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China Won't Solve the World's Plastics Problem Any More (wired.com)
An anonymous reader shares a report: For a long time, China has been a dumping ground for the world's problematic plastics. In the 1990s, Chinese markets saw that discarded plastic could be profitably recreated into exportable bits and bobs -- and it was less expensive for international cities to send their waste to China than to deal with it themselves. China got cheap plastic and the exporting countries go rid of their trash.
But in November 2017, China said enough. The country closed its doors to contaminated plastic, leaving the exports to be absorbed by neighboring countries like Vietnam, South Korea, and Thailand. And without the infrastructure to absorb all the waste that China is rejecting, the plastics are piling up. Between now and 2030, 111 million metric tons of trash -- straws, bags, water bottles -- will have nowhere to go, according to a paper published in Science Advances on Wednesday. That's as if every human on Earth contributed a quarter of their body mass in mostly single-use plastic polymers to a massive, abandoned pile of garbage.
But in November 2017, China said enough. The country closed its doors to contaminated plastic, leaving the exports to be absorbed by neighboring countries like Vietnam, South Korea, and Thailand. And without the infrastructure to absorb all the waste that China is rejecting, the plastics are piling up. Between now and 2030, 111 million metric tons of trash -- straws, bags, water bottles -- will have nowhere to go, according to a paper published in Science Advances on Wednesday. That's as if every human on Earth contributed a quarter of their body mass in mostly single-use plastic polymers to a massive, abandoned pile of garbage.
Sorting and re-processing the heaps might be a job for AI.
Table-ized A.I.
No, really. The recycle process is as follows - Reduce, Reuse, Recycle (in that order).
No one cares to reduce or reuse. Ok, fine. Then recycle it back to usable form of energy; burn it!
Life is not for the lazy.
They are running out of garbage, for real.
In the end they will burn it controlled for heating.
https://www.independent.co.uk/...
I'm not sure to what extend they were really "solving" the problem. I'm guessing that a lot of what gets sent to China for recycling ends up in a landfill where it's out of sight and mind from the Western world. As China continues to industrialize and build its economy they're probably running out of cheap labor that can handle it, whether that means actually recycling it or just finding somewhere to bury or dump it.
On the other hand, we might eventually not want to recycle all of our plastic. Eventually we'll stop burning oil and other fossil fuels (as we move to solar and electric power for more and more things) and plastic is a convenient way to sequester carbon. We could even bury it in old mine shafts or find other places to store it where it won't leach into the ground water or get eaten by marine wildlife. Presumably we'll even start scrubbing it from the atmosphere, but we have to do something with it.
Somehow they don't see a problem with exporting all that plastic in the form of cheap toys and electronics in the first place, eh? Man up, show some responsibility and start dealing with the problem you yourself have created.
Why would China allow importing other countries' garbage? That would amount to treason. That's because it was the WTO concession imposed upon China in exchange for them getting access to the world market at lower tariff. So while we are complaining "unfair trade" with China and ridiculing their environment problem, we must feel shameful about ourselves -- China (and other poor third world countries) had to sell out their environment in order to survive economically while we have ripped the benefits of a clean environment, something that our politicians and media never want to mention. Get down from your moral high horse!
When it comes to plastic waste, the opposite is actually true. This is because most of such waste is packaging.
If you were to ever go to a market in poor countries, one of the first things you'll note is that when you buy your daily products, they come in daily doses, packaged as such. Tiny shampoo packages, tiny soap packages, tiny deodorant, etc. Even food is commonly sold packaged as "this is your portion for the next meal".
This is because people in poor countries can't afford to pay for a bottle that will last them a month. That's a month you have to pay up front. Poor overwhelmingly live day to day, and products are portioned to match this need.
So for the same amount of product, you get order(s) of magnitude more plastic waste. Which is why the plastic garbage problem is far worse in Pacific and primarily originates from poor countries on the West end of Pacific.
Not actually the problem; it isn't individual plastics being contaminated but rather the joke of "single stream" recycling. A couple things in a truckload of recyclables can contaminate it sufficiently that it isn't worth sorting. At those kinds of numbers the answer is to get rid of single use plastics (and papers).
I hate plastic. The feel of it, the look of it, how quickly it breaks down with use. I've been slowly and surely eliminating plastic wares from my life for years. Moving to metal mixing bowls, glass bowls for storing things instead of tupperware, saving and re-using glass jars for storage instead of ziplock bags. I have a stainless steel milkshake cup I use for most of my beverages, instead of the typical american giant plastic cup with a sports team name on it. You know, simple changes.
The main thing that spurred all this was probably a mixing bowl.
I had a set of white plastic mixing bowls, and at some point I had to store some tomato based pasta sauce in one, after which, no matter how much I washed it, it was forever tinted orange. It just looked gross, and sparked the realization that; if the damn plastic bowl was so porous as to be permanently stained by tomato sauce, what the hell else might it have soaked up, and/or leached out of it?
After that, whenever I get a chance, I buy a stainless steel or glass version. Sure, costs more and will take longer to acquire some items, but I figure its worth it.
It all reminds me of the humorous observation:
At what point, did drilling an oil well in the middle east, pumping out that oil, putting the oil on a ship, sail that oil filled ship across the ocean, unloading the oil in America, piping it to a refinery, refining it into some form of plastic, trucking that plastic to a factory, forming that plastic into an object, boxing that object up, putting that box into another truck and trucking it to a warehouse, then from the warehouse to a store, from the store to your house, to be opened, used once, and then thrown away, ALL BECOME EASYER THAN WASHING THE FUCKING FORK.
I've decided to Diversify my Holdings. I've divided my cash between my left and right pockets, instead of all in one.
Cheap Chinese Crap needs to go!
i seen where shredded plastic was mixed with hot asphalt and roads and parking lots paved with it, i seen where old tires were converted in to rubber mats of various sizes. so with a little imagination i am sure plastic can be recycled in to something usable
Politics is Treachery, Religion is Brainwashing
I love reports like this. Some people are going to say that government regulation is the way to go and that people should cut back on consumption, etc. Maybe that's true to some extent, I dunno.
But really, I hope most people see this as a huge opportunity and that it lures creative entrepreneurs. That's how these problems are most effectively solved, and somebody is going to get absurdly rich off it, and I'm excited to see what they come up with. Don't bury it, don't send it to the sun, but find some way to make it useful again.
> Between now and 2030, 111 million metric tons of trash -- straws, bags, water bottles -- will have nowhere to go
Unless the laws of conservation of mass are to be repealed I guarantee that plastic will go somewhere. Therefore, by definition, it will have somewhere to go.
If solving the world's plastic problems meant dumping it in the Yangtze river thank god!
The out of sight out of mind policies of 1st world countries, off loading their environmental responsibilities on to countries that are least able to deal with it has to stop, it's an hypocrisy the world's ecosystem can no longer afford