“Other people don’t so why should I.”
This meme is terrible.
You’re missing the point. Microsoft, Apple, Facebook, Twitter, Amazon, and Google aren’t people. They’re criminal corporations given free reign to poison the rest of us.
I’m not arguing that you shouldn’t try sustainability. I was brought up with the mindset. We sort our garbage, I mend and reuse as much as I can. It’s good not just for the environment and your wallet, but it’s also a protest against the consumerism pushed onto society.
That doesn’t mean that we should focus only on individual action (or inaction) and turning away from the actions of these massive corporations particularly not when they’re blatantly flaunting them right in front of us. What point is there in me criticising you for taking an aeroplane to visit your family once or twice a year when you have Donald, Musk, and Taylor Swift riding private jets on a weekly basis? Like it doesn’t even compare.
The Toxic Lie of American Recycling: How Plastic Shipments Are Destroying Asia
For decades, the U.S., along with other countries, have been sending much of its plastic “recycling” to Asian countries to process, as running a well-functioning recycling program is more labor intensive and expensive than Americans would care to operate.[1] This relationship began as a way for Asian countries to turn a profit by importing the U.S.’ recycling to manufacture into new plastics.[2] But when the imports became excessive as Americans used more and more plastic, some countries chose to ban them, leaving an even heavier burden on places still accepting the imports.[3] Malaysia is one such country feeling this strain.[4]
In 2018, China, Asia’s largest recycling importer at the time, ceased 99% of its plastic imports.[5] Malaysia learned just how much recycling China had been taking when it much of it began showing up at their ports.[6] While from a legal standpoint, Malaysia still has a say in how much recycling they accept, there is a strong network of illegal imports that fly under the radar and pollute Malaysia’s air, water, and soil.[7] Unlicensed operations in Malaysia import recycling, hire cheap labor, establish factories, and process the plastic in dangerous and toxic ways without adherence to environmental regulations.[8] Not everything that is illegally imported is turned over for manufacturing, leaving a good part of the plastic to rot or burn in illegal landfills, causing plumes of toxic smoke and contaminated groundwater linked to widespread illness.[9] The Malaysian government says enforcement attempts to stop illegal operations has been feeble.[10]
STOP CONSUMING SINGLE USE PLASTICS YOU ASSHOLES.
That goes 1000x for multinationals. But anyone bitching about recycling is either ignorant on this point or outright maliciously perpetrating the problem.
The point is to speak up and demand change. The disposition of blame (or the disproportionate onus of responsibility) should frustrate everyone.
There’s a great video on this topic.
Where I live, they don’t pick up green waste. You have to take all of that to the dump and pay a good amount of money to throw your green waste in with the trash.
It’s absolutely bullshit.
start composting, and turn that green waste into green money (or food)
start composting
In my non-existent backyard?
Can’t you just put your green waste in the trash?
Yeah, I tried that. They refused to pick up the trash that week and they gave me a nasty little letter.
I’d just get a sort of grinder and grind it all into a paste. Sort through it bitches.
Wtf are they gonna do? Take me to the trash court?
And if they do, I’ll dry the paste into solid chunks and throw it specificaly at their mamas
Yes, but the main issue is how mixed the materials are in our consumables. Mixed recycling is basically bullshit. We should have more standardized packaging and more categories of separation strictly enforced. Japan does this pretty well.
You could opt in to pay extra for sorting if you can afford it sure.
And emissions need to be better taxed, and illegal dumping and discharge into rivers and such a jailable crime with big fines for businesses with accountability going right up the chain to investors.
Japan’s ultra-organized and visible garbage separation is mostly for show and establishing “social harmony.” 80% of their municipal waste is thrown into incinerators- the highest of all countries in the OECD.
That’s a result of Tokyo and the other biggest cities only separating into recyclable bottles, non-recyclable or non-burnable material (i.e. inorganics) and all the rest which is as you say incinerated.
They also have some, if not the most clean burning incenerators in the world, and they use the waste material for construction and land reclamation.
Burning plastics at very high temperatures is far more environmentally friendly than sending them to landfills or attempting to recycle them.
Nevertheless they are known for excess packaging and obviously my arguments about standardization still apply to Japan as much as anyone else.
Japan is also very short on space which i think is a major factor in why they use incinerators more than traditional landfills.
The UK Government are taking steps to address this, whilst also charging the companies for the material they use as well as charging extra if it’s a mix. The situation is currently a mess with the rules being different only a mile down the road, so even just to have some standardisation is appreciated.
https://www.gov.uk/guidance/simpler-recycling-household-recycling-in-england
This is nice to see. I wish they’d actually do something about our water companies too.
Washington State does this well too. Almost every bin you see, from downtown Seattle to upstate near Victoria to Mount Rainier, everything is separated by trash, metal, and paper
Edit: or something similar. Haven’t been up to Washington in a bit
How about we start shipping recyclables back to the company that made them to recycle them?
you know those little dots on the bottom of glass bottles? they shave one off every time it’s recycled. whether it goes back to the original manufacturer or not, idk. but you can occasionally get recycled bottles with your drink.
they shave one off every time it’s recycled
I suppose in this case, you would call it “reused”?
They are probably cleaned with boiling water and some chemicals before being refilled.By “recycling”, I would normally think of melting and reforming.
liberal climate action in a nutshell
it’s hard when no true left party can get any attention and fucking centrists are all that’s left
Doesn’t help with the centrists either claim they’re the left or think doing anything is too far left 😭
Hopefully AOC will out shumer (sic) and we can make a start at it
Sorting your trash is the human equivalent of planting a tree, and it’s especially valuable if you have/teach children. It’s a small activity that helps to build better habits and mindsets.
It won’t change the world today, but it will build a foundation for changing the world tomorrow.
This reminds me of something I was commenting about yesterday.
Focus on your immediate environment first, and make your little corner of the world better before you worry about saving the universe.
And like you said, it is a habit and mindset thing. If you plant a tree in your yard or in your community, no it will not save the rain forest, but your mental health and physical health and living conditions will all be slightly better off than they were before it.
If you start intentionally working in these positive actions that provide tiny incremental improvements, before you know it you may be feeling more than incrementally better.
If you start intentionally working in these positive actions that provide tiny incremental improvements, before you know it you may be feeling more than incrementally better.
some of those positive actions and changes can be really fun, too. sometimes it’s hard to tell whether you’re going to enjoy something before you dive into it, especially when the brain is in misery mode.
It’s a small change that everyone can make for themselves, and for their piece of mind. This shouldn’t feel like a chore - and even more so a particular blame we take on from the big corpos.
Doing what’s technically right is what will change the world - even if our enemy is a corpo cartel.
If what is right is butchering the capitalist class¹. Yes.
¹pretty sure that’s a big part of it.
Every tree you plant will be torn out.
Right so we should just never plant trees and never even try to give back to the planet that provides everything we need to live because one day that tree might be ripped out or cut down, or die naturally.
Until you kill the fuckers tearing them out, you’re just lying, making yourself comfortable with doing nothing.
We absolutely need to be planting and nourishing those trees.
And they must, unfortunately, be watered with blood.
I’ve planted several trees in my life and none of them have been torn out. A few have burned in a forest fire, though.
Dont forget about paper straws!!!
I know this isn’t the point, but I do like to carry a set of portable cutlery around and often use it eating out. It’s usually a smallish case with metal straw(s), chopsticks, a knife, spoon, fork. Which one time lead to me forgetting my metal straw at the restaurant of course…
I’ve got a similar set.
Fun fact; you can get a set of like 12 metal straws pretty cheap, and at least the set I got came with silicone mouthpieces, so if you forget one somewhere you can just throw a new one in!
Do you just carry the dirty utensils with you after eating, aren’t there biodegradable single use utensils out there, why not use that instead
You wipe em, and make sure to wash em later. Biodegradable single use will still be more wasteful and probably cost more.
I have a fork that has lived in my work van for over 3 years. A little bit of spit and napkin and its ready to go, maybe some hand sanitizer if I’m feeling fancy.
Regular recycling isn’t even an option where I live. You can literally only get a regular trash container. Sticks/leaves etc they’ll take if you bring it to a center but there’s no collection for that either.
I just do it to help the people that makes a buck recollecting re-usable garbage like plastic bottles and plastic stuff in general
It’s not bad to do. We probably even need to be doing it.
It’s just like putting a band-aid on a papercut while the three inch radius hole in your chest sprays blood
Yes it’s true, but to me it’s not mind, time or physically consuming to throw on the right bin
Yeah if it’s exactly zero effort it’s fine, but asking others or shaming them for not is counterproductive.
Unless you think you can somehow reason with billionaires¹ there us precisely one way out and we need to stop pretending anything else will help until that is done.
If you are not a killer, you are not helping the climate.
¹you can’t. People have tried and it did not go well. That’s why we have such a bunker boom!)
Also pick up that can
deleted by creator
Don’t use whataboutism to shirk your responsibilities. Recycling properly is a good and necessary thing. Though it’d be more effective to create less waste in the first place.
Way to not understand the meme bro. This isn’t about shirking responsibilities or even not recycling. It is about the government telling us to recycle but not regulating big business at all. But go on with your liberal talking down on everyone schtick
The meme used a shitty comparison. The green bin program is one of the most effective and effecient waste reduction strategies. It reduces the distances garbage may have to travel, it reduces methane gas production, it reduces landfill use which extends landfill lifespans, and it creates clean enough compost to be used locally for decorative gardens and lawns.
Using something like don’t buy that product, the government says its bad, meanwhile the government failing to regulate said product would have maybe been a better comparison.
Not everything needs to be written out like you wrote for it to be understood for people who can read into context. It literally says “The government wants us to get this right” that is the crux of the message here. Nowhere in the meme does it say not to recycle or that recycling is bad, the juxtaposition is that no one is telling Meta to do anything but they are telling people to sort trash.
It absolutely and explicitly implies that recycling isn’t worth bothering with because companies will fuck shit up anyways
Recycling is necessary and putting band aids on your ouchy papercuts doesnt help shit while you have a cannonball exit wound in your chest.
When the billionaire class is dead and gone, it will matter.
Until then its onanistic victim blaming and I take offense.
Being in practice can only help. There is no downside to it
Sure, go nuts. But cardio and marksmanship would do more for the environment, if that’s really what you care about.
I was about to say thanks for the free ableism, but you did edit that out, so kudos, I guess.
Anyway, I dont see those two messages as being hypocritical because these are two separate issues. The main benefit of residential waste diversion is to extend the life of landfills – the climate benefits are secondary. Even if someone is a climate change denier, they should want waste sorting because landfills are expensive and their taxes would go up to build new ones.
The government asking you to sort your waste isnt an example of them failing to tackle the main actors of climate change. It’s cities trying to mitigate a separate issue.
Most green bin programs are run by municipal governments. Big polluters are typically regulated by state/provincial governments or federal governments.
I wanted to make that point too, but since the discourse is currently at the “I like pancakes. So you hate waffles?” stage, I didn’t think we were ready to get into separation of responsibilities lol
I interpret the meme as “theres no point doing this right because big corps aren’t expected to do anything right”. Either way i think there was a better way to get the message across.
Does the city your in put the green bin in a different place than the others?
Most places it’s just different trucks headed to the same landfill.
Many cities process the organic waste at their landfill sites. They also often allow people to come buy the compost from the landfill.
Some do. Some just dump it like everything else.
Why would a city go through all the logistics of running a green cart collection just to toss it on the same pile of trash? Some loads may be too contaminated to be composted but the vast majority of cities collecting organics seperately will turn it into compost. Your city’s website likely has more details about how their landfill and collections operate.
In Poland we do have a lot of separate trash bins at the lowest levels, because it was ordered by local administrations to look good. It is disheartening though when you observe it all go into a single trash truck every time.
Because someone said they had to have a program and they just kind of did the bare minimum.
Because they meant well and hired a company to do it, and dumping was ehat they were set up to do.
Because they meant well, and then found out facilities didnt exist or there was a liability issue that made them skittish but the program had already been in campaign ads so constituents still had to see the bins, but the city would just be putting them wherever…
Trash recycling is a scam advertised by plastics companies so they wouldn’t be regulated by tricking gullible people like you. Most trash that is “recycled” is put into a landfill with no processing.
It’s not “more effective”, producing less waste would be the only solution. Which we aren’t doing because, again, plastics companies paid for decades of propaganda.
Liberals love to not solve problems and then throw themselves dramatically onto phrases like “whataboutism”.
Most trash that is “recycled” is put into a landfill with no processing.
I wouldn’t say most trash, just most plastics. Glass and especially cardboard and aluminum are able to be recycled almost endlessly and are more efficient to recycle than their original production cost.
They are able to, that doesn’t mean they are. I cannot find any data on residential recycling rates, and I have to assume, given the track record, that capitalist countries are doing the most wasteful thing that is the worst for the environment.
For cardboard and especially aluminum/copper there’s actually a pretty compelling profit insensitive for recycling them. For glass, it kinda depends on your locality.
Recycling properly is a good and necessary thing.
Recycling plastic is mostly bollocks by numbers. To go by EU figures at best slightly over half of it even is recycled, of which 35% is thermically recycled i.e. burned. Another 1,3 Million tonnes which I can’t be arsed to manually calculate the numbers for get “shipped for processing” i.e. end up in a landfill / ocean / slum someplace else.
