Tuesday, May 07, 2019

Will Recycling Survive?

Recycling seems like a natural thing to do. I wonder though if it has caused us to become a "disposable" society? I believe the proliferation of plastic in our society is already a threat to our planet. Bottled water is one example. It seems more logical to simply invest in a filtration system and non-plastic containers. Another example are the plastic bags used by grocery stores. Clerks tend to use a separate bag for every other item, and if you ask them to put it all in one they want to double bag it. I think we are slowly drowning in plastic. If you doubt this look at what's happening to the world's oceans.

Currently there are doubts about how effective recycling will be since China and other countries who previously took our trash and made new products is no longer doing that. I also wonder how much of our recycling effort actually ends up in land fills? I've read several articles that suggest that is happening frequently since markets for this are disappearing.

I believe the best way to begin dealing with this is to charge for each plastic bag and bottle sold. Turning them back in would get a portion of the charge back, but not all. I I lived in Connecticut when they initiated a deposit on cans and bottles. Roadside litter just about disappeared over time. Maybe not a perfect solution but we need to start doing recycling disposing better if we want to preserve our environment

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