Hacker News Reader

Comment by dotancohen | Hacker News Reader

Plastic recycling is worse than a scam - the process actually releases more carbon (mostly co2) into the atmosphere than creating a new plastic item. I've heard that it was widely implemented to "promote awareness". And the worst part? People who drive gasoline vehicles to bring their plastic recyclables to the recycling center.

View on HN

My question for plastic recycling is: if it's so difficult to recycle why not just landfill it? It can't create microplastics, harm wildlife, or float around in the ocean if it's buried inland under feet of dirt.

I mean yeah it would be much better if we didn't use it at all but I don't think that genie is going back in the bottle anytime soon.

Or reuse it.

I'm right now drinking from a bottle that's been filled dozens of times. And the best feature of a reused bottle is that it has less aromatics to leach out than the newly-manufactured bottles have - they've already leached out.

I don’t know… I think over time plastic tends to become brittle due to UV exposure, temperature cycling, degradation of plasticizers. etc. So I would expect it to release more and more microplastics.

Are plastic cutting boards a net win (less bacteria?) or a net loss (adding shavings of plastic to cooking)?

Cutting Boards of Plastic and Wood Contaminated Experimentally with Bacteria (https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/31113021/)

"Bacteria inoculated onto Plastic blocks were readily recovered for minutes to hours and would multiply if held overnight. Recoveries from wooden blocks were generally less than those from plastic blocks, regardless of new or used status; differences increased with holding time."

So plastic gives you more bacteria, and plastic shavings. Stick to wood.

Note that the lignin in the wood is horrible for the cutting edge. Knives on wood need far more frequent sharpening. But in my opinion it is a good trade off.

Note to use solid wood. I've seen cutting blocks of wood strips glued together - impossible to clean and easy to warp. All the disadvantages of every type of cutting board in one overpriced scrap ))

> So plastic gives you more bacteria, and plastic shavings. Stick to wood.

I think that's a little ambitious of a conclusion given that the study you cited didn't (at least as described in the abstract) involve cleaning.

My thick HDPE boards can survive the dishwasher's high temperature cycle without warping, and the HDPE is better for my knives.

I do cut down on washing by using the same cutting board for produce and meats, but raw meat is always the last thing on the board before cleaning.

Why do you assume plastic shavings in your food from cutting boards? I googled around about HDPE cutting boards and only dubious SEO sights mentioned plastic shavings.

https://www.researchgate.net/publication/358153868_Plastic_c...

Thanks!

Reuse is good but it's also kinda hard in two ways I've found: you will accumulate too many "reusable" plastic items (one or two coke bottles you reuse is fine, but what are you going to do with twenty?), and also some are tricky to reuse (how do I reuse my candy bar wrapper or shrink wrap my item came packaged in?)

Reuse doesn't mean it has to be you reusing the item. For example in Germany pretty much all drinks sold have a deposit you pay for the container which you can back by returning the bottle/can. It is then up to the supplier to reuse or recycle it who can be forced or incentivized by legislation to favor reuse. Glass and many plastic bottles here are built for reuse - e.g. the plastic water bottle I happen to have on my desk right now is clearly labeled MEHRWEG-LEIHFLASCHE - reusable loan bottle.

Word: don't go to Costco!

You will see hoards of people loading palettes of 1cu. and 0.5L water bottles into their minivans/suvs. It is depressing a/f because my city has fantastic water.

The 1cu bottles are just an insult to everything good in this world.

Landfilling or incinerating are some of the best uses, but they sound bad.

Better would be to replace as many places where it’s used as possible with other materials.

>My question for plastic recycling is: if it's so difficult to recycle why not just landfill it?

Probably because of public unease about sustainability, specifically running out of landfills.

>GONZALEZ: There were all these stats coming out at the time that showed that the number of landfills in America was plummeting. Landfills were closing, and people kept citing these stats in stories about the garbage barge.

>KINNAMAN: And so people put it all together, and in their minds, the conclusion was that the United States is running out of landfill space. The United States was full - that we couldn't store any more.

Of course, that was never going to happen.

>And even hardcore environmentalists reluctantly agree that, yeah, we have a lot of space left. But people thought we were running out of space, and that was what mattered.

Reply on news.ycombinator.com