• Dirt_Owl [comrade/them, they/them]@hexbear.net
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    9 months ago

    Steal a loaf of bread? Arrested

    Steal the future of an entire planet? Oopsie poopsie zero punishment and we aren’t even going to stop them.

    A reminder that this is the only place we know of in the universe that supports life. The gravity of this crime cannot be overstated.

    • lil_tank@lemmygrad.ml
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      9 months ago

      Tbh I didn’t know

      I knew my country did send “recyclable” plastics to open air mass garbage dump in Africa (certified “not a colonial empire anymore” moment).

      But I genuinely thought that recycling plastics was eventually possible

      • Comradesexual@lemmygrad.ml
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        9 months ago

        I kinda wonder how many “known” issues people are naively believing in. Maybe I naively believe in something. I wish we’d get more posts like this to uncover our naivety.

        • EllenKelly [comrade/them]@hexbear.net
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          9 months ago

          there’s scientific articles dating back to the early 20thC clearly outlining an understanding of greenhouse gasses and anthropogenic global warming, which is not exactly what you’re asking, but it’s an incredibly frustrating tidbit

    • DragonBallZinn [he/him]@hexbear.net
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      9 months ago

      I would watch the shit out of that.

      porky-scared-flipped: “Your honor, I didn’t murder anyone! My pollution was never INTENDED to kill anyone, I just didn’t care if people lived OR died!”

      porky-scared-flipped: “They always had the choice of buying my canned air if they wanted, or not buying my oil at all. How is it MY fault the human race picked my product over their future?”

      porky-scared-flipped: “I know in socialist Europe you hate freedom here at the Hague, but in good-ol USA we support this thing callled ‘freedom’. Ever heard of it? Well I’ll have you know that pollution is a human right! It grows the economy! What are we, a bunch of browns?”

  • octobob
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    9 months ago

    This isn’t exactly a big revelation or anything.

    I built machinery for plastics recycling for 7 years. The plastics producers were extremely picky about what could be ground down into pellets to be evacuated to the beginning of the injection molding process. To my knowledge, about 99% of what was being “recycled” as they call it, were “in-house” plastics. Basically material that never leaves the manufacturing facility it’s created in. This could be just about anything that doesn’t meet QA standards. So like, your product has a big bulge in it, or it’s the wrong density, color, etc. I’ve seen our granulators in action when I did service, and you wouldn’t believe how much needs to be re-made. There was a dude with a sawzall who’s whole job was to cut the tops off these big containers, and load them in the granulator. 3 shifts in a row there was someone doing this, 24/7.

    This is getting beside the point but I do know that a little bit of the wrong color dye getting into the granulator would ruin the whole batch, and it would go to waste. So no, there’s no way that big piles of random garbage are getting turned back into re-usable plastics, unless the recycling facilities are doing something different or have some sort of equipment I’m not aware of. I know they don’t buy any granulators.

    It’s a bit of an open secret in my county that al recycling goes to the dump anyway. They don’t even try for easy stuff like cardboard. Same as a lot of places in the US.

    • Tachanka [comrade/them]@hexbear.net
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      9 months ago

      the imperial core even outsources its waste so it can blame the periphery for being more wasteful.

      and this is on top of outsourcing production to places like China, and then blaming them for carbon emissions. Like Vijay Prashad said, “try to produce it in your own countries, and see your carbon emissions rise.”

    • ashinadash [she/her]@hexbear.net
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      9 months ago

      Oh nice so there’s actually 100% no point in sorting the container recycling here? At work they make a big thing about sorting plastics properly, but the way my work does it versus the apartment down the street seems random; work puts tin cans and other metal right in with small plastics, whereas certain apartments separate plastic and metal. Does it all just go into the trash anyway?

  • Acute_Engles [he/him, any]@hexbear.net
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    9 months ago

    Local news here did a fun little thing where they bought 3 pallets of recycle plastic and put trackers in them. They ended up getting thrown into the landfill, not even shipped to another place just to the trash

      • keepcarrot [she/her]@hexbear.net
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        9 months ago

        Metal and glass are the most recyclable. Paper can be, but a lot of them get covered in plastic which makes it harder, and the fibres deteriorate over time (e.g. tissue and toilet paper are the last cycle, better to compost). Grease can prevent paper from being recycled but apparently makes excellent compost so that’s where your pizza box goes.

        Large bits of plastic that are clearly labelled can be recycled, but it’s a huge amount of effort for small bits. Plastics melt/soften at different temperatures and react to different solvents, so if you get a giant plastic bag with bits of foam, bottles etc. It’s a lot of labour that could be spent elsewhere. Also, a lot of plastic is soiled with food oils, bits of leftover milk, etc which you need to remove even if you do want to recycle. Easier to just crush and export.