[foobarbaz33]

Much plastic recycling is a sham.

1st world business pays 3rd world business to take their plastic for "recycling" (mandatory air quotes). The 1st world gets credit for being a responsible environmentalist. The 3rd world business then dumps the plastic in a river or other convenient but totally not enviro-friendly dumping spot.

It's sort of an open conspiracy at this point. Putting your plastic in the trash may be better for the environment overall.

[lmpdev]

To self-checkout at my local grocery store, I have to clear a reminder that any soft plastic recycled through the store over the last x years was in fact not recycled and stockpiled around Australia in warehouses “waiting” for it to become economically feasible (it never did)

REDcycle (effectively Australia’s lone large-scale soft plastic recycling effort) folded and it was a big brouhaha

Source: https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2024/jan/30/redcy...