New recycling technologies could keep more plastic out of landfills

 Recycling always seems like the right thing to do, but how much of the material that we recycle actually gets recycled? Almost none. Some materials are made of layers of different kinds of plastic. These plastics cannot be separated making them unable to be recycled. Other plastics turn into a gross material when they are recycled, making recycling plants not even touch them. In 2018 alone, 27 million tons of plastic was landfilled. Only 3 million tons of that 27 million tons was actually recycled. In 2017, researched reported that only 9% of the world's trash has ever been recycled. 12% was burned and the the remaining 79% was piled up on land or in water. Recently, scientists have found a way to better recycle plastic using compatibilizers. The compatibilizer conjoins the plastics to stick together and not pull apart immediately, making a strong plastic. It also mixes well with melted plastics to form a tougher plastic product.

It was kind of shocking to me to know that most of the materials that are recycled by humans never actually get recycled. Usually we think that the more we recycle, the better we are helping the environment, but this isn't true at all. While the new way of recycling plastics is good, it definitely isn't enough just based on looking at the numbers. Not all plastics are even eligible of being conjoined with another plastic using a compatibilizer. 

https://www.sciencenewsforstudents.org/article/new-recycling-technologies-could-keep-more-plastic-out-of-landfills 

Comments

  1. AnonymousMay 12, 2021 at 8:15 AM

    It's interesting how all this time we thought we were helping the environment when in reality, we weren't doing much at all. 27 millions tons of plastic is a lot to be going to landfill. Also, to think that only 9% of plastic we put in the recycling bins get recycled is crazy.

    ReplyDelete
  2. AnonymousMay 12, 2021 at 8:29 AM

    This is a good informative post. When people recycle, they are told that it is better for the environment. So why are we lying to people? Is it just to make people feel better about what they are doing for the environment even though we aren't doing anything? We need to spread this information more.

    ReplyDelete
  3. AnonymousMay 12, 2021 at 8:34 AM

    This topic is interesting to me because you think recycling is doing the right thing, but in reality it actually is not that great. Every time you think of recycling you think about how you are saving the planet, right? Because all this time we've been told recycling is the right thing to do and it is reusing items over and over. But, realistically only about 9% of all the recycling we do is actually getting recycled. Well what happens to the rest? It's just crazy to think "doing the right thing", might actually be worse!

    ReplyDelete

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