Little of the mixed consumer plastics thrown away or placed in recycle bins actually ends up being recycled. Nearly 90% is buried in landfills or incinerated at commercial facilities that generate greenhouse gases and airborne toxins. Neither outcome is ideal for the environment.
  • Rentlar@beehaw.org
    6·
    8 months ago

    Interesting discovery! I’d bet oil and petrochemical companies would be all over funding and trying to commercialize this research, because it means we wouldn’t need to fully “wean off plastics”…

  • Hirom@beehaw.org
    6·
    8 months ago

    Let’s have plastic producers demonstrate their product can be recycled cheaply at scale before selling it. And the logical next step is require all plastic sold to be at least 50% recycled to ensure recycling is commercially viable and actually done at scale.

    We shouldn’t be producing mountains of plastic waste then let society struggle for 40 years to find a way to recycle all of it (burning isn’t recycling). It should be the other way around, producers should demonstrate recycling first and use recycled plastic in their production.