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Comment by landryraccoon | Hacker News Reader

> What is needed is not new recycling processes, but a government that is not beholden to plastics industry lobbying.

I honestly don’t understand what this statement even means.

Are you saying that recycling technology is so cheap, efficient and easily deployed that government is the only obstacle to better waste management?

If that’s the claim, it’s audacious to say the least. Where’s your evidence to back it up?

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I thought it had more to do with the fact that plastic recycling is largely a scam - i.e., recycling logos are printed on nearly all plastics, less than half of which are actually recyclable. Yet, there's been no crackdown on such brazen fraud. I'm sure the assumption by most is that's due to lobbying.

They're all recyclable. Just not into grades of plastic anyone wants to manufacture things out of.

Recycled plastic are used heavily in things that people touch and need a lot of chonk to them relative to their strength to feel substantial and high quality or stuff that'll almost purely be loaded in compression (like bolt on plastic pads that prevent metal to metal contact or allow nice sliding).

I think recycling, or reuse, could be made to be cheaper or more effective with better policy. This has to come from the top down. For example, by regulation on product design, or better incentives for consumer recycling (like deposits).

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