Even a majority of Republicans support efforts to hold manufacturers accountable for allegedly deceptive claims

Concern about the fossil fuel and plastics industries’ alleged deception about recycling is growing, with new polling showing a majority of American voters, including 54% of Republicans, support legal efforts to hold the sectors accountable.

The industries have faced increasing scrutiny for their role in the global plastics pollution crisis, including an ongoing California investigation and dozens of suits filed over the last decade against consumer brands that sell plastics.

Research published earlier this year found that plastic producers have known for decades that plastic recycling is too cumbersome and expensive to ever become a feasible waste management solution, but promoted it to the public anyway.

  • FireTower@lemmy.world
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    8 months ago

    Legislation on packaging should really be entertained as well. For many products a biodegradable form of packaging would be completely viable.

  • RubberDuck@lemmy.world
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    8 months ago

    All companies should be required to recycle their own products. No… not via contracts with 3rd parties. Products go back up through the sales channels untill they reach the manufacturers.

    If you don’t have an idea how your products end of life works, you cannot sell or manufacture it.

    Solves e-waste, plastic, chemicals… a lot of the god awful stuff.

  • WhatYouNeed@lemmy.world
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    8 months ago

    Use to make machines for the plastic industry. None of them wanted tp use recycled plastic, because raw plastic pellets were cheaper and recycled plastic was harsher on the machines.

    • zik@lemmy.world
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      8 months ago

      Recycled plastic is also inferior quality with worse structural properties so it’s not really suitable for many applications.

      • WhatYouNeed@lemmy.world
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        8 months ago

        Yep, regrind was bad.

        Not saying anyone shouldn’t recycle. Just saying in our world of cheap is God, why fight?

  • SeaJ@lemm.ee
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    8 months ago

    Don’t worry, the industry wants looser rules on what can be considered recyclable. They want to be able to label things as recyclable even if the majority of people do not have access to a recycling facility that can recycle it. Fuck them. Honestly, we should force them to be the ones to recycle the plastic if they want to label it as recyclable.

  • I_Has_A_Hat@lemmy.world
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    8 months ago

    Put a per gram tax on every manufactured product and watch how companies magically find alternative materials/methods to make goods.

  • andros_rex@lemmy.world
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    8 months ago

    Plastic recycling is a farce to make it appear as a “personal responsibility” issue.

    Notice also how the labeling for plastics uses a sign that looks remarkably similar to a recycling logo - whether that specific type of plastic is actually recyclable or not.

    It is all a public relation campaign, because fundamentally plastic is unsustainable and harmful. Governments have collectively shat the bed by placing the burden of dealing with plastic on the consumer. (This is very similar to the “carbon footprint” idea - which was a creation of the oil industry.)

    I toured the place where my city collects its plastic recycling - the director in charge was very open about the fact that most of it isn’t used and can’t really be used anyway.

  • werefreeatlast@lemmy.worldBanned
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    8 months ago

    In think plastic recycling is true and makes sense to do. I do it every week. However, all the plastic users need to act to limit it’s use to functionality based requirements…can anything at all be used instead of plastic in this situation??? There’s like 0 need to use plastic to box and ship things. Are you shipping an optic? Glass? A large flat TV? Okay there you should use plastics. Those plastics could be reusable first but also recyclable and the people selling the TV should be responsible for paying for the packaging to eventually get recycled. A watermelon 🍉 is way more fragile than a TV and we don’t box those things. Only Costco has the brains to box fruit individually. That’s just a waste.