Always has been, always will be. Hardly any plastics can be truly recycled, and producers have known for decades: Report Plastics producers have promoted recycling their products as an environmental solution for decades despite firsthand knowledge that it was not feasible, according to a report published Thursday.
Metals and glass can be recycled - glass containers can be reused, in fact Hildebrand Dairy here in Kansas has these old-fashioned half gallon milk bottles - which carry a deposit of a couple of dollars so there's incentive to take the used ones back for the refund. We ought to go back to local dairies and glass milk bottles, in fact, bringing back the milkman and even local grocery delivery might be a good idea. I can remember my grandmother calling up Fred Wolferman at his grocery, reading off a grocery list for a week's worth of groceries, and a truck coming by the next day to restock the pantry. I think most plastics are going to wind up being burned for fuel to produce heat, I did some research in my synthetic organic chemistry group (where I did my PhD) on recycling, but it turned out to cost more energy than it was worth, if depolymerization could be done at all to give anything close to usable raw feedstocks. I'd support going back to paper straws, waxed paper, and what we put food in before plastics came into wide use. I can remember back in the mid-1970s eating Dannon yogurt out of waxed paper cups, which were great fire starters...
Metals and glass can be recycled - glass containers can be reused, in fact Hildebrand Dairy here in Kansas has these old-fashioned half gallon milk bottles - which carry a deposit of a couple of dollars so there's incentive to take the used ones back for the refund. We ought to go back to local dairies and glass milk bottles, in fact, bringing back the milkman and even local grocery delivery might be a good idea. I can remember my grandmother calling up Fred Wolferman at his grocery, reading off a grocery list for a week's worth of groceries, and a truck coming by the next day to restock the pantry. I think most plastics are going to wind up being burned for fuel to produce heat, I did some research in my synthetic organic chemistry group (where I did my PhD) on recycling, but it turned out to cost more energy than it was worth, if depolymerization could be done at all to give anything close to usable raw feedstocks. I'd support going back to paper straws, waxed paper, and what we put food in before plastics came into wide use. I can remember back in the mid-1970s eating Dannon yogurt out of waxed paper cups, which were great fire starters...