Have you ever stopped and thought about how much energy the internet consumes every hour of the day, or just how much oil must get used its mind blowing!
Even in your diet... the average human these days is consuming a credit card worth of plastic from their diet every two weeks. Plastic island out in the pacific is 6 times larger than New Zealand.
It doesn't... unless you are supporting social change. Governments and companies are the ones that need to do something for it to make a difference. All we can do is be vocal about holding oil and plastic corporations responsible.
If you're just doing it because someone said to, it probably doesn't matter. You need to analyze what the impact actually is. In many cases, you may actually be doing harm and not realizing it. The best you can do is to take what you are doing and look up "what's the most environmentally safe way to do this", and be willing to accept that it will change over time as people learn more. Just as people think they're doing "good" by using cloth shopping bags now while they're doing more harm to the environment, people once thought they were doing "good" by adding lead to gasoline. (And in both cases, someone else knew full well it was harmful to the environment, but sold a lot of leaded gasoline or cloth bags...)
I often compare plastic production with antibiotics. The are both very helpful and can perform otherwise impossible feats that are overall beneficial to society, but they are also very easy to take for granted and can create problems that can even exceed the ones they solve when used and discarded recklessly.
That’s even assuming you have a recycling program where you live. 😩I lived in a place (in the US) where the town only recycled cardboard, newspaper, and aluminum, and we had to drive those things to wherever the collection point was that day (the cardboard one moved around town). If we wanted to recycle plastic, we had to drive it to the recycling centre ourselves (which was over an hour away and in the middle of nowhere). If we want recycling to become the norm for any material, we need to make it convenient for people to actually do.
Thank You: as a Chemical and Environmental Engineer I have been force-fed so much foolishness by ignorant people over a 40-yr career. This one vid clearly explains a few simple, hard _facts_ which, while unpleasant, are immuatble.
Hi, mind if I take some of your time and ask a question? I'm curious about if there are any processes that can break plastics down into their raw materials? And if so, would it at all be feasible in some way to do this instead of recycling plastics directly?
@@canidaeSynapse Hi there! Plastics engineer here. What you are describing is what we call feedstock recycling and is something that is already done - although to very limited extent. There are a lot of challenges to overcome to make this (and other forms of recycling for that matter) feasable on a grant scale, however. And even if it can be done, there is still the question: should it be done? The problem is: recycling uses other ressources and costs energy as well and where do we get those from. As stated in the video: roughly 8% of all raw oil and gas are going into the plastics sector. You know where the other 92 % go? Mostly into energy supplies: fuel for power plants, factories, cars, ships, planes. So, using even more energy gained out of oil and gas to recycle plastics can actually be counter-productive. That is not to say that we shouldn't be working on these problems. As a matter of fact, I'm currently employed at a research institute in Germany doing work on these problems. But people oftentimes do not see the whole picture. At the moment though, one of the main factors or even _the _ main factor is money: virgin plastics are very cheap and recycling costs money (collecting, sorting, remelting and processing, redistribution) making recycled material not that much cheaper to make up the lower quality of the materials. TL:DR: recycling is not easy - at least not as easy as many people thing, but with further research we may be able to get there. For now, we all should use less, tighten our environmental regulations and hold ourselves (big companies very much included) accountable.
@@Meister_Petz Awesome! Thank you for taking the time to write the comprehensive reply! Actually, if you don't mind me asking yet again, I'm curious about what chemicals are consumed in feedstock recycling? Because if it was just an energy problem, it could potentially, hopefully, be solved by adopting improved nuclear energy, or an (unlikely) breakthrough in fission power occurs! Are any of the chemicals particularly scarce / hard to handle?
@@Meister_Petz I think the most sensible think to do is reduce using plastic all together, and maybe taxing raw material so it's make recycling much cheaper.
@@wahdangun that's worse for the environment and is more expensive. What we need to do is annex underdeveloped countries and introduce infrastructure to help with waste management.
It is a shame that nobody here seems to have even bothered to mention the fact that the "expense" to recycle is claimed by companies that have in excess of billions of dollars. The same companies that sell us these hard to separate products are the ones that are throwing the responsibility on us and our governments. It is up to the government to shorten the leash on these companies and make them use the excess money they have in their pockets to make it easier to recycle. This can all be done whilst companies still make money, they would just make less due to the recycling cost.
Yes. Recycling a piece of plastic can cost more than a landfill, but it is better for the world. The ones that should bear that cost are the ones producing it. And because plastics all eventually turn into trash, they have a significant negative impact on the environment. The only ones to blame for it are the ones producing it. What thhey pay should take into account all of the societal cost and harm that they are causing.
How is it better than using the landfill? Landfills in the US and Europe are very well built. Landfills act as carbon sinks. Reprocessing takes more energy than new plastics. Ocean pollution is coming from Asia and Africa. Landfills aren't inherently bad, MIT recommends them. Recycle metals, and spoil the paper and plastic.
@@cmdr1911 Indeed, most plastics causing pollution issues are not coming from landfills. Indeed if you aren't recycling it then a landfill is the best place used plastic can go. Its the thrown out plastic that doesn't end up in a landfill that is the problem. As you noted, most of the plastic waste in the ocean is dumped by third world nations, the United States for instance could recycle every bit of plastic they use and it would hardly effect how much is going in the ocean. Point being we should encourage (or even potentially fund) better waste management, more landfills, etc. for the nations that are contributing most to such pollution.
cmdr corp you guys realize that most of the plastics that third world countries are throwing in the ocean were sent there by first world countries to be recycled. North America stopped investing in recycling infrastructure because it was cheaper to ship it to poor countries.
You can try hiring an army of 4 year-olds , they're great at picking gum off the ground.... Of course then you have to get it back out of their mouths before they swallow it. :b
Microplastic particles can range from those 1mm spheres used in skin care for exfoliation, to the synthetic fibers that sloth off your polyester clothing in the washing machine, to microscopic little filaments that need a microscope to see. The tiny sizes make it easier to become consumed by animals on land and sea (e.g. fish and crabs with microplastics in their flesh), fine plastic dust that land on soil and water, and some get breathed in. These microplastics have been found in sea salt, in the flesh of animals and us (which can cause localized inflammation), and in oceans. The way they reach the sea is via your washing machine. To reduce the chances of them being released into the ocean, scientists recommend cleaning out the washing machine filter of lint after each wash, if your machine doesn't have a filter - you can buy lint catchers online or from Daiso store, and wearing more natural fabrics and reduce reliance on synthetic or mixed fabrics when shopping. Sydney University did a study into microplastics' impact on marine fauna and every fish they caught had plastic in them. As for further info into "biodegradable plastics" check out an Australian documentary 3 part series called War on Waste: www.abc.net.au/tv/programs/war-on-waste/
can't remember the last time I was so cynical about the future...the tragic part about human extinction would be that we saw it coming long time ago... we've been manufacturing our own problems
Indians barely create any kind of long term pollution compared to the West though. You would need centuries to pollute as much as the western nations and China have done for the last 100 years.
@SirVixIsVexed that's pretty crazy if thats true, because in England 75% of water bodies dont meet a 'good' ecological status according to the Environment Agency. maybe we've just exported alot of the pollution to china.
I love that these videos tell us what we can do individually to make even the smallest bit of difference. I hate seeing articles and videos saying things are going wrong but then giving me no information about how to fix it or a way to get that information
The problem with using biodegradable plastic as a means of packaging for food means you severely limit how long the food can be stored before it has to be trashed, because the packaging falls apart. Especially for the worst culprit - beverages.
Biodegradable plastic is a misnomer. It doesn't actually "degrade" and become part of the natural environment. It is a weak form of plastic that isn't as durable as regular plastic - and the materials used are still synthetic. It breaks down to become smaller microplastic particles, making it easier to become consumed by animals on land and sea (e.g. fish and crabs with microplastics in their flesh), land on soil and get breathed in with dust. These microplastics have been found in sea salt, in the flesh of animals and us (which can cause localized inflammation), and water. Sydney University did a study into microplastics' impact on marine fauna and every fish they caught had plastic in them. As for further info into "biodegradable plastics" check out an Australian documentary 3 part series called War on Waste: www.abc.net.au/tv/programs/war-on-waste/
Z. Deutch is absolutely correct. Compostable plastic and cardboard based products are no better either, as the compostable packaging requires extremely precise conditions to degrade, none of which the average household compost could sustain. Cardboard can only be recycled up to 7 times before being deemed useless. Don't fall for these marketing schemes from companies posing as "eco-friendly."
Companies that produce things should have to recycle their own waste. Imagine if all coca cola bottles were returned to the same company that produced them for recycling. In the end they can reuse their own junk.
@@magicbloo I just watched it. These companies are pure evil. Putting profit above all else. If they recycled their waste they would still make a giant profit. But no the greed has corrupted them. I truly believe this greed will be the downfall of our species. I think the end is coming sooner than most people think. Plastic island out in the pacific is 6 times larger than New Zealand. Apparently in the average diet today we are consuming a credit card worth of plastic every two weeks. We are trading clean water, healthy food and a stable climate for what... a man made game of monopoly. Our outdated broken economy. We better stop and start smelling these flowers, before the world reminds us that it's not really ours.
@@generationfallout5189 People have been predicting the end of the world for a long long time. And yet by almost every metric, the present is the best time humans have ever known.
@@caliman99 We kill ourselves when we kill the natural world. We are cooking the climate and coca cola got you eating plastic because it saves them a lil money yakno. The greed is running rampant.
I don't think throwing plastics into landfills is a really big deal. At least not for the next few hundred years. The real problem is making sure our plastic actually reaches our landfills. Littering is still a big problem, but so is invisible microplastic pollution. And a lot of this comes from things as benign as washing clothes! We need more systemic changes to deal with plastic pollution. Simple lifestyle choices like throwing plastic bottles in the recycling bin are not going to cut it.
Putting the onus of curbing plastic pollution or even pollution in general mostly on consumers sounds like a great idea in theory but falls apart in practice...Companies need to put the environment ahead of profits period and need to take more responsibility for the waste they create or allow their consumers to create!
We have pyrolysis, thermo-catalytic conversion, microwave de-polymerization and a few other techniques that could help with keeping plastic out of landfills and incinerators. Mostly need to increase the cost of virgin plastics to make recycling / re-refining polymers economically viable.
Watching this while having like 25 plastic bottles in my room, just waiting to be picked by lazy ol me, and be trashed... Yeah, plastics are totally everywhere XD Even my monitor is like 50 % plastic from what i can see at least. Mouse, keyboard... my table... omg. Im surrounded!!
If you think of money as representative of the goods and services it can buy, it's not that shocking. Every living thing just wants to survive and thrive. It's weird when humans voluntarily do things that don't immediately benefit themselves or their small "tribe" of friends. But we have these brains for a reason, and they can help us plan for the future if we use them. We just need to start thinking bigger.
Well... Things cost money. If you want your money to go towrds a certain place, donate or call your congressman about where you think your taxes ought to go. Also, money is finite. And a government has to choose carefully where to put it (Education, health care, incentivising economic growth, environmental protection, etc.) and for how long to keep it there. Money isn't the incentive,per say. But sustainable spending is a goal we should all strive for.
I agree! Until then the goal should be to keep plastic out of the oceans at least! Because of the dangers of microplastic. Recycling is not the ultimate answer to plastic because it degrades every time it's recycled. It should be compacted into blocks and made into useful long-term structures such as benches or even shelter. Heck compact them into blocks and store or use them as giant Legos until we can unleash the plastic eating bacteria!
Only works if you live somewhere where the tap water doesn't taste super nasty. Otherwise you have to buy bottled water. And no, brita filters aren't good enough. Reverse osmosis systems are good but are a high upfront investment and are really only practical if you own rather than rent your place.
@glitter , @hyperspify, this mentality is the problem. People have become such snobs about water and other first world amenities, that they justify their wasteful practices. Get a charcoal filter and do your part to reduce waste. If you don't like the brands at Walmart, there are hundreds of other options. The internet is a great research tool, and not just a beacon for voicing your opinion on social media.
I love all the people of SciShow! I think Stefan wins the prize for packing in more clearly-explained info per second ! These few minutes were extremely informative ! :)
It's also important to make sure you're removing single use plastics for the right reasons. In many cases, the knee-jerk "don't use plastic" response ends up causing more damage to the environment, or harming vulnerable people, just because someone thought they were being "environmentally friendly" without, you know, actually thinking. Not thinking enough about the consequences is how we got into the mess, so not thinking about the consequences of how you react to the problem is always going to fail to solve it. A few things people are currently pushing that cause more harm than the plastic they are getting rid of: - Reusable cloth shopping bags. These don't last forever, and take more energy and water, and end up releasing more toxins into the environment, than the amount of single use plastic bags they replace. (This isn't factoring in potential recycling or reuse of plastic shopping bags either. Paper bags have pluses and minuses, and are basically equal to plastic in harm.) - Plastic straws. This was actually the result of dishonest reporting to begin with. What was misrepresented as a "study" was a series of phone calls made by a 9 year old who then used those numbers in a questionable way to suggest an impact that isn't even remotely close to reality. While the child (now an adult) wasn't aware of what he was doing wrong, the newspapers that ran with the story did know better. The replacement straws, much like cloth shopping bags, invariably do not get reused enough to do less harm than the plastic straws they replace and they are impossible to maintain in a healthy way for very long. Not using straws at all does have some environmental benefits, but that is overshadowed by those with disabilities who are harmed by these straw bans (depending on the disability, some or all of the reusable straws are also infeasible, and there has already been harassment of disabled customers in areas with partial straw bans for requesting straws). - Fruit wrapping. The common fallacy is that a peel acts like plastic wrap. This has lead to people getting upset at stores offering things like bananas or other fruit with plastic wrap, whether or not the peel is still on the fruit. In either case, the plastic wrap increases shelf life, decreasing food waste, which is a far larger environmental impact than a small amount of plastic wrap. In the case of fruit without peels, this again is a product that helps people with certain disabilities that are forced to rely on caretakers to do what the stores were doing - peeling and wrapping fruit for them. (And, of course, having some one come over to individual homes to do something rather than having it occur at a central location is particularly bad in terms of greenhouse gasses.) That's not to say there aren't ways to improve these things. Bioplastics are a great example, with products made from plants and designed to biodegrade after being used. This eliminates the problems mentioned in the video of inefficient recycling methods, with the environmental impact limited to the initial production, which is the area where single use plastics actually do very well compared to reusables. It's also not to say that replacing single use with reusable is always bad either. The movement to reuse comes from the many cases where it IS the right way to go. But it's not ever going to be a cut and dry "do this every time", you have to evaluate each properly and make sure you're helping rather than hurting.
The recycling of polymers might be easier if we made products out of monogamous or compatible grades of plastic and more clearly labeled them so the public would find it easier to correctly recycle them. In my opinion though, if you couldn’t theoretically discard a product and have it fully biodegrade within the span of a year, we probably shouldn’t make it.
It may make sense to require all food packaging to be manufactured from the same material. This would significantly reduce the complexity of recycling. The problem, of course would be the lack of different material properties.
Alexander Horstkötter In an ideal world, we might strive to adapt and overcome the complexity of that issue rather than force nature to bear the cost for us. Of course, if we mandated biodegradable materials like I described, that wouldn’t matter. Alas, no laws are made until we clearly see a reason to outlaw something. As long as manufacturers are left unaccountable for their products, this will continue to be an issue.
In Norway just about every bottle is recycled, don't remember the exact number, but it is in the 90 some percent of bottles. Also our plastic bags are made from recycled plastic, which is why they have to be thicker than the British / Australian / American plastic bags
We could burn it, converting it into other compounds. While capturing exhaust and turning it into other compounds with the energy from borning + extra from solar to make up for the extra energy needed for C=H bonds? C=H could be formed into various hydrocarbon products (like petroleum jelly, oils).
Good first step is to just start burning it along with all other waste. Many countries already do it, and produce practically no plastic waste as a result. It's possible to repolymerize the gases, but it's quite impractical and unnecessary at this stage.
Hank Green you are awesome , I've been binge watching for about 2 weeks just love your show. Glad it is free. I do plan on joining in Jan. Keep up the good info I really have learned a lot. Thanks so much, I am grateful. You guys are super dooper!☺
I'm trying to reduce my plastic waste by buying cans or glass bottles if I want a drink and have a cloth bag that I use instead of a plastic one. Just some simple steps can make a big difference.
@@Takaya_NL Substantially less than other products, and it's not like theres a completely, 100% plastic free option. It's called reduce, reuse, and ... for a reason.
@@Takaya_NL yeah, but the energy and resources saved recycling aluminium far outweighs that. Current recycling methods for aluminium cans cost 25% less energy and a third of the water needed to create new cans from virgin material.
For anyone interested in recycling. There is a company, Plastics to oil - PTOI (their stock ticker) they actually can take any plastic, (yes any) and they re-refine it into cleaner Diesel fuel. They have “redbox” style boxes they can set up places and you can just throw any plastic item in and they pick it up occasionally and reuse it. It’s great
Let's not forget that it's DISPOSABLE plastic that is the main cause of the mess we are trying to deal with. It's (mostly) not the plastic that is in our cars, planes and other technological devises.
antiisocial i cut SUP from my cycle. I remove the crush washers that are single use to protect the planet from my forks. It’s expensive though, the synthetic REE infused oil drips out all over the forest but I can buy more. The forks only last a few rides instead of decades but they can be recycled saving precious magnesium and aluminium so despite the expense at least I’m saving the planet.
One of the best ways to solve this would be to have normed bottles mandated by the government, one for every used size; you pay a small additional fee on buying it, which you get back upon returning it; all companies have to use exactly the same, so they just wash it and reuse it (which also uses way less energy). A similar system is used for beer bottles and a few others here in Austria
@@elterga6224 government control over business has nearly always been the most effective (and often only) way to achieve goals like this that are inherently uneconomic, as they reduce the gains of the companies
I wish the US had a recycling program and mindset like most of Japan does. If we could get that set up, and maybe standardize plastics and recycling progressions, we could do a whole lot to clean this place up
Companies responsible for producing and distributing most of these plastic-packaged products should re-think and re-develop how they package their products so that they are reusable or at least more easily recycable eg. avoid packaging with mixed plastic materials that are difficult to separate.
Thank you for this video. I have a school project that is also about plastic recycling and this video definitely will help me out. Also thanks to include the source (not everyone does that). Great video 👍🏼
I've had a difficult day, and this is such a good video. Y'all's know you are providing a SERVICE, right? I'm so glad this content exists. Glad to contribute to it in a small way on Patreon.
Hello @SciShow! One tip: you guys should have mentioned the plastic chemical recycling technologies proposed by BASF, Dow Chemical, ExxonMobil, INEOS Styrolution + Agilyx and SABIC. Chemical recycling allows the upcycling of plastic waste, turning it into either naphtha or monomers. This, in turn, let's the recycling of plastics achieve its true potential, permitting to recycle plastic to premium applications.
One thing I would wish to see MORE of is proper labelled plastics. I have seen countless times where plastics have NOT been labelled as to what type of plastic it is. This is super annoying. It is so inconsistently enforced by the industry. Even the plastics that can't be entirely recycled as you said can be turned in to other products that have a reasonably decent life. Hard plastic products can easily be filled with degrading plastics of other types and still retain toughness and usefulness for a long time. Degraded plastics can be used as simple bulk-mass ingredients, rather than the end visible product. Sealed, it would be able to withstand a lot of damage for many years to come. If you were to use very specific structures to limit the movement of them, they would last even more so. Think some lattice structure made out of the new, harder plastic, or some honeycomb structure, etc. Depends on the expected loads what would be best. We are quite happy to fill the land with the stuff yet don't even seem to consider filling OTHER products with it. I remember seeing one person making toilet seats and lids using old, failing plastics using the above method. They looked really nice sealed inside of transparent plastic. Those will likely outlast many older adults. It boggles the mind. It really does. We need to make better use of unrecyclable materials as fillers.
Im just usin as less as possible plastic. I know recycling isnt makin much of a difference in terms of helpin the environment. So far I switched to bar shampoo, conditioner, soap, body wash, etc. Theyre just as good and last sooo much longer. It might not make a big difference but it does make a difference in my life.😊
There is only 1 recycling center where I am Southern Orange County which is the triple approved for sustainable energy stuff. They just end up accepting everything. In 10 days they had already collected 15 bales of 27,000 cans or 10 bales of hundreds of plastic.
One other important thing to note is that plastics must be clean, like clean enough that you would eat out of them. Oily residues, especially, can foul an entire batch of plastic because plastics are made of oils. If you’re unwilling to clean your recyclables with soap and water, then throw them away. It’s better to throw away anything you’re not sure about than to put it in the recycling stream, where it could potentially result in many times more good material being contaminated and thrown away. Maybe seeing the volume of garbage increasing in the trashing will discourage people from buying as many single use plastics.
Thank you for this video. It's kind of disturbing to see what we're doing to ourselves here, making more and more of these objects that don't break down into environmentally-friendly components and that we can't even recycle very well. Seems to me there's three possible solution paths: 1. Invent better ways to recycle existing plastics. No idea how feasible this is. 2. Invent more plastics that are biodegradable. This seems a bit like Sisyphus pushing that rock uphill. We need plastics that stay strong and clean while we use them, but then degrade neatly into mulch when we don't need them anymore. But there are a lot of really smart scientists out there. Maybe they can solve this problem. 3. Start burning all our plastics in plasma arc recycling plants, while turning the waste gases into feedstock for fuel and more plastics. This seems like the most immediately feasible solution to me, but it would require massive investment and roll-out of what is still a relatively unproven technology.
The Scandinavian countries have system for reusing old bottles. There is put into the bottles a recycling cost that you pay when you buy the product and return to you if you return the empty bottle to any store.
Thermoplastics are also what's generally used in 3D printers. A fairly common one is PETG which is a modified version of the plastic used in water bottles.
I heard that roads are being made out of recycled plastics. I think they’ve been doing it in India and it’s lasted 10 years so far. We have two problems: 1. Roads keep eroding and we have to keep rebuilding them after they are damaged. 2. Plastics in landfills take centuries to erode, what do we do with them??? Solution: Make roads out of plastics that do not degrade easily.
UK stores are starting to move from plastic containers for food back to paper of decades past. As well as getting people to bring in their own plastic tubs to put stuff in like cereal, or they can rent/buy one for the purpose.
One big step towards better plastic recycling would be better recycling codes. The EU mandates only around a dozen for plastics which basically each just group many different plastics under one code. In contrast, China has almost 150 Recycling codes for plastics which actually differentiate plastics by their chemical makeup: en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Recycling_codes#List_of_Chinese_codes_for_plastics_products
Also the best way to reuse plastic is with the consumer after the product that was contained in plastic is gone. The consumer should reuse the bottles in fridge or freezer or even to store spices in a dark cabinet. Or use a plastic bottle as something to place your sewing materials in. That's the only true way of a reuse of plastics.
If there's something I learned from living on this earth is that relying on people to do the right thing is a losing strategy. Nothing will change until we phase out plastic for biodegradables.
That's why my husband and I always keep the bottles from our soda and juice and refill them with water. Some get put in the fridge and others are stored by the pantry so they're easy access for refilling the dogs water bowl. In our house, dog tails and kiddos make open cups dangerous to have around, so we opt for bottles.
We need to use plastic in more building/long term use applications. If it can't be recycled into similar products because.....reasons. Melt it down and cast it into blocks. We could then cut and shape it into useful shapes. Countless applications where looks don't matter. A house made with plastics is rot and pest proof. Lasts for very long time and prevents at least some plastics from going on landfill. Not a cure all but it's something
I have significantly cut my plastic use by making my own oat milk: For 1 litre: one mug (mine's about 300ml) of rolled oats, 1/2 teaspoon of salt, 2 tablespoons of sugar or 1 tablespoon of stevia, 4 mugs of water. Combine all ingredients and blend in a high speed blender (mine's 1,200w) for 30 seconds. Filter through an old t-shirt (that material density seems perfect. Only through one layer, two layers is quite difficult) Done. I also take my own containers to the deli.
You should use the same program that we use in Denmark and other EU contries. All bottles cost an ekstra amount of money that you get back qheb you return it to the shop that then get recycled to the company who made the bottle.
You do not need to recycle ... Plastics (and ANY other organic substance, from feces to waste food) can be easily converted in synthesis gas (CH4 + CO + CHx) + solid slag, using Plasma Converters. This synthesis gas then can be burnt for electricity, heat or used to make other types of plastics.
I cannon tell you how much I appreciate this show, I have been saying this for years and people treat me like i am a climate denier or I hate progress, I hate plastics as much as anyone but what are the options, im not a fan of aluminium in case the belief of Alzheimer is real and glass is too heavy but there has to be an option, other than that I like plasma gassification to energy with carbon sequestration into geological structures or for growing. As for recycling I think it is best for manufaturing wastes from clean known sources instead of our dirty mixed waste.
Few days ago Greenpeace found a dump in Gliwice, Poland, filled with plastic trash from other european countries (mostly Italy). The company with the contract to collect and recycle that plastic decided that it was more convenient to dump it in another country in exchange of money :( I've lost any hope.
It'd be great if you'd talk about chemical-plastic-recycling vs. mechanical. While mechanical recycling (all the methods mentioned in this video) gives degraded properties, chemical recycling actually lets you make an output that's *stronger* than the input, and can work even when different varieties of plastics are mixed together. The trade-off is that chemical recycling is more energy-intensive. If you mechanically recycle for the first few cycles and then chemically recycle after it gets too degraded, though, you can re-use the raw materials indefinitely, just like metals.
I wish companies that make packaging for food products would stop using aluminium foil as a packing liner. With the plastics and foil components bonded together, it's practically impossible to separate for recycling. And then, there's people like my dad that just automatically assumes the recycling companies can separate it, or if not, that they should be, and thus I have to regularly check our curbside recycling bin for unaccepted materials.
I think you should've given mention to the plastic eating bacteria; although, it doesn't eat all types of plastics, it helps in some cases. (Also, I don't know whether the byproducts are much better, though I'd assume so.) Anyway, good job, in trying to create awareness, on the subject!
My bet is on this as well. Bioengineering companies are sleeping on this gold mine. You only need it to work once to be used multiple times and be used all across the world. Take internet for example. Its build, learn, increase, rinse and repeat.
There are a few solutions. First, require that single use, non-medical plastics be made of only the more easily recycled materials so that PVC bottles aren’t even a thing. Second, standardize a non-recyclable symbol and have it or the recycling number put on all plastic products so consumers can easily tell whether an item is trash. Third, require that companies that produce plastic and other hard to recycle or non-recyclable goods contribute to the cost of waste management. Similarly, a tax could be levied on non-medical plastic products that’s used to contribute to the disposal of them. If plastic becomes more expensive to use, it will be used less. Require better cleaning and sorting of recyclable materials like some countries already do, and educate the heck out of the public regarding how to recycle properly. Sadly, this last one will be met with righteous indignation on the part of consumers who think that recycling companies “should” clean and sort their disgusting, unwashed garbage for the same rate they’ve paid in the past.
Plastic in one-time use form, allows us to keep patients safe. Body temperatures probe covers, ear probe covers, injection needles and syringes, glucose testing prickers (can't think of the name) and testing strips, patient name ID bracelets and chart labels printed on the same page-- which, even considering the whole page-- uses *much* less plastic than hospital bracelets of the 1970's. Yes, plastic from medical stuff seems wasteful, but I think we've been working to a society that reduces the plastic needed and therefore consumed by a patient. And truly, I'd rather have to waste a plastic bag of saline than to risk breakage of a large, glass bottle that can cause vulnerability to infections. Medical waste, after autoclaving, is of no recycling use and gets disposed of in a landfill. More patients and hospitalization and broken glass? Or fewer patients, hospitalization, and pressure-cooked (and thus sanitized) plastic waste in a landfill? Pick your necessary evil. Personally, I like the idea that toilet paper is being made from bamboo. Just don't cut Asian forests. Bamboo grows like kudzu and needs to be controlled like kudzu. It would be interesting to find out what medical stuff can be made of bamboo? Bamboo printing paper for one thing.
Governments need to get involved in regularising and subsidising recycling, preferably through taxing plastic manufacturers. Even if it's not profitable, it's for the good of everyone, and it needs to be done by hook or by crook. They also need to do more to regulate plastics are used, manufactured, and combined.
We are not bad at recycling plastic. Animals are just terrible at eating it. They need to figure out how to "chew" first. Dogs can eat plastic without dying. That is why they are the smartest in the animal kingdom
Yes. Single use plastic is bad. Then again, I've seen plenty of CZcams videos, that show plastic items being crafted into useful and/or decorative items! Those are the best! 👍
I have been doing a lot of research on recycling, particularly plastics, and this video was very informative. I hope to start my own business in the near future to develop better recycling techniques, like TerraCycle did. I'm pretty sure they're the only company in the U.S. and perhaps the world that can recycle nearly anything, including gum and cigarette butts. But lile this video said, we need to cut out single-use plastics from our daily lives as much as possible.
The cost of dealing with it in the long run, should be factored in the prize. Materials which decompose into harmless substancs should be the cheap ones for everyday usage. Materials which cause issues for hundreds of years should be really expensive.
We really need to reduce our dependence on single-use plastics. It is fairly easy to stop buying bottled water and such. The big hurdle is convincing farmers and grocers to stop using plastic packaging and switch to bioplastics (cellulose).
"How much plastic is in reach?" I'm sitting in front of a plastic table, cluttered with plastic things. A plastic food dispenser for the cats is beside me, a plastic bag clip is behind me, and my computer and headphones? Sooo much plastic! I think the crinkle tunnel within kicking distance might be nylon, too.
INCINERATION (waste-to-power)- Is recycling and it's not too picky either. The petrochemicals would have been burned in something else if it wasn't turned into plastic in the first place.
@@archenema6792 You do realize you can clean the exhaust right? Coal plants (at least in the civilized world) clean their exhaust of the nastiest stuff. When I say petrochemicals I mean all of them, and they are all used for something or turned into a different petrochemical with further processing. Ethylene is a light fraction and it's used to make polyethylene plastic right? Some amount of that is probably in my gas line.
@@archenema6792 Burning plastic might get less energy than raw oil products, point is this energy is recoverable and the ash is now much less voluminous and environmentally hazardous besides all the CO2. Keeping plastic out of the oceans and landfills is a priority, the recovered heat and power is a bonus.
That whole thing about PET... The recycle machine doesn't accept any other kind of plastic bottle, so it's not getting mixed accidentally except for the caps. But I assume they have a good way of sorting that out.
Since plastic is a huge problem, there are campaigns promoting to fill the plastic bottles with pastic waste in your house (chips bags, candy wrappers, straws, etc) till it's full. Then you can use them to build houses.
we need a permanent use for plastic for the length of its its functional lifespan, so it isnt being worn through the environment and the environment can process everything else it was before plastic perhaps, we build large dense legos and make structures lined/embbeded in/with lead for excited materials like uranium ore
I think food containers ought to go back to being glass. I think people would care a bit more about getting cut or losing their mayo than about tossing a bottle into the trash. Also, glass can be recycled! Insurance makes it very difficult, though, because of cuts. Maybe it's tome to quit coddling ourselves and grow a set.
Reduce, reuse, recycle.
People go straight for recycling, when it's the last one in the chain.
Exactly. Buy one plastic water bottle. Wash it and reuse it. You’re doing two of the 3 things.
There's is also Refuse and repurpose which is also before recycle.
Actually disposal is at the end of the chain, just before energy recover. I'd rather have plastic burned or recycled than have it end up in the ocean.
This reminds me of the time I tried to reuse used condoms as water balloons
@@elenapelayo1 Refuse is first.
Bottom line is our lifestyle isn't sustainable but nobody's willing to give up anything..
Is this a quote?
Pretty much.
Well said
Have you ever stopped and thought about how much energy the internet consumes every hour of the day, or just how much oil must get used its mind blowing!
A lot of people are willing to do things. And awareness is growing every day. :)
“Plastic is litter-ally everywhere.”
Even in your diet... the average human these days is consuming a credit card worth of plastic from their diet every two weeks. Plastic island out in the pacific is 6 times larger than New Zealand.
plastic is a litter-ally. helps you litter
Kelsey Mixer my dad works for heaven he bans you
Well, this was thoroughly depressing. It's like what I try to do doesn't even matter.
It doesn't... unless you are supporting social change. Governments and companies are the ones that need to do something for it to make a difference. All we can do is be vocal about holding oil and plastic corporations responsible.
It matters, I hope at least. This is baby steps, just don't stop
If you're just doing it because someone said to, it probably doesn't matter. You need to analyze what the impact actually is. In many cases, you may actually be doing harm and not realizing it. The best you can do is to take what you are doing and look up "what's the most environmentally safe way to do this", and be willing to accept that it will change over time as people learn more. Just as people think they're doing "good" by using cloth shopping bags now while they're doing more harm to the environment, people once thought they were doing "good" by adding lead to gasoline. (And in both cases, someone else knew full well it was harmful to the environment, but sold a lot of leaded gasoline or cloth bags...)
Welcome to reality.
Melvin Shine It does. But it requires more diligence which is unfortunately is not really our primary nature
Plastic bottles definitely do end up in the ocean. How else can you explain the bottlenose dolphin?
Got a chuckle out of me with that one.
God made it out of spite for dolphins.
Master Therion - not funny ! Humans are destroying the environment, earth, ocean and atmosphere and you make a joke out of it !
@@pourquoipas2673 entropy destroys all in the end... lighten up.
Nohhhhhhh
I often compare plastic production with antibiotics. The are both very helpful and can perform otherwise impossible feats that are overall beneficial to society, but they are also very easy to take for granted and can create problems that can even exceed the ones they solve when used and discarded recklessly.
that's an awful comparison. we can do far better than plastic there's just too much money in making it
That’s even assuming you have a recycling program where you live. 😩I lived in a place (in the US) where the town only recycled cardboard, newspaper, and aluminum, and we had to drive those things to wherever the collection point was that day (the cardboard one moved around town). If we wanted to recycle plastic, we had to drive it to the recycling centre ourselves (which was over an hour away and in the middle of nowhere). If we want recycling to become the norm for any material, we need to make it convenient for people to actually do.
Thank You: as a Chemical and Environmental Engineer I have been force-fed so much foolishness by ignorant people over a 40-yr career.
This one vid clearly explains a few simple, hard _facts_ which, while unpleasant, are immuatble.
Hi, mind if I take some of your time and ask a question? I'm curious about if there are any processes that can break plastics down into their raw materials? And if so, would it at all be feasible in some way to do this instead of recycling plastics directly?
@@canidaeSynapse Hi there! Plastics engineer here. What you are describing is what we call feedstock recycling and is something that is already done - although to very limited extent. There are a lot of challenges to overcome to make this (and other forms of recycling for that matter) feasable on a grant scale, however. And even if it can be done, there is still the question: should it be done? The problem is: recycling uses other ressources and costs energy as well and where do we get those from. As stated in the video: roughly 8% of all raw oil and gas are going into the plastics sector. You know where the other 92 % go? Mostly into energy supplies: fuel for power plants, factories, cars, ships, planes. So, using even more energy gained out of oil and gas to recycle plastics can actually be counter-productive.
That is not to say that we shouldn't be working on these problems. As a matter of fact, I'm currently employed at a research institute in Germany doing work on these problems. But people oftentimes do not see the whole picture. At the moment though, one of the main factors or even _the _ main factor is money: virgin plastics are very cheap and recycling costs money (collecting, sorting, remelting and processing, redistribution) making recycled material not that much cheaper to make up the lower quality of the materials.
TL:DR: recycling is not easy - at least not as easy as many people thing, but with further research we may be able to get there. For now, we all should use less, tighten our environmental regulations and hold ourselves (big companies very much included) accountable.
@@Meister_Petz Awesome! Thank you for taking the time to write the comprehensive reply! Actually, if you don't mind me asking yet again, I'm curious about what chemicals are consumed in feedstock recycling? Because if it was just an energy problem, it could potentially, hopefully, be solved by adopting improved nuclear energy, or an (unlikely) breakthrough in fission power occurs! Are any of the chemicals particularly scarce / hard to handle?
@@Meister_Petz I think the most sensible think to do is reduce using plastic all together, and maybe taxing raw material so it's make recycling much cheaper.
@@wahdangun that's worse for the environment and is more expensive. What we need to do is annex underdeveloped countries and introduce infrastructure to help with waste management.
"look around you right now, how much plastic is within reach?"
*Looks at my plastic friends
Where do you live, Hollywood?
*looks at my imaginary friends
😂
Man, I felt the same when searching for my brand new inflatable gf
B r o t h a t s c r I n g e
It is a shame that nobody here seems to have even bothered to mention the fact that the "expense" to recycle is claimed by companies that have in excess of billions of dollars.
The same companies that sell us these hard to separate products are the ones that are throwing the responsibility on us and our governments.
It is up to the government to shorten the leash on these companies and make them use the excess money they have in their pockets to make it easier to recycle.
This can all be done whilst companies still make money, they would just make less due to the recycling cost.
Yes. Recycling a piece of plastic can cost more than a landfill, but it is better for the world. The ones that should bear that cost are the ones producing it. And because plastics all eventually turn into trash, they have a significant negative impact on the environment. The only ones to blame for it are the ones producing it. What thhey pay should take into account all of the societal cost and harm that they are causing.
How is it better than using the landfill? Landfills in the US and Europe are very well built. Landfills act as carbon sinks. Reprocessing takes more energy than new plastics. Ocean pollution is coming from Asia and Africa. Landfills aren't inherently bad, MIT recommends them. Recycle metals, and spoil the paper and plastic.
@@cmdr1911 Indeed, most plastics causing pollution issues are not coming from landfills. Indeed if you aren't recycling it then a landfill is the best place used plastic can go. Its the thrown out plastic that doesn't end up in a landfill that is the problem. As you noted, most of the plastic waste in the ocean is dumped by third world nations, the United States for instance could recycle every bit of plastic they use and it would hardly effect how much is going in the ocean. Point being we should encourage (or even potentially fund) better waste management, more landfills, etc. for the nations that are contributing most to such pollution.
"bUt ThAt'S sOcIaLiSm" - Conservatives
cmdr corp you guys realize that most of the plastics that third world countries are throwing in the ocean were sent there by first world countries to be recycled. North America stopped investing in recycling infrastructure because it was cheaper to ship it to poor countries.
I'm thinking about starting a business that recycles discarded chewing gum...
I just need help getting it off the ground.
Funny ha ha
Amazing comment
It already exists actually
I also need help starting the same kind of business.
You can try hiring an army of 4 year-olds , they're great at picking gum off the ground.... Of course then you have to get it back out of their mouths before they swallow it. :b
Y’all should do an episode specifically on microplastics in the atmosphere, rain, ocean, etc. and what the long term effects may be.
Microplastic particles can range from those 1mm spheres used in skin care for exfoliation, to the synthetic fibers that sloth off your polyester clothing in the washing machine, to microscopic little filaments that need a microscope to see. The tiny sizes make it easier to become consumed by animals on land and sea (e.g. fish and crabs with microplastics in their flesh), fine plastic dust that land on soil and water, and some get breathed in. These microplastics have been found in sea salt, in the flesh of animals and us (which can cause localized inflammation), and in oceans.
The way they reach the sea is via your washing machine. To reduce the chances of them being released into the ocean, scientists recommend cleaning out the washing machine filter of lint after each wash, if your machine doesn't have a filter - you can buy lint catchers online or from Daiso store, and wearing more natural fabrics and reduce reliance on synthetic or mixed fabrics when shopping.
Sydney University did a study into microplastics' impact on marine fauna and every fish they caught had plastic in them. As for further info into "biodegradable plastics" check out an Australian documentary 3 part series called War on Waste: www.abc.net.au/tv/programs/war-on-waste/
"look around you right now, how much plastic is within reach?"
*Stares at shelf full of action figures behind my desk*
@Alexandr Retardo I have almost 40 Transformers, 15 Halo, and a few Star Wars figures on display at work. People like to come by and look at them.
Plastic figures are far less damaging to the environment than single use items.
@@Casanuda Very true, though they often come in single-use plastic packaging.
@@OtakuUnitedStudio only plebs open the boxes.
@@Casanuda You came to the wrong neighborhood.
What's the point of a robot that turns into something else if it just sits sealed in a package?
can't remember the last time I was so cynical about the future...the tragic part about human extinction would be that we saw it coming long time ago... we've been manufacturing our own problems
Indians barely create any kind of long term pollution compared to the West though. You would need centuries to pollute as much as the western nations and China have done for the last 100 years.
@@TheFourthWinchester source?
@SirVixIsVexed YES! EXACTLY. THANK YOU.
@SirVixIsVexed that's pretty crazy if thats true, because in England 75% of water bodies dont meet a 'good' ecological status according to the Environment Agency. maybe we've just exported alot of the pollution to china.
Ironically, the ad before this video was for Keurig coffee, generator of countless little containers.
Nice to hear someone finally stating the things I've been saying for nearly 20 years.
I love that these videos tell us what we can do individually to make even the smallest bit of difference. I hate seeing articles and videos saying things are going wrong but then giving me no information about how to fix it or a way to get that information
No mention of biodegradable plastics or specialized bacteria that can process plastic.
The problem with using biodegradable plastic as a means of packaging for food means you severely limit how long the food can be stored before it has to be trashed, because the packaging falls apart. Especially for the worst culprit - beverages.
@@OtakuUnitedStudio and making it worse since it can create more micro plastic
Biodegradable plastic is a misnomer. It doesn't actually "degrade" and become part of the natural environment. It is a weak form of plastic that isn't as durable as regular plastic - and the materials used are still synthetic. It breaks down to become smaller microplastic particles, making it easier to become consumed by animals on land and sea (e.g. fish and crabs with microplastics in their flesh), land on soil and get breathed in with dust. These microplastics have been found in sea salt, in the flesh of animals and us (which can cause localized inflammation), and water.
Sydney University did a study into microplastics' impact on marine fauna and every fish they caught had plastic in them. As for further info into "biodegradable plastics" check out an Australian documentary 3 part series called War on Waste: www.abc.net.au/tv/programs/war-on-waste/
Z. Deutch is absolutely correct. Compostable plastic and cardboard based products are no better either, as the compostable packaging requires extremely precise conditions to degrade, none of which the average household compost could sustain. Cardboard can only be recycled up to 7 times before being deemed useless. Don't fall for these marketing schemes from companies posing as "eco-friendly."
Because...like paper...there is no real money in it!
but meh free market will take care of it !
But it is in money!
Michael Scott disagrees
We’re on the verge of using bottle caps
Cellulose = real money
Companies that produce things should have to recycle their own waste. Imagine if all coca cola bottles were returned to the same company that produced them for recycling. In the end they can reuse their own junk.
czcams.com/video/qvYZ3sbTaQ0/video.html
This video was literally right next to your comment on my screen. Kind of eerie...
@@magicbloo I just watched it. These companies are pure evil. Putting profit above all else. If they recycled their waste they would still make a giant profit. But no the greed has corrupted them. I truly believe this greed will be the downfall of our species. I think the end is coming sooner than most people think. Plastic island out in the pacific is 6 times larger than New Zealand. Apparently in the average diet today we are consuming a credit card worth of plastic every two weeks. We are trading clean water, healthy food and a stable climate for what... a man made game of monopoly. Our outdated broken economy. We better stop and start smelling these flowers, before the world reminds us that it's not really ours.
So you're saying fast food companies should pay for sewage?
@@generationfallout5189 People have been predicting the end of the world for a long long time. And yet by almost every metric, the present is the best time humans have ever known.
@@caliman99 We kill ourselves when we kill the natural world. We are cooking the climate and coca cola got you eating plastic because it saves them a lil money yakno. The greed is running rampant.
I don't think throwing plastics into landfills is a really big deal. At least not for the next few hundred years. The real problem is making sure our plastic actually reaches our landfills. Littering is still a big problem, but so is invisible microplastic pollution. And a lot of this comes from things as benign as washing clothes!
We need more systemic changes to deal with plastic pollution. Simple lifestyle choices like throwing plastic bottles in the recycling bin are not going to cut it.
Putting the onus of curbing plastic pollution or even pollution in general mostly on consumers sounds like a great idea in theory but falls apart in practice...Companies need to put the environment ahead of profits period and need to take more responsibility for the waste they create or allow their consumers to create!
We have pyrolysis, thermo-catalytic conversion, microwave de-polymerization and a few other techniques that could help with keeping plastic out of landfills and incinerators. Mostly need to increase the cost of virgin plastics to make recycling / re-refining polymers economically viable.
Watching this while having like 25 plastic bottles in my room, just waiting to be picked by lazy ol me, and be trashed...
Yeah, plastics are totally everywhere XD Even my monitor is like 50 % plastic from what i can see at least. Mouse, keyboard... my table... omg. Im surrounded!!
Probably your chair
And you're not even going to TRY to recycle them?
yup i got over 50 bottles lol guess its time to just dump them
That was a rhetorical question
Used to use a lot of water bottles but we got a pur water filter it's pretty good for a bout 2 months then it needs a new filter
It really sucks that money is the only incentive to do anything anymore.
the government is meant to fill in the rest
If you think of money as representative of the goods and services it can buy, it's not that shocking. Every living thing just wants to survive and thrive.
It's weird when humans voluntarily do things that don't immediately benefit themselves or their small "tribe" of friends.
But we have these brains for a reason, and they can help us plan for the future if we use them. We just need to start thinking bigger.
Well yeah, it's a resource and it is valuable.
Anymore?
Was it different before? Back when we literally traded human lives for money?
Well... Things cost money. If you want your money to go towrds a certain place, donate or call your congressman about where you think your taxes ought to go.
Also, money is finite. And a government has to choose carefully where to put it (Education, health care, incentivising economic growth, environmental protection, etc.) and for how long to keep it there.
Money isn't the incentive,per say. But sustainable spending is a goal we should all strive for.
I’m looking forward to the development of bacterial depolymerization so all these plastics can be broken down into base hydrocarbons.
I agree! Until then the goal should be to keep plastic out of the oceans at least! Because of the dangers of microplastic. Recycling is not the ultimate answer to plastic because it degrades every time it's recycled. It should be compacted into blocks and made into useful long-term structures such as benches or even shelter. Heck compact them into blocks and store or use them as giant Legos until we can unleash the plastic eating bacteria!
When I've used a water bottle, I like to reuse it as, well, a water bottle.
No recycling needed...
Same here, I've had the same stainless steel water bottle for over 10 years.
@@eier3252 I believe that reduce is 1st
Only works if you live somewhere where the tap water doesn't taste super nasty. Otherwise you have to buy bottled water. And no, brita filters aren't good enough. Reverse osmosis systems are good but are a high upfront investment and are really only practical if you own rather than rent your place.
@glitter Wow. I'm lucky where I live
@glitter , @hyperspify, this mentality is the problem. People have become such snobs about water and other first world amenities, that they justify their wasteful practices. Get a charcoal filter and do your part to reduce waste. If you don't like the brands at Walmart, there are hundreds of other options. The internet is a great research tool, and not just a beacon for voicing your opinion on social media.
I love all the people of SciShow!
I think Stefan wins the prize for packing in more clearly-explained info per second !
These few minutes were extremely informative ! :)
It's also important to make sure you're removing single use plastics for the right reasons. In many cases, the knee-jerk "don't use plastic" response ends up causing more damage to the environment, or harming vulnerable people, just because someone thought they were being "environmentally friendly" without, you know, actually thinking. Not thinking enough about the consequences is how we got into the mess, so not thinking about the consequences of how you react to the problem is always going to fail to solve it.
A few things people are currently pushing that cause more harm than the plastic they are getting rid of:
- Reusable cloth shopping bags. These don't last forever, and take more energy and water, and end up releasing more toxins into the environment, than the amount of single use plastic bags they replace. (This isn't factoring in potential recycling or reuse of plastic shopping bags either. Paper bags have pluses and minuses, and are basically equal to plastic in harm.)
- Plastic straws. This was actually the result of dishonest reporting to begin with. What was misrepresented as a "study" was a series of phone calls made by a 9 year old who then used those numbers in a questionable way to suggest an impact that isn't even remotely close to reality. While the child (now an adult) wasn't aware of what he was doing wrong, the newspapers that ran with the story did know better. The replacement straws, much like cloth shopping bags, invariably do not get reused enough to do less harm than the plastic straws they replace and they are impossible to maintain in a healthy way for very long. Not using straws at all does have some environmental benefits, but that is overshadowed by those with disabilities who are harmed by these straw bans (depending on the disability, some or all of the reusable straws are also infeasible, and there has already been harassment of disabled customers in areas with partial straw bans for requesting straws).
- Fruit wrapping. The common fallacy is that a peel acts like plastic wrap. This has lead to people getting upset at stores offering things like bananas or other fruit with plastic wrap, whether or not the peel is still on the fruit. In either case, the plastic wrap increases shelf life, decreasing food waste, which is a far larger environmental impact than a small amount of plastic wrap. In the case of fruit without peels, this again is a product that helps people with certain disabilities that are forced to rely on caretakers to do what the stores were doing - peeling and wrapping fruit for them. (And, of course, having some one come over to individual homes to do something rather than having it occur at a central location is particularly bad in terms of greenhouse gasses.)
That's not to say there aren't ways to improve these things. Bioplastics are a great example, with products made from plants and designed to biodegrade after being used. This eliminates the problems mentioned in the video of inefficient recycling methods, with the environmental impact limited to the initial production, which is the area where single use plastics actually do very well compared to reusables. It's also not to say that replacing single use with reusable is always bad either. The movement to reuse comes from the many cases where it IS the right way to go. But it's not ever going to be a cut and dry "do this every time", you have to evaluate each properly and make sure you're helping rather than hurting.
The recycling of polymers might be easier if we made products out of monogamous or compatible grades of plastic and more clearly labeled them so the public would find it easier to correctly recycle them.
In my opinion though, if you couldn’t theoretically discard a product and have it fully biodegrade within the span of a year, we probably shouldn’t make it.
It may make sense to require all food packaging to be manufactured from the same material. This would significantly reduce the complexity of recycling. The problem, of course would be the lack of different material properties.
Alexander Horstkötter In an ideal world, we might strive to adapt and overcome the complexity of that issue rather than force nature to bear the cost for us.
Of course, if we mandated biodegradable materials like I described, that wouldn’t matter. Alas, no laws are made until we clearly see a reason to outlaw something. As long as manufacturers are left unaccountable for their products, this will continue to be an issue.
In Norway just about every bottle is recycled, don't remember the exact number, but it is in the 90 some percent of bottles. Also our plastic bags are made from recycled plastic, which is why they have to be thicker than the British / Australian / American plastic bags
Because the cost to produce plastic is so low
That is part of the reason that we use so much of it, but not why we’re bad at recycling it.
This is why we need high carbon taxes globally.
We could burn it, converting it into other compounds.
While capturing exhaust and turning it into other compounds with the energy from borning + extra from solar to make up for the extra energy needed for C=H bonds?
C=H could be formed into various hydrocarbon products (like petroleum jelly, oils).
Good first step is to just start burning it along with all other waste. Many countries already do it, and produce practically no plastic waste as a result. It's possible to repolymerize the gases, but it's quite impractical and unnecessary at this stage.
Hank Green you are awesome , I've been binge watching for about 2 weeks just love your show. Glad it is free. I do plan on joining in Jan. Keep up the good info I really have learned a lot. Thanks so much, I am grateful. You guys are super dooper!☺
I'm trying to reduce my plastic waste by buying cans or glass bottles if I want a drink and have a cloth bag that I use instead of a plastic one. Just some simple steps can make a big difference.
Lionstar16 cans also contain plastics, just so you know.
@@Takaya_NL Substantially less than other products, and it's not like theres a completely, 100% plastic free option. It's called reduce, reuse, and ... for a reason.
Cloth bags are only better for the environment if you use them hundreds or thousands of times depending on the material, just FYI.
Not enough to worry about. It just burns off when the metal is rejected. Assuming you are talking about the micronthick epoxy coating or the ink
@@Takaya_NL yeah, but the energy and resources saved recycling aluminium far outweighs that. Current recycling methods for aluminium cans cost 25% less energy and a third of the water needed to create new cans from virgin material.
For anyone interested in recycling. There is a company, Plastics to oil - PTOI (their stock ticker) they actually can take any plastic, (yes any) and they re-refine it into cleaner Diesel fuel. They have “redbox” style boxes they can set up places and you can just throw any plastic item in and they pick it up occasionally and reuse it. It’s great
Bet to stop using plastics except where necessary, and use glass instead which is easy to recycle.
Glass has a huge carbon footprint in transport (heavy).
Let's not forget that it's DISPOSABLE plastic that is the main cause of the mess we are trying to deal with. It's (mostly) not the plastic that is in our cars, planes and other technological devises.
antiisocial i cut SUP from my cycle. I remove the crush washers that are single use to protect the planet from my forks. It’s expensive though, the synthetic REE infused oil drips out all over the forest but I can buy more. The forks only last a few rides instead of decades but they can be recycled saving precious magnesium and aluminium so despite the expense at least I’m saving the planet.
One of the best ways to solve this would be to have normed bottles mandated by the government, one for every used size; you pay a small additional fee on buying it, which you get back upon returning it; all companies have to use exactly the same, so they just wash it and reuse it (which also uses way less energy).
A similar system is used for beer bottles and a few others here in Austria
Government control over business is rarely a good thing
@@elterga6224 government control over business has nearly always been the most effective (and often only) way to achieve goals like this that are inherently uneconomic, as they reduce the gains of the companies
I wish the US had a recycling program and mindset like most of Japan does. If we could get that set up, and maybe standardize plastics and recycling progressions, we could do a whole lot to clean this place up
Companies responsible for producing and distributing most of these plastic-packaged products should re-think and re-develop how they package their products so that they are reusable or at least more easily recycable eg. avoid packaging with mixed plastic materials that are difficult to separate.
Thank you for this video. I have a school project that is also about plastic recycling and this video definitely will help me out. Also thanks to include the source (not everyone does that). Great video 👍🏼
I've had a difficult day, and this is such a good video. Y'all's know you are providing a SERVICE, right? I'm so glad this content exists. Glad to contribute to it in a small way on Patreon.
It's true i work in plastics. It's so hard to keep stuff from being contaminated.
Hello @SciShow! One tip: you guys should have mentioned the plastic chemical recycling technologies proposed by BASF, Dow Chemical, ExxonMobil, INEOS Styrolution + Agilyx and SABIC. Chemical recycling allows the upcycling of plastic waste, turning it into either naphtha or monomers. This, in turn, let's the recycling of plastics achieve its true potential, permitting to recycle plastic to premium applications.
One thing I would wish to see MORE of is proper labelled plastics.
I have seen countless times where plastics have NOT been labelled as to what type of plastic it is.
This is super annoying. It is so inconsistently enforced by the industry.
Even the plastics that can't be entirely recycled as you said can be turned in to other products that have a reasonably decent life.
Hard plastic products can easily be filled with degrading plastics of other types and still retain toughness and usefulness for a long time. Degraded plastics can be used as simple bulk-mass ingredients, rather than the end visible product. Sealed, it would be able to withstand a lot of damage for many years to come. If you were to use very specific structures to limit the movement of them, they would last even more so. Think some lattice structure made out of the new, harder plastic, or some honeycomb structure, etc. Depends on the expected loads what would be best.
We are quite happy to fill the land with the stuff yet don't even seem to consider filling OTHER products with it.
I remember seeing one person making toilet seats and lids using old, failing plastics using the above method. They looked really nice sealed inside of transparent plastic. Those will likely outlast many older adults.
It boggles the mind. It really does. We need to make better use of unrecyclable materials as fillers.
As usual, well written, informative, and unbiased. Great work sci show!
Im just usin as less as possible plastic. I know recycling isnt makin much of a difference in terms of helpin the environment. So far I switched to bar shampoo, conditioner, soap, body wash, etc. Theyre just as good and last sooo much longer. It might not make a big difference but it does make a difference in my life.😊
There is only 1 recycling center where I am Southern Orange County which is the triple approved for sustainable energy stuff. They just end up accepting everything. In 10 days they had already collected 15 bales of 27,000 cans or 10 bales of hundreds of plastic.
One other important thing to note is that plastics must be clean, like clean enough that you would eat out of them. Oily residues, especially, can foul an entire batch of plastic because plastics are made of oils. If you’re unwilling to clean your recyclables with soap and water, then throw them away. It’s better to throw away anything you’re not sure about than to put it in the recycling stream, where it could potentially result in many times more good material being contaminated and thrown away. Maybe seeing the volume of garbage increasing in the trashing will discourage people from buying as many single use plastics.
Thank you for this video. It's kind of disturbing to see what we're doing to ourselves here, making more and more of these objects that don't break down into environmentally-friendly components and that we can't even recycle very well.
Seems to me there's three possible solution paths:
1. Invent better ways to recycle existing plastics. No idea how feasible this is.
2. Invent more plastics that are biodegradable. This seems a bit like Sisyphus pushing that rock uphill. We need plastics that stay strong and clean while we use them, but then degrade neatly into mulch when we don't need them anymore. But there are a lot of really smart scientists out there. Maybe they can solve this problem.
3. Start burning all our plastics in plasma arc recycling plants, while turning the waste gases into feedstock for fuel and more plastics. This seems like the most immediately feasible solution to me, but it would require massive investment and roll-out of what is still a relatively unproven technology.
The Scandinavian countries have system for reusing old bottles. There is put into the bottles a recycling cost that you pay when you buy the product and return to you if you return the empty bottle to any store.
I love this video, I think it’s really helpful to understand how complex this issue is
Thermoplastics are also what's generally used in 3D printers. A fairly common one is PETG which is a modified version of the plastic used in water bottles.
I heard that roads are being made out of recycled plastics. I think they’ve been doing it in India and it’s lasted 10 years so far.
We have two problems:
1. Roads keep eroding and we have to keep rebuilding them after they are damaged.
2. Plastics in landfills take centuries to erode, what do we do with them???
Solution:
Make roads out of plastics that do not degrade easily.
Everyone needs to hear this!
UK stores are starting to move from plastic containers for food back to paper of decades past. As well as getting people to bring in their own plastic tubs to put stuff in like cereal, or they can rent/buy one for the purpose.
One big step towards better plastic recycling would be better recycling codes. The EU mandates only around a dozen for plastics which basically each just group many different plastics under one code.
In contrast, China has almost 150 Recycling codes for plastics which actually differentiate plastics by their chemical makeup: en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Recycling_codes#List_of_Chinese_codes_for_plastics_products
Also the best way to reuse plastic is with the consumer after the product that was contained in plastic is gone. The consumer should reuse the bottles in fridge or freezer or even to store spices in a dark cabinet. Or use a plastic bottle as something to place your sewing materials in. That's the only true way of a reuse of plastics.
Thank you! This helps! I'm going to start taking the lids off my bottles.
If there's something I learned from living on this earth is that relying on people to do the right thing is a losing strategy. Nothing will change until we phase out plastic for biodegradables.
That's why my husband and I always keep the bottles from our soda and juice and refill them with water. Some get put in the fridge and others are stored by the pantry so they're easy access for refilling the dogs water bowl.
In our house, dog tails and kiddos make open cups dangerous to have around, so we opt for bottles.
We need to use plastic in more building/long term use applications. If it can't be recycled into similar products because.....reasons. Melt it down and cast it into blocks. We could then cut and shape it into useful shapes. Countless applications where looks don't matter. A house made with plastics is rot and pest proof. Lasts for very long time and prevents at least some plastics from going on landfill. Not a cure all but it's something
I have significantly cut my plastic use by making my own oat milk:
For 1 litre: one mug (mine's about 300ml) of rolled oats, 1/2 teaspoon of salt, 2 tablespoons of sugar or 1 tablespoon of stevia, 4 mugs of water.
Combine all ingredients and blend in a high speed blender (mine's 1,200w) for 30 seconds.
Filter through an old t-shirt (that material density seems perfect. Only through one layer, two layers is quite difficult)
Done.
I also take my own containers to the deli.
You should use the same program that we use in Denmark and other EU contries. All bottles cost an ekstra amount of money that you get back qheb you return it to the shop that then get recycled to the company who made the bottle.
No
You do not need to recycle ...
Plastics (and ANY other organic substance, from feces to waste food) can be easily converted in synthesis gas (CH4 + CO + CHx) + solid slag, using Plasma Converters.
This synthesis gas then can be burnt for electricity, heat or used to make other types of plastics.
Wow, keeping a bpa free water jug looks like the best way to help the planet.
I quit using plastic bookmarks by replacing them with sliced tomato.
Aaaand that's why people don't like disposable plastics (straws, water bottles). They are just insanely hard to get rid of.
I cannon tell you how much I appreciate this show, I have been saying this for years and people treat me like i am a climate denier or I hate progress, I hate plastics as much as anyone but what are the options, im not a fan of aluminium in case the belief of Alzheimer is real and glass is too heavy but there has to be an option, other than that I like plasma gassification to energy with carbon sequestration into geological structures or for growing. As for recycling I think it is best for manufaturing wastes from clean known sources instead of our dirty mixed waste.
Few days ago Greenpeace found a dump in Gliwice, Poland, filled with plastic trash from other european countries (mostly Italy). The company with the contract to collect and recycle that plastic decided that it was more convenient to dump it in another country in exchange of money :(
I've lost any hope.
I read somewhere that it is now possible to extract petroleum from recycled plastics. A show or article on that would be good
It'd be great if you'd talk about chemical-plastic-recycling vs. mechanical. While mechanical recycling (all the methods mentioned in this video) gives degraded properties, chemical recycling actually lets you make an output that's *stronger* than the input, and can work even when different varieties of plastics are mixed together.
The trade-off is that chemical recycling is more energy-intensive. If you mechanically recycle for the first few cycles and then chemically recycle after it gets too degraded, though, you can re-use the raw materials indefinitely, just like metals.
I wish companies that make packaging for food products would stop using aluminium foil as a packing liner. With the plastics and foil components bonded together, it's practically impossible to separate for recycling. And then, there's people like my dad that just automatically assumes the recycling companies can separate it, or if not, that they should be, and thus I have to regularly check our curbside recycling bin for unaccepted materials.
Great, everything I've been doing is pointless
yeah but people feel good about it; like giving money to charity instead of dealing with the underlying reasons for the problem.
I think you should've given mention to the plastic eating bacteria;
although, it doesn't eat all types of plastics, it helps in some cases.
(Also, I don't know whether the byproducts are much better, though I'd assume so.)
Anyway, good job, in trying to create awareness, on the subject!
My bet is on this as well. Bioengineering companies are sleeping on this gold mine. You only need it to work once to be used multiple times and be used all across the world. Take internet for example. Its build, learn, increase, rinse and repeat.
There are a few solutions. First, require that single use, non-medical plastics be made of only the more easily recycled materials so that PVC bottles aren’t even a thing. Second, standardize a non-recyclable symbol and have it or the recycling number put on all plastic products so consumers can easily tell whether an item is trash. Third, require that companies that produce plastic and other hard to recycle or non-recyclable goods contribute to the cost of waste management. Similarly, a tax could be levied on non-medical plastic products that’s used to contribute to the disposal of them. If plastic becomes more expensive to use, it will be used less. Require better cleaning and sorting of recyclable materials like some countries already do, and educate the heck out of the public regarding how to recycle properly. Sadly, this last one will be met with righteous indignation on the part of consumers who think that recycling companies “should” clean and sort their disgusting, unwashed garbage for the same rate they’ve paid in the past.
Plastic in one-time use form, allows us to keep patients safe. Body temperatures probe covers, ear probe covers, injection needles and syringes, glucose testing prickers (can't think of the name) and testing strips, patient name ID bracelets and chart labels printed on the same page-- which, even considering the whole page-- uses *much* less plastic than hospital bracelets of the 1970's.
Yes, plastic from medical stuff seems wasteful, but I think we've been working to a society that reduces the plastic needed and therefore consumed by a patient.
And truly, I'd rather have to waste a plastic bag of saline than to risk breakage of a large, glass bottle that can cause vulnerability to infections.
Medical waste, after autoclaving, is of no recycling use and gets disposed of in a landfill.
More patients and hospitalization and broken glass? Or fewer patients, hospitalization, and pressure-cooked (and thus sanitized) plastic waste in a landfill?
Pick your necessary evil.
Personally, I like the idea that toilet paper is being made from bamboo. Just don't cut Asian forests. Bamboo grows like kudzu and needs to be controlled like kudzu.
It would be interesting to find out what medical stuff can be made of bamboo?
Bamboo printing paper for one thing.
I saw the thumbnail and first thought the bottles were Mars habitats and I would be learning about plastic recycling on other planets.
Governments need to get involved in regularising and subsidising recycling, preferably through taxing plastic manufacturers. Even if it's not profitable, it's for the good of everyone, and it needs to be done by hook or by crook. They also need to do more to regulate plastics are used, manufactured, and combined.
We are not bad at recycling plastic. Animals are just terrible at eating it. They need to figure out how to "chew" first. Dogs can eat plastic without dying. That is why they are the smartest in the animal kingdom
Talk to the the companies that manufacture, not us. They started the problem. They have the time/money/technology to fix it.
A 20 minute ad. There you go, SciShow :)
Yes. Single use plastic is bad. Then again, I've seen plenty of CZcams videos, that show plastic items being crafted into useful and/or decorative items! Those are the best! 👍
People should find ways to use the ruined plastic, like maybe grinding it up and using it in cement, or finding a way to use it as an energy source
I have been doing a lot of research on recycling, particularly plastics, and this video was very informative. I hope to start my own business in the near future to develop better recycling techniques, like TerraCycle did. I'm pretty sure they're the only company in the U.S. and perhaps the world that can recycle nearly anything, including gum and cigarette butts. But lile this video said, we need to cut out single-use plastics from our daily lives as much as possible.
I got an ad for trash bags on this video. Incredible 😂
The cost of dealing with it in the long run, should be factored in the prize. Materials which decompose into harmless substancs should be the cheap ones for everyday usage. Materials which cause issues for hundreds of years should be really expensive.
We really need to reduce our dependence on single-use plastics. It is fairly easy to stop buying bottled water and such. The big hurdle is convincing farmers and grocers to stop using plastic packaging and switch to bioplastics (cellulose).
I enjoy his ears and his shirt
"How much plastic is in reach?"
I'm sitting in front of a plastic table, cluttered with plastic things. A plastic food dispenser for the cats is beside me, a plastic bag clip is behind me, and my computer and headphones? Sooo much plastic! I think the crinkle tunnel within kicking distance might be nylon, too.
The problem is not plastic alone. But more like single-use plastics.
INCINERATION (waste-to-power)- Is recycling and it's not too picky either. The petrochemicals would have been burned in something else if it wasn't turned into plastic in the first place.
@@archenema6792 You do realize you can clean the exhaust right? Coal plants (at least in the civilized world) clean their exhaust of the nastiest stuff.
When I say petrochemicals I mean all of them, and they are all used for something or turned into a different petrochemical with further processing. Ethylene is a light fraction and it's used to make polyethylene plastic right? Some amount of that is probably in my gas line.
@@archenema6792 that's funny last time I checked plastic burns pretty hot and quick unless specifically treated with flame retardants.
@@archenema6792 Burning plastic might get less energy than raw oil products, point is this energy is recoverable and the ash is now much less voluminous and environmentally hazardous besides all the CO2. Keeping plastic out of the oceans and landfills is a priority, the recovered heat and power is a bonus.
We should use celluloid! It has similar properties and it is biodegradable, albeit it is very flammable.
That whole thing about PET... The recycle machine doesn't accept any other kind of plastic bottle, so it's not getting mixed accidentally except for the caps. But I assume they have a good way of sorting that out.
Since plastic is a huge problem, there are campaigns promoting to fill the plastic bottles with pastic waste in your house (chips bags, candy wrappers, straws, etc) till it's full. Then you can use them to build houses.
Thanks
we need a permanent use for plastic for the length of its its functional lifespan, so it isnt being worn through the environment and the environment can process everything else it was before plastic
perhaps, we build large dense legos and make structures lined/embbeded in/with lead for excited materials like uranium ore
Please Please do a segment on "plasma gassification" or "plasma arc waste recycling"!
Also, this: www.sciencealert.com/scientists-plan-to-recycle-waste-carbon-dioxide-co2-into-plastic
This video is excellent on showing that we need to reduce more than recycle.
I think food containers ought to go back to being glass. I think people would care a bit more about getting cut or losing their mayo than about tossing a bottle into the trash. Also, glass can be recycled! Insurance makes it very difficult, though, because of cuts. Maybe it's tome to quit coddling ourselves and grow a set.