Replies to post #20954 on The Rising Influence of Rising Affluence

[DewDiligence]

Got it—thanks.

The big problem is that many countries are burning the [plastic] feedstock.

I would’ve thought even poor countries would have better fuel sources than recycled plastic.

[OakesCS]

while China wasnt intentionally importing raw garbage from the US, that's effectively what they were doing for a while. While there were supposed to be limits on 'contamination' China was ignoring those limits until ~2013. Then they started enforcing something like a 0.5% contamination limit and then stopped importing all together.

nice sordid tale here:
https://www.sierraclub.org/sierra/2019-4-july-august/feature/us-recycling-system-garbage

the bit about Berkeley being so conscientious is crap. Berkeley's system is very efficient. Conscientious citizens put their recyclables at the curb, the bums come by in the wee hours and collect everything of value leaving only the worthless "recyclables" to be collected by the city. Consequently, the Berkeley recycling trucks drive around half empty cuz the glass and aluminum sections of the truck dont collect anything while the paper and plastics sectionz of the truck are full.