The article in the url below contains an interesting and detailed description of how our recycling industry is currently working following China's ("National Sword") decision to stop taking waste from the West in 2018. Given that this change has essentially caused the system to collapse, the article is also a telling indictment of our collectively shallow response to what is an existential threat. The details are complex and the article is an interesting, if depressing, read. One quote, in particular, is worth highlighting here:
"In the UK, recycling rates have stagnated in recent years, while National Sword and funding cuts have led to more waste being burned in incinerators and energy-from-waste plants. (Incineration, while often criticised for being polluting and an inefficient source of energy, is today preferred to landfill, which emits methane and can leach toxic chemicals.) Westminster council sent 82% of all household waste – including that put in recycling bins – for incineration in 2017/18. Some councils have debated giving up recycling altogether. And yet the UK is a successful recycling nation: 45.7% of all household waste is classed as recycled (although that number indicates only that it is sent for recycling, not where it ends up.) In the US, that figure is 25.8%."
The operative point here is the final insight into how our reported recycling rates are calculated. That is, it appears that the (already low) numbers that are reported reflect the amount of material that is sent to be recycled – not the amount that is actually recycled. In other words, those numbers are significantly inflated and it seems that no one is tracking the percentages of material that is actually recycled.
The operative point here is the final insight into how our reported recycling rates are calculated. That is, it appears that the (already low) numbers that are reported reflect the amount of material that is sent to be recycled – not the amount that is actually recycled. In other words, those numbers are significantly inflated and it seems that no one is tracking the percentages of material that is actually recycled.
It is difficult to know what to do with this. If the already pitifully low recycling rates are, themselves, significantly inflated, then the whole recycling industry is a sham. My reaction and thoughts on this are not printable.
Take care
David
David Chandler
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'Plastic recycling is a myth': What really happens to your rubbish?
By Oliver Franklin-Wallis
August 17, 2019
The Guardian
