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A guy at the coffee shop in Portland said recycling is fake, and I haven't stopped thinking about it
He told me 6 months ago that only 9% of plastic actually gets recycled and the rest goes to landfills or oceans. Now I'm wondering what small stuff I'm doing that actually matters, so what's one change you've made that you know is real?
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ruby_bell4725d ago
9% sounds bad but that number gets thrown around a lot without context. That figure comes from a 2018 study that looked at all plastic ever made, including stuff like pipes and car parts that were never meant to be recycled in the first place. Your milk jug and soda bottle have way better odds than that if you rinse them and your city actually has a plant nearby. I've been recycling for years in a city with decent programs and yeah some of it is fake, but not all of it. The real problem is that folks hear one scary stat and give up on everything, which is kind of what the oil companies want you to do.
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