TIL Only about 9% of plastic ever produced has been recycled. - eviltoast
  • RubberDuck@lemmy.world
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    3 months ago

    Haha… yeah I live in the Netherlands. And my city started separately collecting plastics.

    Here’s the kicker: because there is no more plastic in our waste, the energy value of the waste went down. The city sold these waste “rights” to an incineration plant that reclaims heat and energy who now cannot use the waste. So to avoid contractual fines, our city now imports plastic waste from elsewhere in Europe to be mixed in with the waste and then incinerated.

    Well fuck me!

    • This is more expensive for the city (separate bins, separate collection, separate processing, buying plastics from elsewhere and getting it here)
    • All the extra transport and shipping movements is worse for the environment.
    • I’m stuck with an extra fucking bin, and with both a greens bin and the rest bin that are collected once every 3 weeks instead of 2… stinking up the place even worse.

    But I’m sure they meant well.