So, I’m not really interested in your opinion since almost every comment or post that I’ve ever read online about trash is based on trash knowledge about trash. I’m actually posting this “question” because it’s the biggest community on Lemmy where I can adjust my post to not break the rules and get a lot of people to read it.
This post is meant to inform you that unless you’re from one of the top countries when it comes to recycling and handling trash your knowledge is lacking about what’s possible and your country’s experts, politicians and media don’t know shit on this topic. I’m not going to make the environmental case since they already want better handling of trash. I’m going to tell you, with sources, how it’s technologically possible and above all profitable to handle trash. Since I’m from Sweden and we’re among the best in the world on trash I’m going to give you examples from Sweden.
Anyway, to the point
- By using landfills you’re burying money, trash has value. In Sweden only 1% of trash goes to landfills. We recycle about 47% and burn 52%.
I know what your knee-jerk reaction is: “Burning trash, how’s that environmental? What about air quality and other stuff?”.
Well, we clean the fumes extremely well and take care of the remaining waste by either using it or putting it in very controlled landfills.
Burning 4 tons if trash is equal in energy to burning 1 ton of oil. There’s your economical argument. We heat a million homes through district heating and provide electricity to 250,000 homes by burning trash. We’re 10 million people in the country.
Alright, I’m getting tiered of writing since I don’t know if this post will be removed or downvoted to obscurity I’m feeling my motivation diminishing so I’ll just finish on the big topic of plastic.
You’re wrong about plastic recycling. At least I’ve never read a comment that was right about it.
It is possible, and profitable to recycle almost all kinds of plastic. In Sweden we have one company that basically does all of the plastic recycling, “Swedish Plastic Recycling AB”. They’re currently building the world’s largest plastic recycling plant in Sweden, Site Zero.
It’s a mostly automated recycling plant that will be able to handle ALL of the plastic from the entire country and sort and recycle the following: PP, HDPE, LDPE, PET tray, PET bottles (colored and transparent), PP film, EPS, PS, PVC, two grades of Polyolefin mix, metal and non-plastic waste.
If this message resonated with you, feel free to take the post and expand upon it and by writing it better, providing more sources and making better arguments than I have. Then just paste it whenever the topic of trash is brought up.
The best way to recycle is to re-use. In a professional kitchen; we see meat like chicken come bagged inside bags inside double walled / waxed cardboard boxes. -They could come in re-useable containers and go back to the source on the truck they came from.
Yeah, the 3 Rs are great. But it’s not happening and you’d need to change the government structure before you can enact the political change that would be required. But even if you’d manage to get rid of 90% of waste in the next decade, which you won’t, what’s your plan for the millions of tons that are left?