Those of you who have not seen the film “Plastic Wars” (PBS Frontline, March 31, 2020; link below), please do:
In a nutshell: Only some of the urban paper is worth recycling. The rest of the so-called recyclables should be left in the MSW going to WTEs where the contained metals are recovered as scrap metals.
If the billions of dollars wasted annually in the US, in collecting and transporting urban “recyclables” other than paper (some all the way to Asia and back), were spent on building and maintaining WTE power plants, the US “plastics problem” would disappear. Environmental organizations who over the years have promoted “recycling” and opposed WTE are major contributors to the “plastic waste” problem they are now decrying.
Please click the link for the details.
