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irishcoffeeyesterday at 6:01 PM2 repliesview on HN

Did you know only about 5% of plastic in the US is recycled? The rest is floating in the ocean or not degrading in landfills.

Plastic.


Replies

kube-systemyesterday at 7:04 PM

I'm surprised it is that high. Plastic is cheap to produce, and the quality of plastic from US recyclers is poor. It is so infamously dirty that China banned importing recycled plastic from the US. By the time you wash the peanut butter out of each peanut butter jar, you've spent more in water and labor than the plastic is worth.

But ultimately, landfills are a good place to put plastic. It sequesters the carbon and keeps the pollution contained.

tonymetyesterday at 6:36 PM

not sure why this has been downvoted. The real answer is "nothing is".