What is the truth behind recycling?

A lot of materials get tossed into recycle bins, but how much of that is actually used? The reason I’m asking this, is I’ve heard from three different people now that all “trash” is hand sorted into categories, so there’s no use worrying about what can you throw something into. When it comes to the materials I’ve no doubt that aluminum cans, tin cans, anything metal is reused. With paper I wonder how much of that is actually turned around. And the biggest one are plastics, especially plastic bottles, which I’ve heard many are not even recycled, even if they go to the recycle plant. Thanks to anyone with some real world insight that can shed a little light on this.

B-Man ran into a recycling issue not long ago at McDonald’s. The straw was recyclable, but they didn’t have a recycling bin there.

He titled the thread “Tuesday morning deep thoughts” LOL

Not much, apparently about 5% of plastics get recycled.

https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2022/may/04/us-recycling-plastic-waste

Are union guys do some work in these plants. As I understand it most does get reused, except for plastic, mainly the pop and milk jugs. Depends on the market and need, but if that’s not there I heard they shred it and goes to a landfill.

When most these garbage burner plants are shut down most all goes in a landfill unfortunately

That is really pathetic that is that low of a percentage. Why bother then?

China used to buy the bulk of our recyclables…..nuff said?

Yeah, I’ve heard the same with plastics – it takes more $$ in energy to refine it back into a usable raw product than most of the end-products are actually worth.

I’m ready for plastic packaging to be gone. Bring back deposits on aluminum and glass. Use paper for the rest. When we can recycle 98% of road surface, but cant get more than 5% out of plastic we need to reevaluate.

Riverrat wrote:

I’m ready for plastic packaging to be gone. Bring back deposits on aluminum and glass. Use paper for the rest. When we can recycle 98% of road surface, but cant get more than 5% out of plastic we need to reevaluate.

x2 so much stuff is double wrapped in plastic, then sent to home in a plastic bag or plastic bubble wrap. Even produce now comes in plastic often.

I live in a small town in southeast Iowa. We used to have large recycling bins around town, marked for all the recycled stuff (glass, paper, cardboard ect.)
They removed them and now they just take everything to the landfill. There is a recycling depot here but they charge you for taking your stuff into them. I don’t get it ?? So a town of 12,000 people we have virtually no recycling. Used to be 10yrs ago recycling was offered all over town and you felt bad if you didn’t do it. Now there is nothing.

Someday theyll be re mining the landfills for plastics or metals I always thought to myself .

My garbage and recycling both get scooped in to the same garbage truck.

BigWerm wrote:

<div class=”d4p-bbt-quote-title”>Riverrat wrote:</div>
I’m ready for plastic packaging to be gone. Bring back deposits on aluminum and glass. Use paper for the rest. When we can recycle 98% of road surface, but cant get more than 5% out of plastic we need to reevaluate.

x2 so much stuff is double wrapped in plastic, then sent to home in a plastic bag or plastic bubble wrap. Even produce now comes in plastic often.

I don’t get how these companies that sell things online (Amazon, Target, etc) cannot come up with a way to have 100% of the packaging be paper. Sure the boxes are cardboard…but all of the bubble wrap/bags of air seem unnecessary in most things we order. Styrofoam is another thing that seems like we’d have come up with a better alternative to by now with regards to shipping. If you buy an appliance, toys, furniture, everything is packed in styrofoam that doesn’t really compact nicely or recycle.

When I lived on Maui, they outlawed plastic bags.. it was not a big deal. We just took our re-usable cloth bags to the stores… at Target, there were no bags other than the re-useable ones they sold for .99 Most grocery stores also had the re-useable, but most also had paper that were .20 per bag… for the tourists who didn’t know better than to bring their own ! They also got rid of all plastic food containers for take out, no more styrofoam, it was either cardboard or biodegradable products. Straws were either stainless steel or paper… it wasn’t hard to get used to.

You’d be amaazedhow many people think styrofoam is recyclable. And pet food bags. And used napkins/paper towels… I could go on and on

big_g wrote:

When I lived on Maui, they outlawed plastic bags.. it was not a big deal. We just took our re-usable cloth bags to the stores… at Target, there were no bags other than the re-useable ones they sold for .99 Most grocery stores also had the re-useable, but most also had paper that were .20 per bag… for the tourists who didn’t know better than to bring their own ! They also got rid of all plastic food containers for take out, no more styrofoam, it was either cardboard or biodegradable products. Straws were either stainless steel or paper… it wasn’t hard to get used to.

Duluth has tried to get rid of plastic bags by making retailers charge 10 cents for them. A lot of folks dam near lost their mind over it and all the “too much government” folks started beating their drum. I’ve used reusable cloth shopping bags for the last several years. Way easier because you can fit way more in the bags.

Plastics to styrofoam I can’t believe we can’t do better with packaging to worm containers, I snorkeled many clear lakes in mn and wi and cannot believe how many worm containers are on the bottom of these lakes and also styrofoam coolers. Let alone the ocean! All this push for “green” energy and climate crisis BS, I’d say let’s get this disposable world we live in under control first! Imo.
The amount of trash we produce we should be building more refuse burners for our power needs. Imo

gregory wrote:

Plastics to styrofoam I can’t believe we can’t do better with packaging to worm containers, I snorkeled many clear lakes in mn and wi and cannot believe how many worm containers are on the bottom of these lakes and also styrofoam coolers. Let alone the ocean! All this push for “green” energy and climate crisis BS, I’d say let’s get this disposable world we live in under control first! Imo.
The amount of trash we produce we should be building more refuse burners for our power needs. Imo

Went snorkeling a couple winters ago out of riviera Mia on the mesoamerican berrier reef and pretty crazy how much little plastic pieces are floating around.

The US over packages everything. Wrapped in plastic then stuffed in a box when majority of time product doesn’t need either

What about all the plastic fishing line, soft plastic baits, hard plastic baits, plastic tackle boxes, plastic transducers, head units, and on, and on, and on, of all the plastic used in the fishing industry.

You literally can not fish without plastic.

The hypocrisy and ignorance about plastic is alarming from all the expert commentary above.

I’m not getting rid of my plastic but all this other plastic has to go…what?

Do you know why produce and food is wrapped in plastic and the benefits of it?

Paper and cardboard—-where does that come from?

Why can’t plastic go into a landfill?

What if the title of the post was this.

What is the truth behind recycling in the fishing industry?

Would the response be ban soft plastic baits immediately? Does anyone know what they are made of? Are they recycled?

But let’s ban plastic bags cause it’s easy to be for that right?

Who here recycles their fishing plastic?

Hey wrote:

What if the title of the post was this.

What is the truth behind recycling in the fishing industry?

Would the response be ban soft plastic baits immediately? Does anyone know what they are made of? Are they recycled?

But let’s ban plastic bags cause it’s easy to be for that right?

Who here recycles their fishing plastic?

Some things do need to be made out of synthetic materials.

Cardboard fishing line or chartplotters made from sheep’s wool aren’t realistic.

What people are talking about is the ridiculous and excessive amount of packaging with so many things, often times with non-biodegradeable foams and plastic, when foams made out of natural starches and paper out of renewable tree pulp would work just as well.

Also think about how many trillions of water/soda/sports drink bottles that are used once and thrown away.

Why can’t these things come in an aluminum can? Or a glass bottle?

Nobody is perfect, but there are little things we all can do.

I quit buying plastic solo-cups a couple years ago. The Ball Canning company came out with aluminum solo-cups. They are awesome, cheap, reusable and recyclable. Everyone should try them.

Hey wrote:

What about all the plastic fishing line, soft plastic baits, hard plastic baits, plastic tackle boxes, plastic transducers, head units, and on, and on, and on, of all the plastic used in the fishing industry.

You literally can not fish without plastic.

The hypocrisy and ignorance about plastic is alarming from all the expert commentary above.

I’m not getting rid of my plastic but all this other plastic has to go…what?

Do you know why produce and food is wrapped in plastic and the benefits of it?

Paper and cardboard—-where does that come from?

Why can’t plastic go into a landfill?

So why not reduce its use in situations where it’s not so necessary or doesn’t add a ton to the convenience factor? Surely any little bit bit we can do makes a difference in the long run, as with most things.

B-man, exactly. Don’t know why it’s so god darn hard for some people to think this way. Not everything has to be ALL OR NOTHING

Hey wrote:

What about all the plastic fishing line, soft plastic baits, hard plastic baits, plastic tackle boxes, plastic transducers, head units, and on, and on, and on, of all the plastic used in the fishing industry.

I didn’t realize all of these items were only one-time use. I tend to use my fishing line, lures, tackle boxes, transducers, and head units on more of a long term basis. I think it would get a little expensive to just use a transducer once and then toss it. And then buy another one and do the same.

I recycle plenty of my fishing waste. Soft plastics get kept in a bag and at the end of the year are melted down and reused either in molds or to dip hooks for hook protection. Fishing line that I used and everybody else’s that I find gets brought in to fishing line recycler bins (where that goes I don’t know). But my reels don’t need to come in a clamshell package, my rods don’t need that layer of plastic over the handle. There is room for improvement Hey, and apparently room for whiny negative nancy’s as well.

B-man wrote:

<div class=”d4p-bbt-quote-title”>Hey wrote:</div>
What if the title of the post was this.

What is the truth behind recycling in the fishing industry?

Would the response be ban soft plastic baits immediately? Does anyone know what they are made of? Are they recycled?

But let’s ban plastic bags cause it’s easy to be for that right?

Who here recycles their fishing plastic?

Some things do need to be made out of synthetic materials.

Cardboard fishing line or chartplotters made from sheep’s wool aren’t realistic.

What people are talking about is the ridiculous and excessive amount of packaging with so many things, often times with non-biodegradeable foams and plastic, when foams made out of natural starches and paper out of renewable tree pulp would work just as well.

Also think about how many trillions of water/soda/sports drink bottles that are used once and thrown away.

Why can’t these things come in an aluminum can? Or a glass bottle?

Nobody is perfect, but there are little things we all can do.

I quit buying plastic solo-cups a couple years ago. The Ball Canning company came out with aluminum solo-cups. They are awesome, cheap, reusable and recyclable. Everyone should try them.

^Nailed it.

If we just cut back a small fraction of plastic where it’s NOT needed and doesn’t necessarily inconvenience us…it would make a difference. There are ~330 million Americans. Imagine if each one used ONE or TWO less plastic bottles or foam cups per week?

Call me lame, but I like drinking my coffee out of either my same Yeti stainless mug or my about 60 year old Leinenkugel’s coffee cup at home every single day. I don’t need the gas station foam cup 4 or 5 times a week just to toss it an hour later.

You guys nailed it, if we all changed a couple small things it would have huge impact!
A couple years ago they routed this Ragnar run up our rural gravel road And I thought it was neat how they ran it and people were great in there follow cars, until the next day and they were all drinking electrolytes out of little plastic bags and tossed them while they were running. They were everywhere in valley!

I know the exact event you are referencing gregory. For years people have complained about both the traffic issues as a result of that many people jogging and slow moving vehicles on the roads, as well as the garbage left behind.

4 or 5 years ago I got called an “A-hole” by a group of teammates for a runner because I honked my horn around blind corners while towing a 28′ trailer so the people running at me knew I was coming (as most of them jogged in the middle of this backroad with minimal visibility). It took every ounce of my willpower to not get out and start decking marathon runners.

buckybadger wrote:

I know the exact event you are referencing gregory. For years people have complained about both the traffic issues as a result of that many people jogging and slow moving vehicles on the roads, as well as the garbage left behind.

4 or 5 years ago I got called an “A-hole” by a group of teammates for a runner because I honked my horn around blind corners while towing a 28′ trailer so the people running at me knew I was coming (as most of them jogged in the middle of this backroad with minimal visibility). It took every ounce of my willpower to not get out and start decking marathon runners.

Yup.

Hey wrote:

What about all the plastic fishing line, soft plastic baits, hard plastic baits, plastic tackle boxes, plastic transducers, head units, and on, and on, and on, of all the plastic used in the fishing industry.

You literally can not fish without plastic.

The hypocrisy and ignorance about plastic is alarming from all the expert commentary above.

I’m not getting rid of my plastic but all this other plastic has to go…what?

Do you know why produce and food is wrapped in plastic and the benefits of it?

Paper and cardboard—-where does that come from?

Why can’t plastic go into a landfill?

Who said ALL plastic had to go ? What they did in Maui had an immediate impact on the areas around the superstores… Walmart, Target, Kohls… take a look around them here… there is a fence that catches the plastic bags that blow around them stores… that literally disappeared in weeks after they eliminated the plastic bags on Maui. Also the “take out” containers, again, used for a few hours and thrown away, another big item removed from the landfill. It takes a plastic bag 1000 years to break down… and even then, its still releasing toxins. Again, if we can eliminate the high volume one use items, it will surely help. As far as Duluth’s experiment, its like a band-aid, you gotta just rip the bags out of the store.. don’t make them pay to pollute, just get rid of them and have an alternative available. People are fairly adaptive.