It depends. I find a lot of Japan will burn plastic that isn’t economically viable to be recycled, with a lot of effort spent on scrubbing the smoke of harmful chemicals. That seems to be better than other alternatives.
plastic that isn’t economically viable to be recycled
Almost no plastic is economically viable to recycle. Even when it can be done you can usually only put a few % into the new product before it fails to meet spec.
Surprisingly ‘make less plastic’ is the answer to ‘we have too much plastic.’
Indeed. I remember where I lived in Japan it was specifically PET plastic only (and I’m pretty sure it wasn’t even all forms of PET). That generally amounted to just plastic bottles for various beverages, only. Meanwhile lots of other types of plastic were in existence as well.
There is a total energy savings compared to making new plastic, but it is only like 10-20% less energy. But that is a better solution than jusy dumping into a landfill. And yeah a plastic plant recycling material for new plastic bottles is like 16-20% recycled and the rest new material, so you need to make 4 bottles at least to consume an old one, so it is an expanding pyramid of bottles required.
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It depends. I find a lot of Japan will burn plastic that isn’t economically viable to be recycled, with a lot of effort spent on scrubbing the smoke of harmful chemicals. That seems to be better than other alternatives.
Almost no plastic is economically viable to recycle. Even when it can be done you can usually only put a few % into the new product before it fails to meet spec.
Surprisingly ‘make less plastic’ is the answer to ‘we have too much plastic.’
Edit: Check out Climate Town’s Awesome Video on plastic!
but what about the plastic makers? /s
Indeed. I remember where I lived in Japan it was specifically PET plastic only (and I’m pretty sure it wasn’t even all forms of PET). That generally amounted to just plastic bottles for various beverages, only. Meanwhile lots of other types of plastic were in existence as well.
There is a total energy savings compared to making new plastic, but it is only like 10-20% less energy. But that is a better solution than jusy dumping into a landfill. And yeah a plastic plant recycling material for new plastic bottles is like 16-20% recycled and the rest new material, so you need to make 4 bottles at least to consume an old one, so it is an expanding pyramid of bottles required.