How Big Business Broke Recycling (And Blamed You) 

Does it matter? The outcome is what matters.

​@andrewzcolvin It does matter. When we call it "lobbying", it sounds more acceptable; however, a "bribe" is considered morally reprehensible to most people.

i don't even know what lobbied means,

​@@themelancholyofgay3543Lobbying is "legally" bribing politicians. Like "Don't vote for this bill and I'll donate some money to your organization"

​@@themelancholyofgay3543 lobbying is the attempt to influence the decisions of the government. YOU can lobby! For example, by calling your representative about your worries regarding the current state of recycling. However, a lobbying attempt made by a big corporation tends to carry more weight especially if, let's say, said corporation just HAPPENS to also make regular donations to a "charity" organisation the politician they are lobbying to is invested in. It's pretty scummy and gives the rich more influence over political decisions by, as the original poster said, essentially bribing politicians

you can't even buy rebuild kits for new cheap push mowers, you just buy a whole new carb for 20$ lol, solid half pound of useless plastic

It's all disposable including ev's.

I love taking my electronics apart and cleaning them. It's the only thing that gets me to vacuum.

I hear 'ya, though doesn't help when the bulk of stuff is manufactured overseas, where environmental regs are non-existent, and the labor & materials to make new ones are often cheaper than the repair.

Yes! Some tiny part of an appliance breaks and you have to buy a whole new one. It’s wasteful and infuriating. The hot plate on my coffee pot rusted through. It took me forever to find a metal disc that would fit. And when I did, I laughed maniacally at my success.

that was a fun start and then the more i read the worse it got, i really hope this is all fixable

Not without some heads that shall roll...

Are they pbs?

Keep Shining the Light

its incredibly easy for waste water plants to remove microplastic

Nothing to do with socialism. This is pure fascism. The union of government and corporations. The far right, the billionaires.

💯

They blame the companies buying it, as they cannot make an end user NOT just toss it around. So now we get taxed every piece of plastic we temporarily use..

They will just give the tax to the consumers

@@mariofixright but that price signal would give an opportunity for alternatives to step in because they wouldn’t have the marginal cost of plastic in their price

Yes. Manufacturers should pay a recycling tax when they sell products. That recycling tax should be based on what it would cost to dispose/recycle after it is no longer in use. This would encourage manufacturers to create products that cost less to recycle..

" manufacturers to pay for cleaning up the mess they created" - This video, and your comment, are just an attempt to make people feel better. It's always "they/them/their" problem. In case you don't realize it, you are part of the problem.

The free market always makes the right choice….for the market.

It's consumers making that choice.

@@Robert-cu9bm uh huh... and tell me. When was the last time you saw shampoo available to purchase in a glass/metal/cardboard container? Just using that as one example, but it's not consumer choice when there is no choice.

@@anthonydelfino6171 They do, they chose the cheapest product in plastic which forced the others to move away from expensive packaging, otherwise they'd have no business.

@@Robert-cu9bm and that happened what? 50? 60 years ago? consumers TODAY don’t have choices

colorado has banned single use plastic bags. we are now using paper bags for 10 cents or reusable bags you bring yourself.

We the People must ALWAYS be on guard against sneaky corporations, like the ones you just described.Good on you for being vigilant and aware and posting the warning. We All should refuse disposable packaging and bags. Every little bit helps. Every person matters.

Oh my god same in Poland. New bags are like 3 times thicker but the heat seam keeping loops togheter disintegrate after 4th use

I usually carry a reusable fabric bag in hip pocket, or in shoulder bag, its really useful to have around. And single use bags and packaging should be banned, especially in USA, since many countries still look at USA as an example.

Congress works for big business. Ive manufactured, worked retail, and now I drive freight. It is hilarious the companies telle consumers not to use plastic. They individually wrap socks. They wrap things in the factory to keep dust off. They wrap the individual socks in larger bags, then tape them(more plastic) put them in card board, tape them again and saran wrap them into oblivion to attach them to pallets( all of which require mass deforestation), then they send em to the retailers distribution center, who un wraps them, sorts them and then saran wraps them to their pallets. Then if they dont use them all they re wrap them, or if they dont sell, they put them in plastic garbage bags and throw them in a compactor. Did I mention the socks are made out of plastic or have plastic content?

​@zeroshepard9513 socks! I can't find 60 per cent cotton socks; they just make 100 per cent polyester, petroleum socks and say they wick moisture. Low quality petroleum socks.

@@Rubicola174 that may be true, but the price certainly is somewhat proportional to the service. it may not cost that much to get the draft for a new law, but it’ll cost a bit more (still not that much more considering the severity) to be able to write that draft yourself (which is literally how most laws are created, draft put on desk of committee by corporate employed lobbyist, presented to parliament as is, most likely passed without discussion, probably with a good portion of bought votes)

@gooser__43 Wool is actually good in hot and cold if you get a midweight with high wool content. Some brands are even USA made. Pricey, but I tried going back to cotton and decided wool was the cats pajamas... well, the sheep's.

@@zeroshepard9513 thanks

It’s far too late bud. The corporations control the regulators.

Sadly while the United states exists we are going to see the destruction of the planet in the next few years. Your insatiable greed for money is not sustainable especially when you're propping up China who is poisoning the planet so you can have toys

with how things is, it might be too late

It's been too late for the past 20 years, honestly.

Half a century.

Thanks so much!

Also, kids being sold recycled needles for their lining of juice boxes.. thats just one contamination of 1000s from recycled plastic and pfas.

I am not saying this view is incorrect, and it feels like an engineering perspective on the issue. The order Reduce, Reuse, Recycle also represents a descending order of control by engineers. Reduce is better engineered materials, a high level of control. Reuse shifts control to post market. Recycle intends to create a marketplace for used up material, or post reused. I don't have and answers or recommendations for what might work and the way the plastic lifecycle exists now does not work. That being said plastic still seems like a net gain for humankind. It's the waste that is an issue and I mean almost all waste.

Yes, "Reduce, reuse, recycle" implies that of these, reduce is the best option. But the issue is that it implies that recycle is a viable option, not much worse that the others. For wastes that have already been minimized and reused as much as possible, recycling what is left is great. But there's a sharp drop off in efficacy at each step. As a kid, I thought these were all close to equivalent. Seeing what is presented to kids today, it still feels that way. It's not... even if everything gets recycled, it's still far better to reduce waste or reuse containers rather than relying on recycling.

Sadly yet again the United states is stopping the rest of the world from advancing

In our town we don’t have standard garbage bins we have to pick up orange bags from town hall and put our plastic garbage bags full of garbage inside them 🙄

The companies responsible, have made so much money on producing & using plastic, that they don't want to change. With this money, they can lobby and pay politicians to turn down any laws that make them change.

And they cannot be allowed to dictate how that happens, which is what they are currently lobbying to do.

By who? The government they control?

the people who pushed this on to The public retired with their millions of dollars in corporate bonuses decades ago.

What a naive statement. You still think the system works? It's designed so that they are never accountable.

All these documentaries, and worse - the COMMENT sections -- say the SAME EXACTLY the same tired old stuff we have all heard a trillion times before: about big bad mega-rich industries with obscenely overpaid executives lobbying politicians -- and that is all true. I vote Marxist and Communist when they are on the ballot. Otherwise, as a registered patriotic Green, I vote Green, and absolutely will vote for Dr Jill Stein. Trust me: I support WAR against fossil fuel addiction, ESPECIALLY against the AGW-deniers in the FF industry. But NONE of that changes PHYSICAL DETERMINISTIC LIMITS and LOGISTICAL CONSTRAINTS at every step in the supply chain. You say "FF companies shifted the burden of responsibility onto consumers by telling them to recycle". But, making people recycle is a HELL of a LOT EASIER "hardship" than making people AVOID USING PLASTIC CONTAINERS IN THE FIRST PLACE. How in the WORLD would a consumer PRACTICALLY be able to physically carry home the MILLIONS of DIFFERENT TYPES of food items in all the supermarkets of the world WITHOUT A CONTAINER?? It is impossible for me to avoid noticing the irony that I must sound like a flatearthtard who says colossally stupid shit like "gravity needs a container" or "the atmosphere needs a container to avoid flying off into the vacuum of space". But having stores stocked with products that customers can take home is otherwise IMPOSSIBLE without plastic or aluminum containers. How would producers package WET TOFU and all assortments of wet or soft soy based products? We Antinatalist AR Vegans have known FOR A CENTURY the two MOST EFFECTIVE ways at PREVENTION of harm are: 1. Don't have kids: i.e. don't breed humans. 2. Don't eat meat: i.e. don't breed nonhumans, and then torture and murder and eat them. Not having kids and not eating animals, eating plant based protein when you're hungry, are TRIVIALLY SMALL hardships, compared to the truly backbreaking ineffective effort of "growing your own food".

Money broke everything, greed just made it worse.

Corpocracy

Salt was originally a salary and money. So you are blaming your salary and salt... yvan, greed is the primary goal of corporations, by their own laws.

@@dertythegrower And money bought those laws, so back to square one for the root of evil.

No, it's the economic profit system that's to blame, not big businesses. Businesses have to compete for market share. It's not in their best interest to recycle.

Amen.

Confirmation bias. Expect nothing less from PBS.

But what a truly evil geniuses the corporations are, instead of cleaning up their own mess they push that responsibility towards their customers "If there's mountains of plastic garbage everywhere it's your fault because you haven't been recycling enough!" I would like to meet the guy who came up with this idea AND TELL THE WHOLE WORLD IT'S THIS GUYS FAULT SEA TURLES ARE CHOCKING ON PLASTIC!

No need to blasphemy.

@@PunkDogCreations 💕 You are 100% correct. That’s why I spell it with a “gosh”; be careful with your assumptions.💕

You can pack them and make park benches and chairs, etc... and it looks decent kind of like a tiedye but inside the compressed plastic

The plastic bags were the only safe option during the Covid pandemic though.

@@francismarion6400 Nope. Paper works just fine.

@@NeighborhoodOfBlue Paper wasn't an option. The tree huggers took that out.

What do you think happens to paper and cardboard "recycling"?? 🤣

They was Reuse, not Recycle.

@@kanderson-oo7us yes, exactly and it worked perfectly!

@@kanderson-oo7us Same thing at the end of the day.

I bet if you think critically enough, you might figure out why we still don't do this. (Think scalability.) It's always fun to watch these videos that promote an "intelligent design" conspiracy rather than explain the "natural selection" evolution that has brought the status quo. So objective.

@@MrJacksspleen Scalability wasn't needed until manufactures decided to make more profit. In the UK there was no problem delivering the milk at the scale that was required. Then Supermarkets started selling milk in cheaper plastic and the delivery service became unsustainable.

I've seen a lot of trash cans with two openings - one blue for recycling and one black for trash. Both clearly go into a shared bin. It's so blatent.

​@gedelgo3242 Even when things are recycled" most of the time it is sold to China to recycle the plastics and most of that is just dumped in the ocean once they are out at sea because there is no profit to recycling it. Less than a quarter of plastics are even recyclable and the profits are slim at best so they just keep what can be used.

@@gedelgo3242 hahaah that's awesome I want a trash bin like that for my house lol

​@@gedelgo3242 All of those that I've seen have a divided bin under the lid. Look into it before you jump to conclusions

Who ever told you plastic would save the rainforests? I was around in the 90s and no one claimed that. And yes, we knew plastic was from oil. Plastic was lightweight & cheap.

These long-term plastics are the ones dragging down this 9% recycling rate. The 9% not only includes what goes in our blue bins, but uses all plastics ever manufactured as the denominator. PBS's early example of yogurt container is misleading because HDPE containers are highly valuable because they are so easy to recycle with a recycling rate of 29% (2018 epa study). Still not great but there are so many parts of the US that still dont have reasonable access to recycling. Don't get me wrong, single-use items are downright silly when there is reusable alternative.

agreed that is the purpose plastic should have. although recycled/degraded plastic aren't suitable for these things. so we'd need to find a place for that stuff as well

Don't forget about glass botles they are an none polutant material and is 100% recycled also in some countryes you get an dicunt if you return them for an new batch of bevrege

The people don’t care.

It's still that way in Germany. Buy a case of beer, and you can tell the bottles have been reused (old adhesive lines from where the old labels were removed). Returning the bottles for deposit (pfand) is a big deal (even though it's a small amount per bottle).

Some local dairies do this with big glass milk jugs. Its also not the ultra filtered watery milk either.

​@@HotMudrsin California their are some milk companies that are now selling milk in glass jars. There's a three dollar deposit, incase the bottle is not returned, but you get it back or vouched for the next bottle.

They'll add 15 cents to the cost of coke. Always pass the buck to 'consumers'.

@@Ou8y2k2 the money we get back for returning our empties hasn't gone up in decades. I was SIX returning Coke cans for 5¢ in the early '90s. They've er, canned, the whole incentive program effectively. That 5¢ is barely worth 2¢ in these times, and the floor for purchasing even the cheapest candies from a bin has gone up in that time.

Why isn’t t it solved then, you think?

@@MauroDraco capitalism wants to pay nothing for the invincible right to maximum profit. Which means bottle deposits don't follow inflation, which means no investment in ACTUAL recycling. And since capitalism is the religion of our time, nobody can legislate anything unless they can sell everyone on the profit available in doing it.

AFAIK that thin plastic liner just burns when the aluminium is recycled.

@@yvan2563 Well, yeah but that's not a good thing? Then there's the whole microplastic particles ending up in your system thing.

I find it funny that incinerator/generator is BAD, but burning the plastic liner in open flumes is not and ENVIRONMENTAL. 🤣 Japan can reach 84%, half of which is thermal regen but that still is much better than USA. So it is you (USA) that's the problem. But what does one expect from a group that thinks quick-fire baseline coal plants don't count towards emissions in their green utopia.

That plastic liner is basically the only way to make Al can usable for food. Steel cans are also lined with plastic or some paint. But compared to a plastic container, it is very small amount. Regarding emissions of burning it, I have no idea. The only hint I have is they melt at very high temp, so maybe the plastic is fully burned (ie CO2+H2O+residue), and that residue amount is small and can easily be removed from the molten metal.

Burned off in the recycling process.

Lol, if oil companies got away with lead in gas they'll get away with this too

Well, it won't mean much until Chevron actually gets forced to pay out the billions it owes for killing people in the Amazon.

Those companies own the government, and nothing will ever happen

Nope. Best case scenario, a few huge companies with go bankrupt. More likely, they'll lobby and be fine. Flies are caught and the wasps go free.

It'll probably be a far far less than half a percent of yearly revenue as it always is

Sorry, money production trumps human safety and health, didn't you know? The CEO of Coca-Cola needs a fifth yacht this year. (Sarcasm, of course) Same thing happened with lead, same old repeating bullshit just in different flavours, just that now everyone decided to be ok with it for some reason and not realy hold the companies accountable, maybe it's because of all this bribing the companies do to our representatives and scientists doing think tank research for them. Oh and the politicians represent us so well, everyone knows that America is mostly comprised of old men about to go to retirement, of course it representes ALL of us, couldn't be that they hold on to that position to any means necessary since it's very cushy, nooooo.

Just a suggestion: try emailing them again and suggesting they use plant-derived biodegradable plastic.

None of my tea bags are wrapped in plastic. I use 2 bags instead of one - that should make the tea company happy! There's also a tea shop that sells loose tea stored in glass jars, for storage at home in glass jars. The variety to choose from is super fun.

They could wrap the package in plastic instead of each bag individually tho

sugar came in paper bags here, 5Kg bags, and the "lower quality" brands came in plastic, now they are all plastic

The problem is you need a “milkman” traveling through your neighborhood in order for the bottle returning business to work. You also need to have your whole neighborhood supplied by the same milk supplier. This business model just will not work in 2024.

​@@onetwothreeabcwhy not?

@@S.A.White... Because (I guess) you don’t want to pay $10 for a bottle of milk everyday.

@@onetwothreeabc why would a milk delivery man cause milk to be $10?

All products should be designed with disassembly in mind, both for repairability and recyclability.

Did you even watch the video? Plastic is very hard to reuse and very expensive to recycle. So what did they do? They make it like the consumers is at fault, people aren't recycling enough while they ramp up their production year after year. Don't you get it? It's a scam! How can the problem be solved when a person recycles while the company makes a million more?

The reason for this is simply, if we go back to the old method of getting a glass of milk on your doorstep and then it getting taken away to be cleaned and reused, plastic companies will no longer be able to make money off the sale of plastic

thats aint cheap, and its much cheaper to just lobby against such laws that would force that upon them

You actually believe a building that says recycling on it recycles? It's a scam up until recent China was taking the majority of our "recycling" and disposing of it. It's just way too expensive factoid they won't tell you so it gets dumped in other countries.

Yes conversion to biodegradable/helpful eco-friendly waste. AI I hope is being used to use abstract/complex holistic approaches to environmental catastrophes. And to predict possible future impacts of new solutions decades from now.

@@MeissnerEffect My reference to AI/robotics deals with the sorting of trash, which is presently a dirty job.

Exactly. Like this video explained, consumers can't do much downstream. The one thing all consumers CAN do is vote with your dollars. Don't buy from the worst offenders if possible. When their profits fall, companies HAVE to take note.

Living in Denmark I'm inclined to agree. But I fear we're being misled. In Denmark you pay a small deposit whenever you buy beverages packaged in plastic bottles. The deposit is returned to you once you return the bottle. According to the body responsible for recycling plastic bottles - Dansk Retur System - 93% of all bottles included in this scheme are returned. 82% of those bottles are used for new plastic bottles. That's a 24% loss during the first two steps of the recycling process. It doesn't account for loss of material, downcycling or any other factor that affects recycling. Moreover, it relies on numbers from international partners who may prove unreliable sources, either because they use different definitions and calculations, or because they exploit poor oversight and simply burn the plastics they're meant to recycle. Danish media have uncovered multiple instances of this happening. Even though Denmark - and possibly Germany - are doing well by international standard, we're probably not doing as well as we like to believe and we're deifnitely not doing well enough.

@@CitizenSnips314 , I'm actually Italian, not German... and in Italy it is pretty much the same as in most other places, where plastics are differentiated in households, but then thrown or burned instead of being actually recycled... So, can Germany and Denmark do better? Sure.. Should they? Not yet! Let's give the rest of the world some time to keep up! 😀

But now we can share it with everyone else and they can watch a 10 minute video with simple terms to get it.

If you live in democracy, this matters. However corrupt, politicians say and do what people want to hear and see...

it's not capitalism, it's the lobbying

Without capitalism, we would still be living in caves...

The definition of capitalism is not when bed stuff happens

​@@fadipola7533lobbying works when companies get large and have a lot of money. Companies get large and have a lot of money via? Capitalism.

​@@fadipola7533 as confusing it sound It’s capitalism and capitalist fault, not capitalising, the two first create demand where it is not and offert quick solution and they also create false solution, capitalising is just investing in stuff that work.

I think you may have missed the point kemosabe. That part was about the industry trying to make the public aware 🙄, not a National Geographic piece on Indians…