Dear Laura,
You are an idiot. Spend some time reading up on recycling from the Society of Plastics Engineers. It is uneducated fools like yourself that give life saving plastics a bad name. Talk to some folks at Raychem just up the road from you in Menlo Park. Everything you show in these photos is 100% recyclable and can be reused many, many times over. When finished with the item, put it in the correct recycle bin and it will not only be "hammered to pieces" for you, it will then be re-melted and formed into new products, including many Medical Products.
Regards, Rick

@Rick

1. Calling someone an idiot is rude and uncalled for.
2. So how did the floating mass of plastic the size of Texas get into the ocean? Recycling not working so well?
3. Recycling used to be sent to China, where it's no longer accepted. How well did China actually recycle it? (See #2).
4. Given #3 who is recycling now? Where is all the plastic going?
5. Even if recycling were perfect, would it be so bad to go back to paper straws and use less throw-away plastic? Save it for those medical applications.

"You are an idiot"? It's shameful how people use words so freely now, without regard to meaning or civility.

"The future is plastics." - The Graduate (1967)

50+ years later, this prophecy has rung true.

Plastics = convenience, strength & low production costs.

50 years ago, automobiles had fewer plastic components...today they are 60%+ plastic (including the paint chemicals).

We live in a plastic world with plastic people (figuratively & reconstructively) & countless plastic consumer goods.

There is no going back to manufacturing processses that require more energy (i.e. steel) or the further destruction of forests (paper products).

Live with it or go reside with the Yanomamo in the diminishing Amazon rain forest.

Modern man prefers Amazon.com.

> 4. Given #3 who is recycling now? Where is all the plastic going?

India and Vietnam, if I recall this week's NYT article on the recycling stream interruption.

We clearly must reduce initial use, and continue to recycle the rest, as the stream is reduced and more can be absorbed.

We all know that plastic is killing our planet but every year it seems we are using plastic more and more when it's not necessary.

I've moved many times over the years. Movers would drape my furniture with quilted fabric to protect it from scratches. It worked just fine and and the quilted coverings could be reused many times for other moves. I am so disgusted to see that moving companies are now covering furniture in plastic wrap. Why? I doubt that plastic wrap can/will be recycled. Talk about wasteful and unnecessary.

For years I've purchased christmas trees that required nothing other than perhaps some twine to keep the branches tied down so it could fit in the car. Now trees are wrapped in netted plastic that is used just once for the trip home and then discarded. Another huge waste.

I think plastic manufactures must just wrack their brains coming up with new ways to use plastic.

As far as laundry soap, It can still be purchased in cardboard containers.

"Where is all the plastic going?"

"India and Vietnam, if I recall this week's NYT article on the recycling stream interruption."

This is good as 3rd world/developing countries could use the business. Besides, once the plastic garbage is over there, what do we care? As long as they don't just take the CASH & toss the crap into the ocean.

"I am so disgusted to see that moving companies are now covering furniture in plastic wrap. Why?"

Money. It's cheaper to buy new plastic coverings than to buy, wash, and rewash fabric paddings.

"Money. It's cheaper to buy new plastic coverings than to buy, wash, and rewash fabric paddings."

And that is how the world ended--saving it was just not cost-effective.

>>"Where is all the plastic going?"

>>"India and Vietnam...

Those are good sites for disposing plastics as their environmental concerns are minimal at best.

It also provides jobs for the inhabitants...sorting the plastics & then bulldozing them into various landfills scattered about the countries.

The key is to have cost-efficient shipping protocols in order to dump this stuff off in their respective countries.

^ No sense sending all those container ships back empty.

@Rick

Furthermore,

"Talk to some folks at Raychem just up the road from you in Menlo Park."

???

Raychem Corporation went defunct in 1999.

Thanks, Laura for the reminder about too many plastic items. I thought I would try one of those complete meals from Safeway that you take home and cook yourself. Every single item, of which there was between 8 and 10 items, was separately wrapped in plastic. And most of those did not have a recycling symbol on them. So where do they go - into the trash. I'll never buy one of those again. And I've recently switched (back) to laundry and dishwasher detergent in cardboard boxes. And the dry dishwasher detergent worked much better than the liquid products.
We've damaged the planet so much - let's keep trying to find ways to make it better for the next generations.

Great piece, Laura. It takes a village, and we all need to help educate each other about how to get out of this terrible unsustainable cycle.

Perhaps there should be tax on plastics. The revenues could be used to improve recycling in THIS country and to support real environmental cleanup of particle plastics that are now finding their way into our drinking water, our fish, etc..

Taxation would require us to pay the REAL cost of using plastics. (Long term, they are NOT cheaper) Of course, the plastics and petroleum industry lobbyists will have something to say about all of this....so the idea is going nowhere unless hordes of citizens get busy advocating for change.

Edible plastics is the key to this problem. Plastics that can be broken down by the human digestive system.

Wow! Great info, great topic & and a great big BUTTON for some folks. Thanks to ‘Rick' for his spirited inputs. I'd suggest to him to re-read his very own post with a critical eye.
1) “Laura you idiot." Maybe she's not one. , being an author, a lecturer, a knowledgeable environmentalist as well as a well rounded and informed human. Not perfect but I know she'd be the last to ever think she was perfect.
2). “Read the reports from the Plastc Engineers".. Rick/ don't you think they might have a HINT of prejudice when it comes to.... plastics??? ??????? And their increased propagation??
3). Your mention of Raychem, apparently went belly up 20 yrs ago. Another suspect company as to human health anyway.?
4) “life saving plastics"... yes, and no. As anything.. too much of anything can & will kill you. Care for a smoke?
5) etc, etc. I'd suggest that Rick take a lesson in HS Critical Reading skills. Or he could listen to FOX news for an hr..
�"-
As for the future- plastics ARE wonderful, for the very reason they don't break down.!! .. but we've obviously missed the boat here.. Recycling has not been utilized to the extent we've been led to believe. I suspect most of the tonnage in the oceans are NOT blown off the beach but HAVE been dumped by paid recyclers. Millions of tons don't blow off beach's. China WAS a large purchaser.. but where did the tonnage go?
�"- maybe some of the profits from plastic sales could be used to insure recycling is utilized? Too easy??
RICK.. we expect a report by the end of the week! With footnotes and references please. And ZERO reports from FAUX news young man. Off you go. >:-). Times a-wasting. It really is.
�"-
(This was edited in my previous ref to Raychem)

Interesting conversation everyone.

"I suspect most of the tonnage in the oceans are NOT blown off the beach but HAVE been dumped by paid recyclers." I bet true!

Personally, I don't want to have to depend on a huge company to melt down the packaging from my laundry soap, or it will live on for the next 200,000 + years.

Our waste MUST become our fuel, or WE ALL become the idiot.

Could the plastic be recycled for something more practical like reconstructive cosmetic surgeries?

Then we could have a society of physically attractive people.

Looks are very important to those who care.

Agree! We ALL should and could use less plastics and the over-packaging explosion has got to stop. However, the article isn't the best, either. Over-packaging is an important one and a huge problem, still it is only the tip of the iceberg. Putting the 10 companies mentioned out of business won't solve the problem. It will put a lot of people out of work, so that sucks. Some if them might even be researching ways to improve the recyalebilty of said plastics.

Cutting down on plastic packaging is a start, what else is there

1. Stop flying on airplanes - no more trips tp Maui
2. Stop driving a car - electric if the electric is hydro, solar or wind powered
3. Only buy food grown / produced locally
4. Only buy products made locally with all local materials
5. Realize that all the people & places who needed to grow, produce, build, sell all of these products would also need to be housed nearby. Which brings us to cost.
6. Be willing to pay more for everything.
7. Be willing to coexist with farms, factories and everything in between.
8. Be willing to have higher density housing

etc....

Maybe we can build plastic houses!

Basell? as in LyondellBasell (NYSE: LYB) is one of the largest plastics, chemicals and refining companies in the world?

Duh - I think the idea here is why recycle things we don't need? I don't want to spend money or energy to create indestructible plastic, or to get rid of it, especially if it wasn't necessary in the first place. And I certainly don't want to depend on someone else in some far far away place to make sure that it gets destroyed.

I'll recycle your plastic for you, then I'll sell ya' some ocean front property in Colorado at a great price.

Let me know.

Bamboo toothbrush! That's what I'm talking about. Just found it.