it up, then remelting it, making pellets out of it and then melting those pellets to inject again. Plastic isn’t metal, it doesn’t melt and freeze without loss of strength.
I seem to remember some of the biodegradable plastics being chill and some of them just decomposing into like micro plastics way faster which doesn’t matter at all and sucks, somebody reading this get me a source on that it’s 12:16 and I’m tired
I’m not sure about the chill ones, but most of them just put starch in the polymer chain at various intervals. Bacteria break down the starch, which visibly breaks down the plastic, however it leaves behind tiny polymer chunks - microplastics.
I imagine a good biodegradable plastic is quite expensive, probably more so than other green alternatives.
Corporations have been doing this shit for 50+ years and have never been held accountable.
Cleaning plastic for recycling and believing it gets recycled is important to make people accept plastic in their lives. It was never really about recycling.
Isn’t that the whole point of climate denial? It’s easier to pretend it doesn’t exist. Yes. How is this a joke?
Satire isn’t always pure fiction. Sometimes it’s just reiterating a stupid point to highlight how ridiculous it is. Satire doesn’t mean “fake” and the success of the joke is not dependant on whether or not people are making those same arguments themselves. In fact, a lot of the best satire assumes the headline you’re putting forward is mocking genuine but daft arguments.
The Onion ran out of satire years ago. Now they’re just accurately reporting on real life stories.
OP is from another satire site
Edit: once again I’m reminded not to swipe type blindly
what’s up with all the fatalists here?
I affirm climate change by throwing them out before the recyclers get a chance to throw them out.
Understandable.
But also, how about actually cooking food.
Plenty of ingredients for cooking come in single use containers
Not ones that you wash out to recycle.
Meat trays would like a word with you.
Mine are all Styrofoam. What do you have?
styrofoam is recyclable and requires rinsing before recycling
Quick search says
Styrofoam is recyclable, but it is only accepted by a very small number of recycling facilities.
So maybe technically but not in practice in most places.
The ones around here are made of P.E.T. Recyclable and washable.
I cook a lot and still have tons of plastic. Cheese. Quark. Cream.
Cauliflower? Wrapped in plastic.
Cucumber? Individually wrapped in plastic, or in a bag.
All protein? Plastic film and maybe some styrofoam for good measure.
Asian pears? INDIVIDUALLY WRAPPED IN STRYOFOAM MESH
Small tomatoes or berries? Plastic container.
If someone buys their fresh foods from a grocery store, some things are impossible to find without already being wrapped in a ton of plastic. And they came in on a truck where the pallet was wrapped with another metric ton of plastic wrap.
It’s everywhere. Even when you’re not buying something wrapped in plastic, it was probably already wrapped in plastic and the store already threw it out for you.
None of which is recyclable, except the berry container.
