Plastic's raw material producers, some of the largest companies in the world, have known for more than 60 years that recycling is not an economically or technically feasible plastic waste management solution. That has not stopped them from promoting it, according to several reports and insider information.Plastic, which is made from oil and gas, is notoriously difficult to recycle. Doing so requires meticulous sorting, since most of the thousands of chemically distinct varieties of plastic cannot be recycled together. That renders an already pricey process even more expensive. Another challenge: the material degrades each time it is reused, meaning it can generally only be reused once or twice at most, before losing it's properties.
The industry has known this for decades, but obscured the information in its marketing campaigns. Over the past several decades, industry companies have referred to plastic recycling as "uneconomical" and that it "cannot be considered a permanent solid waste solution".
In the 1950s, plastic producers came up with an idea to ensure a continually growing market for their products: disposability. They knew if they focused on single-use plastics, people would buy and buy and buy! In the 50's, the Society of the Plastics Industry told producers to focus on "low cost, big volume" and "expendability".
Over the following decades, the industry told the public that plastics can easily be tossed into landfills or burned in garbage incinerators.
More recently, one big company confirmed that: "We are committed to the activities [of plastics recycling], but not committed to the results".
(...)
source:
https://www.theguardian.com/.../recycling-plastics-producers-report
- you are very welcome to come 
feed
![[Valid HTML 5]](images/valid-html_501.gif){kind=small}
![[Valid RSS]](images/valid-rss.png){kind=small}