logoalt Hacker News

owenversteeglast Wednesday at 4:54 AM1 replyview on HN

Plastic recycling of any type is a complete fraud on the public, inefficient, and highly destructive to the environment in several ways. A comment I wrote a few days ago on another plastic recycling discussion:

The real issue with plastic recycling is twofold: it is a dead end and recycled plastics shed microplastics like crazy. Other materials, such as metals, can effectively be infinitely recycled, but plastic cannot; recycled plastic is worse than virgin plastic in every way. It also destroys the environment around us, because recycled plastics are effectively really shitty plastics that shed everywhere.

In short, plastic recycling is a fraud perpetuated by greenwashing initiatives. The only proper thing to do with old plastic is to incinerate it at high temperatures that achieve complete combustion. This is rare though; most plastic is burned at low enough temperatures that it causes pollution.

Great stuff, plastic, huh?


Replies

meindnochlast Wednesday at 1:29 PM

^ This times 1000.

Just look at the "wonderful" products they make from recycled plastic: https://www.preciousplastic.com/solutions/prods

Each and every one of them is a low-quality, microplastic-shedding abomination. You can literally see their surface crumbling. Now imagine what UV and heat cycling does to mystery meat plastic like this. Horrible quality, bad for the environment, bad for humans. Stop doing it.