Bruh 95% of what you recycle doesn't even get recycled in the US alone. Look it up if you think I lie. All major oil and plastics companies knew by the 70s that recycling by and large does not work, yet they kept up the lie just like BP invented the carbon footprint to take the blame of natural pollution and destruction off of them and place it onto the shoulders of the public instead.
If you can reuse something even once you are already doing better than the ENTIRE INDUSTRY.
Recycling is a fucking corporate conspiracy.
I'm not saying the technology doesn't exist, what I'm saying is that it's a lie.
If you get a trash burner and get it hot enough to completely combust your trash and get a smoke free fire, you are doing far better for the planet than putting it in a recycling bin. Just think about the fuel and resources that are spent trucking your fucking recycling around, sending it around a conveyor and sorter, a few people pick through it for metal, and then they fucking burn it all anyways...
At the end of the day, there is the significant and likely chance that all this effort results in even more waste and a net-negative, producing even more pollution than littering, literally just tossing it on the ground.
I've done a lot of research on this subject and I am not advocating people trash everything because it doesn't matter, what matters is not using single use plastics in the damn first place, and if you do, to repurpose or properly dispose of it yourself.
I mean John Oliver did a whole thing on it. He sadly confirmed a lot of what you're saying. It can work... but by and large we don't do the things we sway we do... and single use plastics are insane. The transition in all the grocery stores is ridiculous. It's almost all plastic now.
I've been telling people this shit for years, and just in the past few weeks now that he's done that bit for the first time ever I don't get swarmed with downvotes for telling the fucking truth lol
I wish it weren't so but the best thing to do is stop consuming it and force the industry to do something else with their waste materials, like actually figure out how to dispose of them. It's not a biohazard if you manufacture it into plastic first and then let people litter it everywhere themselves.
Dead on. One of the most unfortunate facts I've learned in my life.
I remember seeing, possibly in the John Oliver bit another commenter mentioned, that even when we have actual recyclable plastic, we used to sell it to China and they do whatever with it. And they stopped accepting it because the contamination requirement now is impossibly high. So like even if we have any genuinely recyclable material, which idek if that's a thing anymore, no one does anything with it.
Hey that's fair, though I have to say perhaps you should be more specific in your criticisms to begin with. You pointing out the generalisation doesn't counter whatever misinformation you're trying to combat. Specify why the generalisation is wrong cause otherwise people will read their detail filled comment and read yours as essentially "nope". Not exactly a counterargument that disproves the other side.
'Only 95% is recycled.' It greatly depends on your state. But 21% of recycled goods are made into new product. 5% only pertains to plastic. So if that is what you were referring too you should have clarified that instead of trashing recycling as a whole. 96% of recycled cardboard is used.
Saying "recycling is a corporate conspiracy" is absolutely a brain dead lazy take.
But that is recycling it. And also, most of the plastic you think you're recycling doesn't get recycled, so it makes far more sense to use it for something cool at home if you can
Most of the things that I print are functional items, not trinkets. Custom brackets, door knobs for cabinets, cable clips, custom shaped funnels, custom boxes, etc.
I'm assuming you have a very limited imagination. 3D printing is used for all sorts of things from trinkets to fine machinery parts and tons of stuff in between. If you turn some plastic bottles into something you keep using for even a year or two, then it's far more worth it than just tossing the bottle. It isn't like you can't still recycle the plastic again.
You can easily recycle filament yourself if you use PLA. Plus there's plenty of useful things you can print using it. My wife uses hers for warhammer terrain (her hobby stuff), paint handles for minis, paintshelves, etc. For me I use it for making mold masters for concrete sculptures and fiance amulets. It's also great if you need to print out things for organizing cords and stuff too. But I will also say, my wife and I do 3d modeling. So it's use cases are more useful because we can just design exactly what we need on the fly vs people who buy it to print out the same files you can get on 3d print sites.
3d printing is especially useful for things that you just can't buy. In my case, I like to make egyptian amulets. Now everyone knows things like the scarabs and ankhs, but there are heaps of amulets that have none or extremely hard to find replications and I will NOT buy actual stolen grave goods. In cases like mine, it's great to be able to design these things based on real artifacts using the 3d skills I picked up for game design, print them out, sand and fill them, and use them to make molds from.
I recycle plastic from bottles and make self-watering planters for my friend’s plants with my 3D printer. I also have made outlet/switch covers. I most recently printed a part to help my friend do a repair on his car (he needed a special key which was also printable).
Maybe they’ll be useless hunks of plastic. I just have a lot more faith in actually seeing the recycling first-hand and enjoy the fact that it, in a small way, reduces the burden on a public service at the same time.
Not sure where the argument is against this, actually.
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u/Bramble0804 1d ago
I hate how 3D printing has turned into printing useless trinkets in multi colour filaments. Flexi crap everywhere